Government turns a blind eye to gold sales, article claims; Public agency is raided; Femicide no longer a crime in Argentina; Salinas police chief gunned down

An article in the investigative magazine Plan V claims the government is doing nothing to monitor illegal activities in gold sales and exports. “Hundreds of millions of dollars in sales are conducted every month, much of it by unregistered agents and exporters, and officials are turning a blind eye to it,” says the article’s author Juan Carlos Calderón.

In addition to not paying taxes, many of the sales agents are involved in trafficking illegally mined gold and money laundering, Calderón says. “There are 56 gold exporters, 39 of them individuals and 17 companies, and if you check government records you discover much of the contact information is outdated or unavailable, but those responsible for regulating sales and exports don’t seem to care,” he said.

The offices of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control were raided by police Friday following the council’s alleged disregard for a Constitutional Court ruling.

According to Calderón, public officials are afraid to confront powerful interest. “Much of the gold is sold to Middle Eastern buyers, especially the governments of Saudi Arabia and Inida, and the buyers don’t care where the gold comes from or who they buy it from. Criminal organizations work with both the legal and illegal mining operations and the government is intimidated by their power, ” he says. “You hear almost nothing about these sales and that is because the government wants to keep information about the process quiet.”

Because the export of gold is legal, the government can ignore the informality and criminality of sales, Calderón says. “There is almost nothing being done to determine the origin of the gold or to examine sales records which are often non-existent,” he says.

According to Calderón, officials at Ecuador’s Mining Regulation and Control Agency recognize the extent of illegality and many have complained to the Interior Minister over the years.

Another government agency is raided
The National Police and Attorney General’s office raided the offices of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control Friday in Quito. It was the second raid in three days on a government agency, following a Wednesday raid at Finance Ministry headquarters.

Prosecutors said they were investigating “possible breaches of decision-making” and “usurpation of public functions” at the Cpccs but offered no other explanation. According to unidentified sources close to the investigation, the police action was related to the failure of the Cpccs to comply with a Constitutional Court ruling issued in December related to the appointment of a new Superintendent of Banks.

Cell phones, laptops, hard drives and documents were confiscated in the raid.

Police chief gunned down on Salinas beach
The chief of the regional transit commission was murdered Saturday night on a beach in Salinas. Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Patricio Gancino and a second unidentified man died following an attack by at least two gunmen. Three others were injured in the gunfire and taken to a local hospital.

According to a nearby shop owner, Gancino and several friends were sitting in beach chairs when the gunmen opened fire. “They were enjoying themselves and having fun when the armed men starting shooting,” the vendor said. “Afterward, there were screams and a lot of blood and the murderers ran back to the parking lot.”

The National Police arrived at the scene within five minutes but were unable to capture the shooters.

Argentina eliminates femicide as a crime
Femicide is no longer a recognized crime in Argentina. “Murders of men and women will be treated equally in the future,” Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona said Saturday. “We will defend equality before the law and give no preference to the sex of the victim in prosecuting homicides.”

Libarona criticized the feminist movement, claiming “that for years they have used women to line their pockets and detract from men,” and said all citizens, men and women, deserve “the same protection and respect” before the law.

The decision followed a speech last week by Argentine President Javier Milei at the World Economic Forum in Davos, in which Milei described femicide as an “attempt to legalize that the life of a woman is worth more than that of a man.”