El Continente Maldito

# El Continente Maldito

"El Continente Maldito" (The Cursed Continent), by Alan Star, published by Ediciones Toray in 1960, is a science-fiction serial about colonial exploitation on Mars. Donald Callowan, chief of the Spacial International Police, is summoned by William Barton of the World Council to investigate irregularities on Dunka, a newly discovered Martian continent rich in uranium and radioactive metals discovered by Wellington Dunker. Official reports praise conditions, but unofficial complaints describe abuses. Callowan agrees to place an undercover SIP agent there. The narrative shifts to Charles Verton, a fifty-year-old colonist who has invested everything in mining uranium on his Dunka parcel. He and his daughter Diana discover they are being systematically exploited: the Uranium Corporation inflates prices for equipment and provisions while controlling all mineral sales. Verton suspects corruption among appointed officials—the governor, police, and judges all compromised by Corporation director Chass London, who operates gambling establishments and opium dens extracting colonists' earnings. Desperate, Verton hopes the World Council will eventually send investigators, planning meanwhile to secretly stockpile uranium.