The Accidental Commission for the monitoring and verification of coal mining activity in the Colombian Caribbean presented in December 2021 a report on the serious human, environmental, territorial, and cultural rights condition resulting from coal extraction in La Guajira and Cesar. The report was published after two hearings held on October 28 and November 19, 2021, where the human rights violations of indigenous, Afro-descendants, and peasants communities in these two departments were reported. Non-compliance with the ruling protecting the Bruno stream and the social and labor impacts caused by Prodeco’s exit from the region, were some of the most important issues at these hearings. 

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The Accidental Commission for the monitoring and verification of coal mining activity in the Colombian Caribbean1 claimed in its report that “The major environmental, economic, cultural and social impacts caused in these territories concessioned to large extractive multinationals have become evident.” Representatives of peasant, indigenous, Afro and union communities and organizations participating in the public hearings denounced the humanitarian crisis in the departments of La Guajira and Cesar, after more than 30 years of coal mining operations in their territories. 

At the October 28 Hearing, in the city of Bogota, the non-compliance with Constitutional Court Ruling SU 698 of 2017, which seeks to prevent the consummation of irremediable environmental damage in the Bruno Stream, was denounced. At the November 19 hearing held in the municipality of La Jagua de Ibirico, Cesar, the voices of the communities affected by the mining operation, the effects of the exit of the multinational Glencore (Prodeco in Colombia) and the improper management of the environmental liabilities caused by the coal activity were heard. 

Several state entities were summoned to the hearings. However, the National Environmental Licensing Authority (NELA) was absent from the meeting in Bogota, once again demonstrating its unwillingness to listen and dialogue. The Accidental Commission, considering that delegates from the communities of La Guajira traveled to Bogotá to speak with national entities, had to call NELA officials, rebuking “because the national institutions have not come to your territory, now that they are here, you refuse to come”. The absence of representatives of the entities in charge of controlling and monitoring coal mining activities is a clear portrait of what is happening in the territory: the abandonment of effective controls over an activity that extends infinitely without complying with national environmental regulations and due diligence in the observance of human rights. This is one of the reasons for the proliferation of complaints about social, health and environmental impacts in the areas of influence of the mining fronts. 

Several members of the Accidental Commission joined in these denunciations, emphasizing the non-compliance with the sentences issued against Cerrejón and the multinational companies that exploit the territories in the north of the country. The abuses of power committed in the Bruno stream process evidenced the institutional weaknesses to enforce effective compliance with the Ruling SU-698 of 2017, which demonstrated that the destruction of the Bruno stream will seriously affect the surrounding communities. Although the Constitutional Court ordered that the voice of the communities will be taken into account and the environmental precautionary principle will be respected, the truth is that the institutions have closed the doors to an effective dialogue that guarantees the human rights of the communities in order to endorse the expansion of the extractive frontier in La Guajira. 

In the report presented by the Accidental Commission, the congressmen also stated that concerns have increased “due to the non-compliance repeatedly denounced by the communities of La Guajira regarding the judicial decision relative to the Bruno stream and/or the announcement made last year by economic actors of the department of Cesar, which untimely announced their withdrawal from the region without proper planning and participation of the communities”. In this case, the organizations will continue accompanying the affected communities to achieve justice, respect for human rights and permanence in the territory, demanding from the State a just energy transition.  

In the case of Cesar, the situation is marked by the evasion of responsibility of the companies with the communities in the resettlement process and the workers, after the relinquishment of their mining titles and the declaration of financial insolvency, without adopting the necessary measures to comply with their environmental obligations. For this reason, the Commission stated that “companies such as Prodeco announced massive layoffs and their intention to relinquish their mining titles, arguing the economic unfeasibility of the operation. This announcement was made without socializing the decision with the direct and indirect workers, and without giving them any alternative despite the fact that they dedicated their lives to the exploration and exploitation of the mineral”. It is evident that in Colombia there are no effective actions or mechanisms to address the damages generated by coal mining activities. The damages have accumulated for decades, water sources have been polluted and soils have been destroyed, drastically changing the agricultural and livestock vocation of rural areas. For this reason, we join the Commission’s call regarding the urgent need to “regulate the environmental and social liabilities that extractive activities leave in the territories”.  

The conclusions of the Accidental Commission’s report are clear: more than 30 years of mining in these departments have not brought to the people the development and progress promised at the beginning. Today, both La Guajira and Cesar register worrying indicators of extreme poverty, unemployment and child malnutrition. As summarized by the Commission, “poverty is greater in municipalities with mining than in those where mining does not exist.” Furthermore, in a climate crisis scenario like the current one, these are two of the departments with the highest climate vulnerability indexes. For this reason, we will continue in our processes of resistance and demands to prevent the consolidation of the catastrophes that could lead to the expansion of the extractive frontier in the region.  

Finally, we express our commitment to accompany actions taken by the Accidental Commission during 2022 so that the country and the world will know the impacts of transnational coal mining, the consequences on the environment, and the perpetual damage to the territory and the lives of the communities, so that measures can be taken at the political and administrative level to prevent their continued occurrence.  

 

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1. On September 8, 2021, the Board of Directors of the Senate of the Republic issued Resolution 037, which created the Accidental Commission for the monitoring and verification of coal mining activity in the Colombian Caribbean. It is formed by Antonio Sanguino, Angélica Lozano, Wilson Arias, Sandra Ramírez, Feliciano Valencia, Aida Avella, Iván Cepeda, Gustavo Bolívar, Jorge Eduardo Londoño and Jesús Alberto Castilla. 

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