In Colombia, the “mining-energy locomotive” is the policy designed for all of Latin America to intensively extract minerals and oil and build dams to supply energy, especially for mining projects.
However, this mining and energy locomotive is facing many problems. In 2013 alone, several serious incidents have been recorded in Colombia. In January, after a barge belonging to the Drummond company sank and the coal it was transporting fell into the sea, the company's coal shipping licence was revoked. On 5 February, licences were denied to various multinational companies to increase coal extraction in La Guajira and Cesar, while on 7 February the El Cerrejón union of HP Billiton plc (Australia), Anglo American plc (South Africa) and Xstrata plc (Switzerland) began to strike.
In Ecuador the name of the locomotive is not used, but the model is the same and so is the braking.
The slowdown here has had key moments. In October 2011, a community consultation that yielded results of 93% rejecting mining activity, managed to stop the activity in Kimsakocha (Tres Lagunas moor).
In February 2012, the Audit report issued by the State Comptroller General's Office revealed non-compliance with constitutional rights and environmental and mining regulations.
In March 2012, the first occupation of a Chinese embassy took place in opposition to the signing of a contract with the company Ecuacorriente, ECSA. That same month, the March for Life, Water and the Dignity of the Peoples began, which after 15 days of walking arrived in Quito on March 22, World Water Day, with the participation of more than 40,000 people.
Two months later, in Santa Isabel, Azuay province, peasants and indigenous people occupied the place where the mining project was to be “socialised” and instead organised a ceremonial act of thanksgiving for the water. There, in an attempt to stop the resistance, 17 men and women were charged with crimes against the State under the charge of “obstructing public administration”.
The locomotive runs over justice. There are dozens of cases of people criminalized for defending water and community territories against the mining threat. Some have even been sentenced, as in the case of Carlos Pérez, Federico Guzmán and Efraín Arpi, whose altruistic struggle was recognized by the Court and yet sentenced to 8 days of imprisonment, which is about to be carried out.
In October 2012, the first strike by workers at Ecuacorriente, a company controlled by the China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) and the Tongling Nonferrous Metals group, took place, just 7 months after the signing of their contract.
In January 2013, CONAIE, ECUARUNARI, CONFENIAE, grassroots organizations from the affected areas, environmental and human rights organizations presented an Action for the Protection of the Rights of Nature against mining activity in the Cordillera del Cóndor.
In Colombia, it is said that the accounting of mining companies is wrong because it does not subtract environmental liabilities and that therefore the macroeconomic accounting is also wrong. In Ecuador, the same thing happens: wrong estimates, ignorance regarding environmental impacts, projections full of fantasy if not deception.
The locomotive is not running in Ecuador either, despite President Correa's invitation to his counterparts in Peru and Colombia in November 2012 to join forces to combat opposition to mining.
Reproduction requested: Ecological Action Opines Bulletin.
Reproduction requested: Ecological Action Opines Bulletin.
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