New death threats have been issued against CSC’s friends in indigenous Colombian organisation Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu (Wayuu Women’s Force). Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu has been heavily involved in the struggle for justice in the face of the environmental damage and social dislocation cased by the Cerrejon coal mine, owned by London-listed companies Anglo American, BHP and Glencore.

On 9 August 2001 the Afro-Descendant community of Tabaco was forcibly displaced from their ancestral land to give way to the biggest open cast coal mine in Latin America: Cerrejon. The mine is currently owned by Anglo American, BHP and Glencore, three multinational mining companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, with very high profits.

Members of the Colombia Solidarity Campaign, London Mining Network, War on Want and many others in more recent years, have been witness to the suffering and losses caused to the people of Tabaco and the environment during all these years. Today, 18 years after that tragedy, we stand in solidarity with Tabaco and support their demands. Please see below a translation of the invitation from the Junta Social Pro-reubicación de Tabaco (Tabaco Relocation Committee) to commemorate this date.

Click below to watch a short film in Spanish and read more.

Below is a detailed account of a meeting which took place between the community representatives, international observers and representatives of Cerrejon Coal in La Guajira.

On Monday 9 July, representatives of LMN member group Colombia Solidarity Campaign, Swiss NGO Aktionsgruppe Schweiz Kolumbien, US-based North Shore Colombia Solidarity and other international observers attended an event at the Centro Cultural, Riohacha, La Guajira, close to Colombia's massive Cerrejon opencast coal mine. Cerrejon Coal is owned by London-listed mining multinationals Anglo American, BHP and Glencore.

The subject under discussion was the diversion of the Arroyo Bruno (Bruno Stream), an important tributary of this arid region's only major river, the Rio Rancheria, which flows across Cerrejon's mining concession. The company has diverted the Arroyo Bruno into a new channel to the north of its natural course in order to mine the coal underneath it. Local communities objected and three of them took legal action. The Colombian Constitutional Court ruled that the river should be returned to its natural course, but Cerrejon Coal has failed to comply with the ruling.http://londonminingnetwork.org/2019/07/british-multinational-disobeys-colombian-court-order-to-exploit-water-source/