Small-scale campesino farmer and community leader, César Garcia, who had been opposing the development of a gold mining project in Cajamarca, Colombia, has been killed by an unknown gunman. There is a grave fear for security of other community leaders in the region.

Ibagué, 11 May 2013

Señores accionistas:

En este momento, cuando ustedes evalúan el desarrollo de sus proyectos en Colombia, nos parece importante que incluyan en su análisis elementos de una realidad ambiental, social y humana, que seguramente no llegará a ustedes por la voz y los informes de quienes administran sus proyectos en nuestro país.

Quienes suscribimos este mensaje, somos organizaciones y personas, particularmente afectadas por el proyecto de la Colosa,  (ubicado en el municipio de Cajamarca, Tolima) pero también, preocupadas seriamente por una política gubernamental que asociada con ustedes, pretende expandir, en nuestra región y por todo el territorio colombiano, las explotaciones mineras a cielo abierto.

Desde el momento en que el gobierno concibió esa política, hace 8 años, se ha generado una gran movilización ciudadana que rechaza la megaminería como horizonte para el desarrollo de nuestro país, y con más vehemencia ahora, cuando son claros los hechos y señales de la minería y de la sed del oro, que  confirman su carácter de elementos altamente perturbadores del orden social, de la paz, de la soberanía territorial y de la equidad.

Tres son los puntos centrales de nuestro mensaje para ustedes:

COMITE AMBIENTAL Y CAMPESINO DE CAJAMARCA
100 years defending the land

Press release: Monday, 25 February 2013

Item: Threats, stigmatisation and criminalisation of the campesino social movement of Anaime and Cajamarca, which opposes AngloGold Ashanti’s La Colosa project in Colombia.

We, the environmental and campesino committee of Cajamarca, the Environmental Committee for the Defence of Life (Comité Ambiental por la Defensa de la Vida) and the organisations and groups that are voicing our opposition about the dangers of the La Colosa Regional mining project of the company AngloGold Ashanti, report the following facts to the Tolimense community, and the national and international community:

The Bogotá office of Colombian human rights organization COSPACC was robbed and looted.  Electronic and hard-copy files containing information about human rights violations are missing.

On 23rd of January, after entering the building, COSPACC managers noticed that their office doors were opened and locks were damaged. The managers immediately called the police and with their presence entered the offices. They found that the drawers of the desks, library and archive were opened; external hard drives and memory sticks with electronic archives, hard-copy files and photo cameras were taken.

COSPACC workers have noticed that the main entry door to the building was not damaged and that some valuable items, such as computers, were not stolen from the office.

Joint urgent action request from Colombia Solidarity Campaign, London Mining Network and War on Want. London 6 November 2012

Three huge mining companies listed on the London Stock Exchange own Colombian company Cerrejon Coal, operator of the Cerrejon opencast coal mine in the department of La Guajira in Colombia. Mine expansion over the years has caused forced displacement of agricultural communities, and more communities face displacement for further expansion. Cerrejon Coal also want to divert the River Rancheria, the only river of any significant size in La Guajira, in order to get at coal underneath its bed. Local communities fear an ecological disaster.

The Agricultural Association of Santander denounce the reiterated threat to the leaders of ASOGRAS to the national and international community, and human rights organisations.