Colombia:  The Human Cost of Coal 

Tour information for Afro-Colombian peasant leader

José Julio Pérez

March-April, 2006 

José Julio Pérez is the elected President of the Community Council of the town of Tabaco, and of the Social Committe for the Relocation of Tabaco, a small Afro-Colombian village located on the periphery of the Cerrejón Zona Norte coal mine in the Guajira province of northern Colombia.  The village was displaced in August 2001, and its residents have since then been struggling to be relocated as a community.

 

The Cerrejón Zona Norte mine is the largest open-pit coal mine in the world, and one of two Colombian mines that supplies large amounts of coal to the Salem Harbor and Brayton Point Power Stations.  It was initiated as a joint venture between the Colombian government and the Exxon corporation (later ExxonMobil), and was later privatized and sold to a consortium of European-based mining companies.  Communities surrounding the mine have been subject to constant noise and dust from blasting, loss of farmland, closure of roads and water sources, and contamination of air, land and water, in the years since the mine opened.  Added to this, in the mid-1990s residents of Tabaco began to suffer overt harassment from mine officials pressuring them to abandon their homes and village to make room for the expansion of the mine.

 

In the summer of 2000 José Julio was attacked by armed mine security officials as he tried to film the conditions surrounding his village.  In August 2001, he was one of the leaders of the community as members tried to peacefully stop the police, army, and bulldozers that came in to raze their town, dragging people out of their homes and destroying all of their possessions.  Since then, he has been the community's legal representative as its displaced members have struggled to pursue their case through the Colombian legal system--where the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the community's request for relocation in May 2002, a decision that local authorities have refused to enforce--and through developing international solidarity to try to pressure the mining companies to accept moral responsibility for the destruction of Tabaco and facilitate the community's relocation.

 

Because the Cerrejón Zona Norte mine is one of the major suppliers of Salem's power station, Salem residents have been involved since 2002 in trying to bring the case of Tabaco before the public eye, and create international pressure on the mine to relocate the village's former residents.  As part of that campaign, the North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee is working to bring Jose Julio to the U.S. and Canada for a speaking tour in the spring of 2006.

 

(Note:  Coal Americas journal reported in February and April, 2005 that Dominion Energy, the Salem plant's new owner, is significantly increasing its use of Colombian coal.  Dominion plans to raise imports for Salem and Brayton Point to 5 million tons a year.) 
 

Information Packet

Contents 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 

Overview 

Colombian Coal in the U.S. and Canada 
 

The closure of coal mines has resulted in the United States and Canada becoming dependent on imported coal for their power plants. But it is not just Colombian coal that is cheap, so are the lives of the country’s labour leaders. Of the 213 unionists killed worldwide in 2002, an astounding 184 of them were Colombian. Most of these killings were committed by right-wing paramilitary death squads closely-linked to the Colombian military, which is responsible for protecting the operations of multinational corporations operating in Colombia.  

Multinational companies benefit from the cheap labour that is a direct result of the repression of unions by paramilitaries. It is no coincidence that the killings of unionists increase during periods in which labour contracts are being renegotiated. This labour repression, along with economic policies imposed on Colombia by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that create an investment-friendly environment, have contributed to multinational companies closing down North American mines that cannot compete with Colombia’s low wages, unsafe working conditions and lack of environmental regulations. IMF policies have contributed to 64 percent of Colombians living in poverty—85 percent in rural regions—up from 57 percent in the mid-1990s. 

Alabama-based Drummond Corporation is one U.S. mining company that may have done more than simply benefit from Colombia’s ‘dirty war’ and IMF-driven economic globalization. According to a suit filed in U.S. Federal Court in 2002, it has been directly engaged in human rights abuses. In March 2001, employees of Drummond were traveling to work at the Loma Mine in northern Colombia when the company bus was stopped by paramilitaries. Valmore Locarno Rodriguez and Victor Hugo Orcasita were removed from the bus and executed by the gunmen. The two workers were the chairman and vice-chairman of the mine’s union. Drummond had previously denied their request for permission to sleep at the mine because of paramilitary threats. Seven months later, the union’s new chairman, Gustavo Soler Mora, was also killed by paramilitaries. The suit charges the company with hiring right-wing paramilitaries to murder the three union leaders. 

Multinational mining companies have also been involved in the forced displacement of Colombian villagers. In the early 1980s, ExxonMobil began extracting coal from the Cerrejón Mine, also in northern Colombia. Cerrejón soon became the world’s largest open-pit coalmine, growing to a size of 50 kilometers long and eight kilometers wide by 2002. This expansion wreaked havoc on local communities, some of which were gobbled up by the mine and others that are targeted for future destruction. 

According to the Cerréjon Mine, in 1997, ExxonMobil notified the municipality of Hatonuevo, which contained the village of Tabaco, “that it needed to acquire possessions located at Tabaco, in order to continue with the development of the mining plan.” In January 2002, bulldozers completed the demolition of the village of Tabaco after many of its residents had been forcibly evicted from their homes in order to clear the way for the mine’s expansion. Some of Tabaco’s 700 Afro-Colombian residents, many of who were direct descendents of the town’s original founders, were attacked by more than 200 soldiers and police, as well as the mine’s private security force, who were dispatched to remove those who refused to voluntarily abandon their homes. Many of Tabaco’s citizens became part of Colombia’s ever-growing internally displaced population—the second-largest in the world after the Sudan.  

The Cerréjon Mine owners had refused to negotiate with the citizens of Tabaco collectively in order to relocate the entire community to a similar location elsewhere. Instead, the company insisted on negotiating with individual families who knew that if they did not accept ExxonMobil’s offer they would not receive anything for their property. While some residents took the money, others formed La Junta Pro-reubicación de Tabaco and insisted that the company negotiate with them collectively in order to relocate the community as a whole. These residents were then forcibly removed from their property by the state security forces and their homes and belongings were bulldozed.  

Two months after Tabaco had been razed to the ground, a multinational consortium consisting of three of the world’s largest mining companies—Anglo-American, BHP Billiton and Glencore—purchased ExxonMobil’s 50 percent share of the Cerrejón Mine, making it the sole owner as it had purchased the Colombian government’s 50 percent share in 2000.  

In May 2002, the Colombian Supreme Court ruled that the human rights of the residents of Tabaco had been violated and ordered the municipality of Hatonuevo, in which Tabaco was located, to relocate the community. It was the mayor of Hatonuevo who authorized the mine’s request that the property containing the village of Tabaco be turned over to the mine to allow for its expansion. And while ExxonMobil no longer owns a share of the mine, the consortium owned a 50 percent share at the time Tabaco was forcibly displaced and, therefore, it is at least ethically responsible for the plight of the displaced villagers, particularly given the profits it has accrued from the expropriated lands.    

In the ensuing years, the Cerrejón Mine offered the displaced citizens of Tabaco the same money as prior to their displacement. Some of these now-landless peasants who were struggling to survive accepted the company’s offer out of desperation. Meanwhile, the consortium continued its ‘divide and conquer’ strategy by refusing to negotiate with the remaining displaced residents who still insisted on being relocated as a community.  

Meanwhile, the consortium has continued producing coal at the Cerrejón mine within the violent context of Colombia’s ongoing civil conflict. In April 2004, a right-wing paramilitary death squad massacred 12 indigenous Wayúu living near the port owned by the Cerrejón Mine—from which coal is transported from Colombia on ships owned by Canada Steamship Lines. Some locals claim that the massacre was motivated by the fact that the indigenous community is resisting being displaced to allow an expansion of the port. The same community had already been displaced once to allow for the building of the port. Other social activists in the region have also been assassinated or threatened by paramilitaries. 

The importation of Colombian coal by U.S. and Canadian power companies means that the generation of affordable electricity is indirectly linked to human rights violations in Colombia’s civil conflict. These violations have made the South American nation the worst human rights catastrophe in the Western Hemisphere according to Doctors without Borders, one of the top ten under-reported humanitarian crises in 2005. 

 

Colombia: The Human Rights Situation 

 

Statistics compiled from a variety of official and NGO sources: Amnesty International, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the Association of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared (ASFADDES), the Human Rights and Displacement Consultancy (CODHES), País Libre and Immigration Canada.

 

CORTE SUPREMA DE JUSTICIA

SALA DE CASACION CIVIL

Magistrado Ponente:

SILVIO FERNANDO TREJOS BUENO

Bogotá D.C., siete de mayo de dos mil dos (2002). 

Ref.: Expediente No 0014-01

Decide la Corte la impugnación contra la sentencia proferida por la Sala Civil – Familia – Laboral del Tribunal Superior del Distrito Judicial de Riohacha, el 14 de marzo de 2002, mediante la cual negó la tutela solicitada por Armando Pérez Araújo contra el Alcalde de Hatonuevo (Guajira). 

Excerpt from the Plaintiff’s Claim: 

Finally, it requests that the acquisition of land located in the region be ordered, to relocate [Tabaco]; that the communal infrastructure be built for [Tabaco]; and that an economic and social development plan to achieve this end be formulated, with the accompaniment of the public agencies and the responsible multinationals, that permit the reconstruction of the social weaving of the community of Tobacco. 
 

Court’s Decision: 

Ordering the municipal Mayor of Hatonuevo (Guajira), that in a maximum of 48 hours, and in harmony with the applicable legal norms, initiate the corresponding procedures to materialize the effective solutions tending toward establishing the construction of the communal infrastructure and the development of a plan for dwelling in favor of the members of the community of Tobacco, small town of Hatonuevo (Guajira); that attend the need of dwelling and education of the children belonging to the plaintiffs’ families; to order the same public authority that once approved the plan of respective investment, initiate its execution in an immediate way. 

 

Salem City Council Resolution on the Cerrejón Mine in Colombia

The following resolution was passed by the Salem City Council, Massachusetts, USA, on June 27th 2002, and forwarded to the Colombian government and the mining companies accused of human rights violations in La Guajira: 
 
WHEREAS, Salem Harbor Station, located in the City of Salem, MA, consumes coal produced in the Cerrejón Zona Norte mine in La Guajira, Colombia;  
 
WHEREAS, since the development of the mine in 1982 the indigenous Wayúu people of La Guajira have been displaced from their lands and had their traditional means of livelihood destroyed by loss of land and industrial contamination;  
 
WHEREAS, in August 2001 the Afro-Colombian village of Tabaco was bulldozed by Exxon Mobil, then half owner of the mine, which included the destruction of many homes, the town's church and school to make room for expansion of the mine;  
 
WHEREAS, residents of Tabaco appealed to the Colombian Supreme Court for the relocation and reconstruction of their town;  
 
WHEREAS, the Colombian Supreme Court ruled in May, 2002, in favor of the villagers and their request for relocation and reconstruction of their town, and ordered the Mayor of Hatonuevo to oversee the reconstruction; 
 
WHEREAS, two Colombians, Wayúu leader Remedios Fajardo and Tabaco's lawyer Armando Pérez Araujo, visited Salem in May, 2002 to ask for Salem's support in expressing solidarity with and demanding justice for the people who live in the mining zone;  
 
WHEREAS, officials of the Salem Harbor Power Station issued a statement that "As a customer, we urge our vendor to enter into negotiations and find a just settlement on this issue." (Mike Fitzgerald; General Manager; Salem Harbor Station, May 23, 2002)  
 
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the City Council of the City of Salem, that the City Council supports the Colombia Supreme Court's decision and requests that said decision be carried out promptly and effectively, so that the inhabitants of Tabaco can rebuild their community and lead productive, shared lives;  
 
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City Council urges that any further mine expansion be conditioned on peaceful and just negotiations that guarantee residents in the mining area basic human rights: the right to life, the right to subsistence by one's own labor, and the right to human dignity;  
 
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that as a community hosting a coal powered generated facility, we condemn violations of human rights by all actors involved in Colombia's conflict, including guerrilla groups, military, paramilitary, police, multinational corporations and foreign agents, including U.S. defense contractors; we express our solidarity with all Colombians working for nonviolent, just, political solutions to the conflict in Colombia; and we encourage the establishment of an ongoing relationship with organizations in the Guajira working peacefully for the human and democratic rights of the Wayúu indigenous people (Yanama) and the villagers of Tabaco (Comité Pro-Reubicación de Tabaco).  
 
CITY COUNCIL: 
Michael Bencal  
Kevin R. Harvey  
Claudia Chuber  
Joan B. Lovely  
Laura A. DeToma  
Joseph A. O'Keefe, Sr.  
Kimberly L Driscoll  
Leonard F. O'Leary  
Regina R. Flynn  
Arthur C. Sargent, III  
Thomas H. Furey  
 

Copies of this resolution shall be forwarded to the following addresses:

President of Colombia  
Señor Presidente Andrés Pastrana  
Presidente de la República  
Palacio de Nariño  
Carrera 8 No. 7-26  
Santafé de Bogotá, Colombia  
 
Dr. Armando Estrada Villa,  
Ministro del Interior, Ministerio del Interior,  
Palacio Echeverry, Carrera 8a, No.8-09, piso 2o.  
Santafé de Bogotá, Colombia  
Telegram: Ministro Interior, Bogotá, Colombia  
 
Fax: 011 57 1 562 5298/ 562 9890  
 
Mayor of Hatonuevo, Enaimen Rodríguez Ojeda  
Alcaldía de Hatonuevo  
Hatonuevo  
La Guajira  
Colombia  
 
Lee Raymond  
Exxon Mobil Corporation  
Exploration and Producing Operations  
800 Bell Street  
Houston, Texas 77002  
 
Paul Anderson  
BHP Billiton Ltd.  
Bourke Place  
600 Bourke Street  
Melbourne, Victoria 3000  
Australia  
 
 

Declaration on the Guajira

Energy Study of the Guajira

Riohacha, May 24, 2005

      From May 20 – 24, 2005, we traveled to the Guajira to assess the impact and changes that the different energy projects in this part of the country have had on the natural environment and the communities there. Our delegation consisted of 45 people, men and women, members of indigenous, peasant, and fishing people’s organizations, youth, black communities, workers, and environmentalists from all parts of Colombia, and from Venezuela, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Brazil, and Catalonia (Spain).

      La Guajira is contains significant deposits of gas, hydrocarbons, and coal, and a great potential for wind energy production.  All of these are situated in and around communal lands and Afro-Colombian and peasant settlements, and in Wayuu indigenous reservations.  These communities protest that they are being dispossessed of their lands through displacement and dishonest and unjust negotiations.

      We divided into two groups, which visited the southern and northern Guajira. We visited the Ranchería River, the crown jewel of the Guajiro people, and swam it its crystal waters.  People told us that the river is threatened by the construction of a multi-purpose project which will curtail their access to water.  It is surprising, however, to discover whole communities that are unaware of the implications of this project which will transform their lives, their culture, and their territory.  Inhabitants feel that their constitutional right to be informed and consulted has been violated.  Their testimonies suggest that behind the discourse of development, processes of water privatization are being legitimized that will favor investors and will deprive the Guajiro people of access to the waters of their river.  They fear that not only will they be directly affected by the dam, but that they will have to pay for the water that has been, and is still, theirs.

      We traveled through the Cerrejón valley, where we met with black, indigenous, and other communities affected by mining activities, which have transformed the landscape over the past 25 years.  The description that the Wayuu and Afro-Colombian inhabitants give of the coal project is horrifying:  the mine is an ever-expanding pit that destroys their cultures and dispossesses and displaces them, sacrificing their interests to those of multinationals that are taking over their wealth and their ancestral lands.  People feel that the energy is being produced to satisfy the rapacious progress pursued by the developed countries, while transforming and destroying the rhythms of nature and of their cultures, with the tacit acceptance of successive Colombian administrations.

      We visited Palmarito and Tabaco, two of the many communities that have been forcibly displaced by the mine like Palmarito and Tabaco. Residents gave testimony as to how the companies ignore their constitutional right to consultation, just compensation, and relocation.  They described the abdication of the State and the multinationals that ignore their responsibilities and only leave them crumbs.  In many cases, compensation comes in the form of monies administered by non-governmental agencies that carry out cosmetic activities that cover up the problems, and distribute scarce funds without respect for equity or for the collective structures of their culture, eroding the social fabric and provoking division and fragmentation in the communities.

      The multinationals are inspired by greed. The exploitation of the Guajira’s wealth produces untold riches.  For example, the Cerrejón mine produces 84 thousand tons of coal daily, at a price of $50 (U.S.) per ton.  Meanwhile, the affected populations suffer the environmental and cultural costs and despite years of struggle, have not succeeded in getting their rights recognized.

      Entire populations live under the shadow of environmental hazards that the coal project has generated from the mine to the port. Coal dust permeates every aspect of life:  it is present in the trees, the animals, the houses, the [jagueyes] and the sea, with the consequent effects on the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems.  The dust travels from south to north, from Albania to Puerto Bolívar, as the train carries the coal along the track that creates a 150-kilometer scar splitting the Wayuu territory.  The company says that the amounts are within permissible limits, but people literally eat coal dust.  The noise is present 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in every step of the mining process, transforming the silent life that these peoples have lived since ancestral times.

      We visited the crystalline Ranchería River that descends from the mountain. Residents explained that as it arrives at the mine it becomes a mass of sediment because of the residues of the mining process, affecting every aspect of life.  We saw the same river dying, drowned in sludge [como un lodazal], as it empties into the Caribbean.

According to the people that we interviewed, the companies expropriate their land and erode their traditional practices and modes of subsistence like hunting and fishing and, in addition, restrict their free mobility.  People complain that the State offers more guarantees to the companies, putting the state security forces, which are paid by their taxes, at the service of the companies.  Their own rights, meanwhile, are abandoned.  The national authorities do not defend the sovereignty of their land, nor the rights of its inhabitants.

      The greed that the inhabitants of the Guajira discuss is such that even the wind does not escape it. The Jepirachi wind farm was proposed as an alternative for a more sustainable energy project, to serve the population.  But it does not provide opportunities for the inhabitants of the Arutkajui and Kasiwolin communities.  Residents told us that while the Medellín Public Enterprise (EPM) converts wind into profits through emissions trading, they don’t receive a single watt of this energy.  They showed us the publicity that the EMP circulates claiming the supposed social benefits and contributions to the community.  The Wayuu feel abused by the company, as they are forced to live in the midst of a project that has drastically transformed their landscape.

      Although the region contains vast energy wealth, the Guajiro people have only become poorer, and their culture more threatened, in the few decades since these projects began.  The land is being drained of resources and energy: coal is being exported, gas is being exported, productive soil is disappearing and being washed away through erosion, jobs are disappearing, clean water is becoming scarce, the river is dying and people are being left without work, without resources, without water, even without their vallenato [local music].  All that is left are garbage dumps, sludge, boxes and plastic bags that are engulfing the sea and the streets, and malnourished children foraging among the trash.  People pay high prices, sacrificing their scarce resources to obtain poor public services.  The energy that they receive is poor quality, and the current is frequently interrupted.  The water is polluted, and the trash overwhelming.  A small group of foreigners receives the benefits, and a few of Colombia’s wealthy and politicians thrive in their wake.

      It is clear that the income these projects generate has not contributed to improving public services or to the public welfare, much less to the sustainability of the region.  We visited neighborhoods in the city of Riohacha and observed the wretched state of public sanitation that has brought negative repercussions for the health of the inhabitants.  We visited the city dump and were surprised to find Wayuu children who work there under the worst of conditions to help their families survive, while the royalties that the companies should be paying are being lost with total impunity.

      The sustainability of this region will depend upon ending corruption, doing away with bribery, and governing for the benefit and the sovereignty of the nation and for the simple life of the people. 

Thus, the undersigned organizations call upon: 

--The competent environmental authorities to carry out a historical evaluation of the socio-environmental impacts of the mining industry at 25 years.

--The Colombian State to guarantee the rights of the black, indigenous, and peasant communities affected through a plan of adequate alleviation and compensation.

--The Colombian State and the multinationals to recognize the rights of the peoples and their land rights.

--The Colombian people to mobilize to transform this development model which is destroying the people and the environment.

--Exxon, which operated the project for 20 years, and AngloAmerican, BHP Billiton, and Glencore, to acknowledge the ecological debt that they owe this region and the Colombian people.

--The peoples of the north of the planet to assume a critical stance towards the behavior of their companies and the implications that their model of life and development have for others. 

The participating organizations will continue to work for the following goals: 

That the rivers should belong to the people, that they should flow alive and free, so that they can continue to recreate life. 

That the rights of the black, peasant, and indigenous communities, and of the women and children, be respected. 

That the Guajira, and Colombia, be able to enjoy their patrimony and their natural wealth in sustainability and peace. 

That megaprojects that only benefit foreign capital and the national elite be stopped. 

Because we believe in sustainability, in diversity, and in life, we will continue our commitment to the Guajira and its people. 

Participating organizations (in alphabetical order):

Amigos de la Tierra América Latina y el Caribe, ATALC 
Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Pueblo U´wa 
Asociación Centro Nacional Salud, Ambiente y Trabajo, Censat Agua Viva, Amigos 
de la Tierra Colombia. 
Asociación Civil Indio Guaicaipuro, Venezuela 
Asociación de Autoridades de Cabildos Indígenas Wayuu del Sur de la Guajira, 
AACIWASUG, Guajira, Colombia 
Asociación de Pescadores del Río Miel, ASOPESMIEL, Sonsón, Antioquia 
Asociación de Productores y Pescadores, APROPESCAM, Cordoba, Colombia 
Asociación de Productores del Cuenca de la Cienaga Grande, ASPROCIG, Lorica, 
Córdoba 
Asociación Indígena Bari de Venezuela, Asocbariven, Venezuela 
Asociación de Cabildos Nasa Cxhacxha, Cauca, Colombia 
Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Norte del Cauca, ACIN, Cauca Colombia 
Asocomunal, Riohacha, Guajira 
Coecoceiba - Amigos de la Tierra Costa Rica 
Comité Cívico Popular, Bogotá Colombia 
Comunidad de Mayabangloma, Fonseca, Guajira 
Consejo Comunitario de Tabaco, Guajira 
Empresa Comunitaria Brisas del Río Agua, Ecobra, Cauca, Colombia 
Grupo Ecológico Renovadores del Medio Ambiente Colombiano, Remacol, Santander, 
Colombia 
Grupo Juvenil Juvimar, Barranquilla, Colombia 
Núcleo Amigos de la Tierra Brasil 
Observatorio de la Deuda, España 
Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia, Onic 
Organización Wayúu Painwashi, Guajira, Colombia 
Pueblo Guaraní, Bolivia 
Red Cultural Humanarte, Bogotá Colombia 
Resguardo el Soldado Pararebiem, Guajira, Colombia 
Sindicato de Trabajadores de Electricidad en Colombia, Sintraelecol, Colombia 
Resguardo Indígena Provincial, Guajira, Colombia 
Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Industria del Carbón, Sintracarbón 

CENSAT Agua Viva - Amigos de la Tierra Colombia. Centro Nacional Salud Ambiente y Trabajo 
E-mail: todos@censat.org. Apartado Aereo: 16789 
Bogotá, Colombia 

 

Multinationals and Human Rights in Colombia 
 

Excerpt from BusinessWeek, January 23, 2006: 

“Killer Coke” or Innocent Abroad? 

[The Killer Coke campaign is] taking the beverage giant to task for allegedly turning a blind eye as eight employees of Coke bottlers in Colombia were killed and scores more were threatened or jailed on trumped-up terrorism charges over the past decade.  

Beyond bad PR, the Colombia controversy illustrates the challenges facing all multinationals that do business in unstable places. As Nike Inc. learned in its recent sweatshop labor flap, companies are increasingly being held accountable for everything that occurs all the way through the supply chain, even when it involves independent contractors, as is the case with Coke and its Colombian bottlers.  

In the end, some crisis-management experts believe Coke may be able to defuse the Colombia situation only by consenting, as Nike did, to an outside review, and by taking public steps to better ensure the safety of bottling company workers in countries such as Colombia. “You just can’t...say: ‘They’re the bottlers, we just sell the syrup,’” says Edward F. Ahnert, a former president of ExxonMobil Foundation who teaches corporate social responsibility at Southern Methodist University’s business school. 
 
 

Active U.S. Federal Court Cases Against Multinationals for Complicity in Human Rights Violations in Colombia 

Coca-Cola and its Colombian Bottlers: Accused of complicity with right-wing paramilitary death squads in the 1996 murder of a Coca-Cola worker inside the Carepa bottling plant as well as death threats and the torture of numerous other workers. Seven more Coca-Cola workers have been assassinated since 1996.

Drummond Corporation: Accused of complicity with right-wing paramilitary death squads in the 2001 murders of three union leaders riding a company bus on its way to the Loma Mine. Drummond previously denied requests by the union leaders that they be permitted to sleep at the mine due to paramilitary death threats. 

Occidental Petroleum: Accused of complicity in the Colombian military’s bombing of 18 civilians (including seven children) in the village of Santo Domingo. The military operation was planned at an Occidental facility in the region and a privately-contracted security firm responsible for protecting Occidental’s operations participated in the attack. 

 

Corporate Social Responsibility

The UN Global Compact*

 

The Global Compact’s ten principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption enjoy universal consensus and are derived from:  

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• The International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work
• The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
• The United Nations Convention Against Corruption

 

The Global Compact asks companies to embrace, support and enact, within their sphere of influence, a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labour standards, the environment, and anti-corruption: 

Human Rights 

Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and

Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses. 

 

Labour Standards 

Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;

Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labour; and

Principle 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.  
 

Environment

 

Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;

Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and

Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies

   

Anti-Corruption

 

Principle 10: Businesses should work against all forms of corruption, including extortion and bribery.   

* Hundreds of multinational corporations have signed on to the Global Compact, among them are some of the world’s most prominent oil and mining companies including BHP Billiton, Anglo-American, BP, Petro-Canada, Shell, and Total.

 

The North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee demands that Dominion Energy and the Salem Harbor Power Station: 
 

1. only purchase coal from mines that operate according to internationally recognized human rights, labor and environmental standards.* 

2.  issue a public statement that Dominion will take all reasonable action to promote the rights of workers and the human rights of villagers in Colombia affected by the production of coal. 

3. condition Dominion’s purchase of coal from the Cerrejón Mine on the mine owners reaching, or orchestrating in conjunction with the municipality of Hatonuevo, a negotiated settlement with the Junta Social Pro-Reubicación de Tabaco—which represents the displaced community of Tabaco—that is acceptable to all sides. 

4. agree to meet with Jose Julio Pérez, president of the Junta Social Pro-Reubicación de Tabaco, when he visits Salem in March 2006. 

5. increase Dominion’s efforts to seek alternative, renewable, clean forms of energy to replace its dependence on coal. 
 
 

* Internationally recognized standards for human, labor and environmental rights include, but are not limited to, those specified in: 

• The UN Global Compact (see Corporate Social Responsibility, page )
• International Labor Organization (ILO) Conventions
• The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

 

Witness for Peace New England

Delegation to Colombia

August 1-12, 2006

THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE COAL 

Colombia is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the hemisphere, and also the country with the highest levels of official and paramilitary violence, including forced displacement, killings of journalists, trade unionists, and human rights activists. 

Foreign corporations are some of the major beneficiaries of this situation, and multinational corporations control Colombia’s two largest exports, oil and coal, much of which comes back to U.S. markets.  Most of the coal goes to supply power plants in Massachusetts and the southeastern U.S., including the Salem Harbor and Brayton Point power stations in Massachusetts. 

Colombia’s coal comes from two of the largest open-pit coal mines in the world:  El Cerrejón, begun by Exxon in the 1980s and now owned by a consortium of European-based companies, and La Loma, owned by the Alabama-based Drummond Company.  Both of these mines export large quantities of coal to the United States, and both have been accused of serious human rights violations. 

This delegation will follow the trail of the coal that supplies power to New England, meeting with human rights activists, trade unionists, members of Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities, and others affected by coal production in Colombia.  We will explore how we as consumers can work in solidarity with communities and organizations in Colombia to hold corporations accountable for human rights. 

Cost: The price of the 12-day delegation is $1470 USD.  The delegation fee covers all set-up, preparation, meals, lodging, interpreters, transportation within Colombia. The fee also covers extensive reading and activist tools both before and after the delegation. 
Fund-Raising: You can ask us for fund-raising materials or advice. Occasionally scholarship money becomes available. 
Deadline:  ASAP: Application with a non-refundable deposit of $150.

Contact:  Avi Chomsky (achomsky@salemstate.edu; 978-542-6389); Ellen Gabin (egabin@adelphia.net; 978-546-7230(home); 978-281-1548(work)).  

Witness for Peace (WFP) is a politically independent, grassroots organization of people committed to nonviolence and led by faith and conscience. Our mission is to support peace, justice, and sustainable economies in the Americas by changing US policies and corporate practices that contribute to poverty and oppression in Latin America and the Caribbean.  For more info on the WFP Colombia program: www.witnessforpeace.org.

Resources available: 

Francisco Ramírez Cuellar, The Profits of Extermination:  How U.S. Corporate Power is Destroying Colombia.  Translated by Aviva Chomsky.  (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2005). 

“Destroying Communities for Coal” (DVD, 2002).  A documentary depicting the destruction of the village of Tabaco by the Cerrejón Zona Norte coal mine.