Resisting the global mining in defence of the water in Colombia: Is a Cajamarca case a democratic example to solve environmental conflicts?

• In Event: Conflict and Community Resistance to Mining

Abstract

This paper analyses the process of community resistance against the Colosa Project one of the biggest mining projects in Colombia- in the municipality of Cajamarca. This article analyses how a complex alliance is formed between journalists, students, academics, local communities, and national and international environmental organizations by studying the organization, negotiation, and articulation process between the different civil society organizations against the Colosa project.

This essay discusses how various strategies are developed and how human right discourses (the right to food, the right to water) is used by the opponents of the mining project to maintain the peasant economy in the locality and protecting water. Finally, the text explores how after at least two years since the beginning of the resistance process, they have decided to pressure the local authorities to call a “consulta popular” (a kind of referendum to vote about the use of the land for mining projects).

This paper explores the tension between democracy, environmental limits and big developing projects, the role of governance institutions, civil society and the different levels of government. The work is grounded in the environmental justice approach and the human rights theory from an integral perspective; it explores the consolidation of the environmental rights as a tool to solve environmental conflicts. The case study is based on archival materials, interviews and secondary data and highlights the interconnections between different agents of the state apparatus.

Author

• Luis F Sanchez