Colombian Guerilla Group Holding Canadian Mining Executive Hostage Takes Aim at Ottawa

10/06/13, A Colom­bia gueril­la group is try­ing to draw Ottawa into its bat­tle with a Toron­to-based min­ing com­pa­ny which is qui­et­ly try­ing to secure the release of one of its exec­u­tives who has been held hostage since Jan­u­ary.

The Ejerci­to de Lib­era­cion Nacional (ELN) kid­napped Ger­not Wober, 47, on Jan. 18, dur­ing an attack on the Snow Mine camp in Boli­var state, which sits in the north­ern part of the coun­try. The gueril­la group kid­napped five oth­er peo­ple, includ­ing three Colom­bians and two Peru­vians, who have all since been released.

The gueril­la group says that Wober, the vice-pres­i­dent of Toron­to-based Brae­val Min­ing Corp, won’t be released until the com­pa­ny gives up gold min­ing con­ces­sions in the San Lucas moun­tain range which the ELN claims were ini­tial­ly giv­en to local min­ers who live in the area.

In a state­ment issued Wednes­day and post­ed on the gueril­la group’s web­site, the ELN took aim at the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment.

“The Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment should at least be con­cerned about whether its anti-cor­rup­tion laws are being fol­lowed by Cana­di­an com­pa­nies in their for­eign oper­a­tions,” said the ELN. “Nei­ther the Colom­bian nor Cana­di­an gov­ern­ments have both­ered to inves­ti­gate our accu­sa­tions about the dis­pos­ses­sion of four min­ing con­ces­sions held by com­mu­ni­ties in the south­ern part of Boliv­er (state) by the North­ern Amer­i­can com­pa­ny Brae­val Min­ing Cor­po­ra­tion.”

The ELN claimed the Colom­bian gov­ern­ment was increas­ing mil­i­tary oper­a­tions against the group to secure Wober’s release.

The ELN is the small­er of Colombia’s main gueril­la groups. It’s esti­mat­ed the ELN has between 2,000 to 3,000 gueril­la fight­ers.

A spokesper­son for Brae­val said the com­pa­ny has been advised not to com­ment on the kid­nap­ping.

For­eign Affairs emailed a state­ment to APTN Nation­al News say­ing fed­er­al gov­ern­ment “offi­cials con­tin­ue to work close­ly with our part­ners on the ground.” The state­ment said offi­cials are also in con­tact with Wober’s fam­i­ly.

“The gov­ern­ment of Cana­da will not com­ment on efforts to secure the hostage’s release,” said the state­ment. “Due to pri­va­cy con­sid­er­a­tions, we can­not pro­vide addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion about the sit­u­a­tion.”

Accord­ing to his on-line work his­to­ry, Wober has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the min­ing sec­tor, includ­ing involve­ment in projects in the Yukon, the North­west Ter­ri­to­ries, British Colum­bia and Man­i­to­ba.

The activ­i­ties of for­eign min­ing com­pa­nies, includ­ing those based in Cana­da, have long been a point of con­tention among Indige­nous and local com­mu­ni­ties in Colom­bia.

Under Canada’s free trade agree­ment with Colom­bia, Ottawa is required to present an annu­al report on human rights in Colom­bia every year. Last year’s report failed to report on human rights in the coun­try.

The Nation­al Indige­nous Orga­ni­za­tion of Colom­bia (NIOC) has called on Cana­da to pres­sure the Colom­bian gov­ern­ment to respect Indige­nous rights in its min­ing laws.

In a recent inter­view with Maria Patri­cia Tobon Yagari, a lawyer with the NIOC said that min­ing com­pa­nies present a big­ger threat than the armed groups because the firms fuel the vio­lence.

“The pres­ence of these min­ers have rein­forced (the vio­lence) because they have ben­e­fit­ed from it. By using pri­vate secu­ri­ty they have forced these Indige­nous groups and Colom­bian campesinos to resist and it has increased the vio­lence in the ter­ri­to­ries,” said Tobon Yagari.

Tobon Yagari was sched­uled to appear on Par­lia­ment Hill on May 22 but her visa was ini­tial­ly denied by Ottawa.

Tobon Yagari said for­eign min­ing firms have put pres­sure on the Colom­bian gov­ern­ment to pass min­ing laws tai­lored in the inter­est of devel­op­ment.

“Of course Cana­di­an min­ers have a large inter­est in get­ting leg­is­la­tion in their favour,” she said. “That is what is hap­pen­ing with­out our min­ing code and our sit­u­a­tion in Colom­bia.”

Many Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties in Colom­bia are cling­ing pre­car­i­ous­ly on the edge of extinc­tion.

Of the 102 doc­u­ment­ed Indige­nous nations in Colom­bia, 32 have pop­u­la­tions under 500, 18 have pop­u­la­tions of 200, while 10 have less than 100.

Tens of thou­sands of Indige­nous peo­ple have been dis­placed from their ter­ri­to­ries which are often rich in min­er­als and hydro­car­bons eyed by for­eign min­ing firms.

Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al has said it’s con­cerned about deep­en­ing ties between Cana­da and Colombia’s mil­i­tary as a result of the free trade deal.

“And recent changes to export con­trols in Cana­da to allow for the sale of auto­mat­ic firearms to Colom­bia,” have added to list of prob­lem­at­ic issues, said the inter­na­tion­al human rights orga­ni­za­tion.

The sit­u­a­tion of Indige­nous peo­ples in Colom­bia is so dire that the UN Spe­cial Rap­por­teur on Indige­nous Peo­ples James Anaya has called for the UN spe­cial advi­sor on geno­cide to vis­it Colom­bia.