Huila Community of Colombia Continues to Defend the Earth from Mega-Development. 28th Feb

The New Year in Huila start­ed as 2012 fin­ished, with the Nation­al Author­i­ty of Envi­ron­men­tal Licens­es’ (ANLA) refusal  to hold the ener­gy com­pa­ny Enel-Ende­sa-Emge­sa account­able for fail­ing to com­ply with the envi­ron­men­tal license for the Quim­bo Hydro­elec­tric Project.

The Comptroller’s Office has con­tin­u­al­ly stud­ied the infor­ma­tion put forth by Asso­ci­a­tion of Affect­ed Peo­ples of the Quim­bo Hydro­elec­tric Project (Aso­quim­bo), and has backed the local com­mu­ni­ties’ demands that the envi­ron­men­tal license be respect­ed in regards to reset­tle­ment, com­pen­sa­tions and envi­ron­men­tal mit­i­ga­tion.  Mean­while in Huila, local media have false­ly report­ed that noth­ing is wrong in the region and have irre­spon­si­bly reduced their report­ing to noth­ing more than pub­lic rela­tions on behalf of the company’s image.

Nonethe­less, through­out Huila, the resis­tance has not only man­i­fest­ed from the com­mu­ni­ties affect­ed by the Quim­bo Dam, but also from the com­mu­ni­ties in Gigante and Garzón affect­ed by petro­le­um com­pa­ny Emer­ald Ener­gy, as well as com­mu­ni­ties in south­ern and cen­tral Huila resist­ing the Mas­ter Advan­tage Plan of the Mag­dale­na Riv­er which would hand over the country´s largest and most impor­tant riv­er in con­ces­sion to the state-owned com­pa­ny HydroChi­na. In addi­tion to the inva­sion of extrac­tive indus­tries to Huila, the regions large amount of cof­fee grow­ers have been impact­ed by the falling price in cof­fee which has pro­gres­sive­ly got­ten worse since the sign­ing of the US free trade agree­ment. As a result, Huila and all of Colombia’s cof­fee grow­ers have also start­ed pres­sur­ing the Colom­bian State that has result­ed injuries in recent days as cof­fee grow­ers have had clash­es with the riot police (ESMAD).

In the cof­fee lands, fruit orchards, and veg­etable fields main­tained by the campesinos around the Miraflo­res Peak, mem­bers of the Inter-sec­toral Asso­ci­a­tion Garzón & Gigante (ASIEG), con­tin­ue to fight to have the envi­ron­men­tal license that would per­mit Emer­ald Ener­gy, a sub­sidiary of the Chi­nese chem­i­cal com­pa­ny, Sinochem to drill for oil in the Paramo of Miraflo­res ecosys­tem. Cur­rent­ly AISEG along with the Region­al Autonomous Cor­po­ra­tion of the Upper Mag­dale­na (CAM) along with CORPOAMAZONIA from the Depart­ment of Caque­ta, are push­ing the Office of Nation­al Nat­ur­al Parks to declare the 122,000 HA of the Paramo de Miraflo­res Peak a Nation­al Nat­ur­al park to help cre­ate a stronger legal mech­a­nisms for pro­tect­ing this area and effec­tive­ly exclud­ing it from any form of oil extrac­tion.

The Mag­dale­na Riv­er, born in south Huila, flows north some 1,528 kilo­me­ters to its delta in the Caribbean Sea. Its drainage basin is near­ly a quar­ter of the country´s nation­al ter­ri­to­ry and two-thirds of the near­ly 46 mil­lion Colom­bians live in this region which pro­duces about 86% of the country´s GDP.  This year, the Mag­dale­na Riv­er will be hand­ed over in con­ces­sion to the com­pa­ny HydroChi­na whose plans for the riv­er are to turn a liv­ing ecosys­tem that sup­ports human and non­hu­man com­mu­ni­ties into the country´s most impor­tant trans­porta­tion cor­ri­dor for cheap goods.

The plan will include dredg­ing the riv­er from Hon­da, Toli­ma all the way to its delta to allow large barges to enter that far up-riv­er from the caribbean delta with­in Colom­bia. Hon­da will be con­nect­ed via high-speed rail­ways to the Pacif­ic-coast port city of Bue­naven­tu­ra as a con­nec­tion between east­ern and west­ern mar­kets.  For the upper area of the Mag­dale­na Riv­er Val­ley the con­ces­sion involves a total of 11 medi­um to large hydro­elec­tric dams to gen­er­ate elec­tric­i­ty for use else­where. Com­mu­ni­ties in south­ern Huila such as Opo­ra­pa, San Agustín, and San Jose de Isnos have all become active in the local resis­tance since the plans for the riv­er were announced last year.

The Impacts are being felt

With sad­ness, mem­bers and allies of the Aso­quim­bo paid farewell to Sain Pedra­zo, a farmer and day labor­er from Ver­acruz, Gigante. Don Sain, known by all who knew him as a sweet, lov­ing and noble man, was an elder and stead­fast war­rior of Aso­quim­bo. He joins at least sev­en oth­er old­er adults from the affect­ed pop­u­la­tion that have passed due to the phys­i­o­log­i­cal trau­ma that the place where they were born, grew up, raised their fam­i­lies and have lived in always, might pos­si­bly be erased. In his own words he said that he would pass before the Dam could be com­plet­ed. “If every­one thinks like me, I am leav­ing before it is my time. I´d rather that no one men­tion that Quim­bo to me, because God does not want it. Though based on what I feel, I am leav­ing here ear­ly. I will not wait for this dis­as­ter to hap­pen. Me with my 72 years of birth and life here, I do feel it and it hurts me hard.”  Don Sain is great­ly missed though his lega­cy of his fight and strug­gle for the love of our ter­ri­to­ry till the very end accom­pa­ny those that con­tin­ue to strug­gle for the lib­er­a­tion of Moth­er Earth in Huila.

On Jan­u­ary 16, Moi­ses Sanchez, a share­crop­per on the Cha­gres Farm in Gigante, along with his fam­i­ly and cat­tle, was forcibly removed from his home by the ESMAD by order of the Gigante’s may­or Ivan Luna.  Bru­tal­ized dur­ing the process, this is anoth­er exam­ple of how laws are applied when they favor Emge­sa-Ende­sa-Enel, though when it comes to the sanc­tions placed against the com­pa­ny and mak­ing sure they are adhered to, the nec­es­sary State insti­tu­tions are nowhere to be found. To date there is still an open inves­ti­ga­tion by the Comptroller´s Office of the ANLA for the vio­la­tions of social and envi­ron­men­tal rights caused by the Quim­bo Hydro­elec­tric Project and dam­ages total­ing an amount over $175 bil­lion (USD) that the com­pa­ny has yet to respond to and the Min­istry of Envi­ron­ment has also been silent on.

In mid-Feb­ru­ary a mas­sive die-off of Tilapia and Bass occurred in the float­ing aqua­cul­ture cages in the Beta­nia Reser­voir that belong to local elites. Over 300 tons of fish des­tined to export to for­eign coun­tries died due to anaer­o­bic con­di­tions in the reser­voir found down riv­er from the Quim­bo con­struc­tion site. A local aqua­cul­ture busi­ness own­er who asked to remain anony­mous accused the Nation­al Fish­ing and Aqua­cul­ture Author­i­ty (Aunap) of doing noth­ing. “The uncon­trolled growth of aqua­cul­ture in Beta­nia threat­ens the eco­log­i­cal bal­ance as well as indus­tri­al aqua­cul­ture,” said the busi­ness own­er.
In 2005, accord­ing to the Plan of Fish and Aqua­cul­ture Order, there were 1,686 cages, eight years lat­er there are 7,000 cages. This over­pro­duc­tion along with pol­lu­tion and high­er sed­i­ment con­tent in the water low­ered the water qual­i­ty and caused the water to lose Oxy­gen pro­vok­ing the mas­sive die off.

Region­al Polit­i­cal Cor­rup­tion and a Chal­lenge

On Jan­u­ary 9th, 2013 Cielo Gon­za­lez was final­ly removed from her posi­tion as gov­er­nor of Huila and her for­mer Sec­re­tary Julio César Tri­ana, was appoint­ed by Pres­i­dent San­tos as the new inter­im gov­er­nor in ear­ly Feb­ru­ary. Pri­or to Tri­ana, Luis Guiller­mo Vélez Cabr­era was serv­ing as inter­im gov­er­nor when he vis­it­ed the con­struc­tion site of the Quim­bo telling local media the “Quim­bo must hap­pen, but the right way.”  He also not­ed that while there had been progress, the company´s delay in the cre­ation of the irri­ga­tion dis­trict Paicol-Tesalia was espe­cial­ly wor­ry­ing. Since Tri­ana has come into office as inter­im-gov­er­nor, he has only men­tioned that Vélez Cabr­era would be the “point per­son” to con­tin­ue work­ing on the project.

On April 14 there will atyp­i­cal elec­tions held in Huila to pick the new gov­er­nor. Aso­quim­bo is call­ing on the peo­ple of Huila to vote in blank and for the Defense of the Ter­ri­to­ry.  Cur­rent­ly all the can­di­dates from the dif­fer­ent par­ties sup­port and helped cre­ate the Depart­men­tal Plan of Devel­op­ment 2012–2015 “Mak­ing Change,” which seeks to use extrac­tive indus­tries as part of Pres­i­dent San­tos “Min­ing-Ener­gy Loco­mo­tive” as a major force in region­al and nation­al devel­op­ment. On the bal­lot, list­ed as a viable option is the “Pro­gram of Uni­ty for Ter­ri­to­r­i­al Defense” that is reg­is­tered with the Nation­al Civic Reg­istry. The out­lined plat­forms the make up the “Pro­gram of Uni­ty for Ter­ri­to­r­i­al Defense” were cre­at­ed through open assem­blies in the com­mu­ni­ties of Agra­do, Garzón, Gigante, Hobo, La Pla­ta, San josé de Isnos, Tar­qui and San Agustín, Huila from Feb­ru­ary 9–17th that focus on pro­tect­ing the local com­mu­ni­ties, economies and the envi­ron­ment.

The Con­stant Hypocrisy of the Nation­al Author­i­ty of Envi­ron­men­tal Licens­es

The lack of con­sis­ten­cy of the Direc­tor of the ANLA, Luz Hele­na Sarmien­to, has only made evi­dent that her role is that of a pup­pet for transna­tion­al com­pa­nies more than a true author­i­ty who absurd­ly has been del­e­gat­ed the respon­si­bil­i­ty of pro­tect­ing the needs of the human and non­hu­man com­mu­ni­ties in Colom­bia.  In late Decem­ber yet anoth­er res­o­lu­tion was passed mod­i­fy­ing the Quimbo´s Envi­ron­men­tal License through Res­o­lu­tion 1142 attempt­ing to help Enel-Ende­sa-Emge­sa remain unac­count­able to the demands placed on it by the comptroller´s Office. As a result, Comp­trol­ler San­dra Morel­li has declared that the ANLA was deep­en­ing the country’s envi­ron­men­tal cri­sis that it had already brought on by its faulty poli­cies. This cri­tique helped elim­i­nate an eco-tourism hotel known as “Los Ciru­e­los” that was planned for the Tay­rona Nation­al Park on the Caribbean Coast by the ANLA through Res­o­lu­tion 0024.

The cri­tiques of Sarmiento´s hypocrisy is that the envi­ron­men­tal impact of the Quim­bo is much greater than that of Los Ciru­e­los tak­ing into account the over 800 Ha of dry-trop­i­cal for­est will be destroyed (the same ecosys­tem that Los Ciru­e­los would affect) and large por­tions of the Ama­zon­ian Pro­tec­tion For­est Reserve.  Since ear­ly Feb­ru­ary the ANLA has denied licens­es for numer­ous com­pa­nies includ­ing Drum­mond, CCX, Prode­co and Gold­man Sachs, who all had plans for coal min­ing in the Depart­ment of Cesar. ANLA denied these solic­i­ta­tions cit­ing these com­pa­nies did not fol­low reg­u­la­tions. This inco­her­ence that direct­ly impacts com­mu­ni­ties is what is push­ing so many to take more direct actions after more than four years of inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized evi­dence of count­less vio­la­tions of the Quimbo´s envi­ron­men­tal licens­es even after the licens­ing has been changed no less than four times always in ben­e­fit of the com­pa­ny.

Huila, won’t take it no more

On Feb­ru­ary 25, a nation­al strike was orga­nized by cof­fee grow­ers in Antio­quia, Huila, Quindío, Ris­ar­al­da and oth­er cof­fee grow­ing regions. Tens of thou­sands of campesinos through­out Huila blocked roads to pres­sure the gov­ern­ment to take action in help­ing cof­fee grow­ers as a result of the falling prices. In Garzón, clash­es led to over 25 peo­ple being injured and cur­fews being called; mean­while in Nei­va and the roads con­nect­ing Huila with Caque­ta and Putu­mayo, all trans­porta­tion is par­a­lyzed in the region as a result of the strikes. Aso­quim­bo and AISEG are in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the cof­fee grow­ers strike and par­tic­i­pate, as well as pre­pare for more upcom­ing mobi­liza­tions. Mer­cedes Nin­co, a res­i­dent of La Jagua, explained “we are sup­port­ing the cof­fee grow­ers and strik­ing as well. The State´s poli­cies that hurt them are also hurt­ing us.”

What con­tin­ues to be appar­ent is that the Quim­bo and oth­er extrac­tion projects in Huila are only the tip of the ice­berg.  Region­al­ly and glob­al­ly, the meth­ods that gov­ern­ments are using to dis­guise cor­po­rate land grabs, resource extrac­tion, envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion and forced dis­place­ment as a minor part of “progress” and “devel­op­ment” has nev­er been akin to the world­views of most com­mu­ni­ties affect­ed by these projects. In fact, the strug­gle of move­ments like Idle No More in Cana­da against the Tar Sands and oth­er extrac­tion projects on indige­nous lands, the efforts in the US against the Key­stone Pipeline, or the incal­cu­la­ble amount of com­mu­ni­ties stand­ing up against mines, dams, pipelines, agro-indus­try through­out the world are the same fight.

Since the upris­ings led by the Gai­tana in the 1530s against Pedro de Añas­co and the invad­ing Span­ish forces, the peo­ple of Huila have nev­er been Idle.  While the Cof­fee Grow­ers Strike is build­ing strength and shows no sign of sub­sid­ing any­time soon, through­out Huila com­mu­ni­ties are gath­er­ing forces and prepar­ing for the region­al strike to be ini­ti­at­ed on March 14, the Inter­na­tion­al Day against Dams and For Rivers, Water and Life. The Com­mu­ni­ties affect­ed by the Quim­bo Dam and oth­er extrac­tive indus­tries in Huila call for inter­na­tion­al direct actions in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the peo­ple of Huila with a sim­ple mes­sage, “extrac­tive indus­tries out of the ter­ri­to­ry, repeal the free trade agree­ments and land reform now”. Just like last year when there were numer­ous inter­na­tion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty actions, the peo­ples of Huila are ask­ing for all oth­ers in strug­gle for the Lib­er­a­tion of Moth­er Earth to “flood” Colom­bian Embassies, Con­sulates and the facil­i­ties of the com­pa­nies Enel, Ende­sa, Emge­sa, Emer­ald Ener­gy and HydroChi­na.