"We're human beings and we deserve respect," exclaimed a municipal councilor from the Department of Guajira in northeastern Colombia.

Known as "the Forgotten Guajira" the councilor revealed the devastating impacts of Cerrejón, one of the largest open pit coal mines in the world, on surrounding communities that are principally indigenous and afro-descendent.

"It appears that when the state granted the mineral concessions to the companies that they also handed over our lives," he stated, referring to the imminent displacement of their people and lack of access to the River Ranchería that has historically sustained them.

The experiences of affected communities as well as small and medium scale miners were the focus of the Andean Forum in response to Large Scale Mining: Community, Indigenous and Worker Alternatives that took place in Bogotá from September 26th to 27th.

The forum is part of the struggle against the powerful transnational mining industry and was organized by the Hemispheric Social Alliance, roughly four dozen labour, indigenous, peasant farmer, small and medium scale mining, and environmental organizations participated.

Compounding social and environmental impacts of mining, numerous testimonies indicated the role of violence and repression - both state-led and private - to enable large scale mining expansion in the region.

But despite frequent persecution, assassinations, criminalization of protest, human rights violations and environmental destruction, companies enjoy impunity and favourable public policies, while communities like La Guajira face the bulk of the impacts and are often ignored by the state.

Mining expansion in Latin America

Since the mid 1990s, Latin America has been a major site of global mining expansion. Neoliberal policy development along the logic of free trade has been essential to its implementation.

International agreements and legal reforms promoted by the World Bank and various foreign governments in collaboration with friendly national representatives "put states in a bind, preventing them from being able to promote national development policies," says Executive Secretary Enrique Daza of the Hemispheric Social Alliance, "making countries dependent on foreign investment and international trade."

Ensuring that "transnational corporations are the major beneficiaries," he reflects, "Communities are the principle victims."

Luis Manuel Claps, journalist and editor of Mines and Communities, says that the profit-driven "compulsive consumption" of industrial mining of energy, minerals, water and other common goods is best characterized as "bulimic."

According to Earthworks, mining is responsible for up to 10% of world energy consumption and around 13% of global sulfur dioxide emissions.

It also produces tremendous amounts of solid waste. The same source also says, for example, that 79 tons of mine waste is generated for every ounce of gold. Quantity and quality of water supplies are also often both at risk.

Additionally, as a short term activity contemporary mines last on average between 10 and 15 years and employ fewer workers as technology improves.

Claps adds that through company mergers and diversification into fossil fuel and agro-fuel production, in order to service their energy needs, that transnational corporations are becoming "extractive company complexes that require ever more energy, water, and territorial space causing cultural, environmental, political and social impacts that are frequently irreversible."

A point of entry

In Colombia's experience, small and medium scale mining operations have been one notable site of conflict. Senator Jorge Robledo from the Alternative Democratic Pole says that one key objective of recent policy reforms was the "Abandonment, persecution and weakening of small scale mining."

Small scale mining in Colombia provides employment for about two million families and its mining code has been working against them.

Robledo indicates that their Ministry of Mines and Energy has expressed clear interest in "eradicating" small scale mining for being "illegal." However, he states, "It is not legal, but rather informal."

Several small and medium scale mining associations testified during the forum to the persecution and threats they are facing as part of attempts to undermine their activities and to make way for transnational operations.

A representative from the Colombian Federation of Gold, Silver and Platinum Miners challenged the common assertion that "large scale mining does not contaminate like small or medium scale operations." He also described how systematic delays inhibit small scale operations from fulfilling legal requirements while transnational companies move through bureaucratic processes with ease.

Another pointed out that local authorities are generally unaware of the overarching aim to displace their activities.

From the Department of Bolívar, observations were made about how transnational corporations have used third parties to obstruct permitting processes and how paramilitary and state violence threatens workers and leaders.

Robledo proposed that national governments should invest in small and medium scale mining operations while ensuring strong environmental and fiscal policies promoting nationalization of mineral resources and national participation in mining activities.

The mining model

However, indigenous leaders from across the continent and from communities which are saying "no" to any type of mining, such as in Ecuador, urged an even deeper reflection on the nature of large scale mining.

Mario Palacios from the National Confederation of Peruvian Communities Affected by Mining (CONACAMI) commented that "The root problem is not just the laws, nor the constitutions, but rather the development model." He described the western model of development as "a culture of self-extermination" that is "putting human survival at risk."

Suggesting that Peru may be the current model upon which further mining expansion is being considered in Ecuador and Colombia, Palacios noted that despite Peru's status as a major mineral producer that it is facing major impacts and a rising number of social-environmental conflicts.

Sixteen out of fifty rivers that flow from the Peruvian Andes are contaminated with heavy metals, he stated, and more than half of the country's 6,000 highland communities are affected by mining. Despite this, the government continues deepening an already favourable legal framework to further guarantee protections for transnational mining companies.

For those who resist, he said in contrast, penalties have become increasingly stiff. Providing an illustration, he said that about ten years ago the penalty for blocking a highway in Peru was four years in prison. Now it can be up to twenty five years, surpassing penalties even for premeditated murder.

He and others expressed the immediate need to recuperate the Andean philosophy of life based upon concepts of "Good Living" and "to live well in harmony with Mother Earth and without destroying the land." They also prioritized recognition of indigenous rights and the right of local communities to free, prior and informed consent over possible mining investments.

Considering the future generations

"We are demanding respect for the lives of our peoples," exclaimed Salvador Quishpe, member of the Pachakutik Movement of Ecuador. He pointed out that his home country is in the unique position in which no large scale metal mining has yet to begin despite numerous projects in various stages of development.

After forty years as an oil producing country, he commented that people still need to strike "just to fix up the roads in areas of oil extraction." Now that oil reserves are running out, he says, mining is being presented as next solution for the Ecuadorian economy, but this "does not reflect the needs of the people and our ways of living."

Reflecting on various attempts to divide communities that are opposed to mining, including gifts, job offers and criminalization, he lamented the persecution that anti-mining activists are currently facing from their government.

The final declaration respected differences between countries like Ecuador where communities are resisting all forms of mining, and specified the relevance of proposals concerning small and medium scale mining to the case of Colombia.

Overall, however, agreement was expressed toward combating impunity of transnational corporations, the need for strong environmental and human right protections toward the aim of good living for all, as well as opposition to the whims of sumptuary consumerism of metals and metal products.

Finally, calling for "greater unity between all those resisting the devastation caused by large scale mining," the declaration expresses hope that this will be a step toward "bringing these experiences together … contributing to other actions at a continental level." The next Andean Forum is anticipated to take place in Quito, Ecuador in 2009.

First published in Upsidedown World http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1515/1/