Anarkismo.net: The murder of a peasant leader who had opposed the mining project of La Colosa (Cajamarca, Tolima)

In the afternoon of the 2 November, the peasant leader C?sar Garc?a, president of the 
community association (Junta de Acci?n Comunal) of Cajon La Leona, was killed in cold 
blood by a shot to the head as he returned to his homestead with his wife and son. Garc?a 
had become visible through his participation in the Environmental and Rural Committee of 
Cajamarca for the defence of life, water and food (Comit? Ambiental y Campesino de 
Cajamarca por la Defensa de la Vida, el Agua y el Alimento), an organisation which has 
been leading the community?s struggle against the large-scale extractive project La 
Colosa. It is key to ask ourselves, who benefits from this crime? Unfortunately we are all 
too familiar with this situation, where the interests of powerful people are threatened, 
then ?dark forces? arise which plant the seeds of destabilisation, terror, death?after 
which, in the midst of the onslaught of repression to guarantee ?investor security?, the 
?peacemakers? make their triumphant entry with portfolios brimming with business contracts.

This open-cast mine has been denounced in Tolima because of the disastrous impact it would 
have on the community and the environment. The community of Tolima has expressed its 
rejection of the project through a series of massive demonstrations in defence of water 
and life, as well as through a popular consultation which took place in the municipality 
of Piedras on 28 July. On that occasion, 99.2% of the population rejected the mega-mine, 
with participation of approximately 60% of the electorate [2].

The main investor in this project is the multinational company AngloGold Ashanti (AGA), a 
company which has been broadly supported by Santos? government and is, at the moment, the 
company with the highest number of mining licenses ? at least 410 ? and which controls a 
territory of at least 821,000 hectares [3].

Threats, stigmatisation and violence


We deeply regret this tragedy, which has taken the life of an agrarian leader, husband and 
father, who had not received, personally, threats of any kind. But tragedy of this kind 
had been predicted and in reality, in view of the ferocious campaign of stigmatisation 
against grass-roots organisations which have expressed opposition to the mega-project (the 
most expansive of its kind in the hemisphere), one could say it is a miracle that we have 
not had to lament a killing such as this before.

A campaign of rumours has been developing for months against the community which has 
organised in defence of agriculture and the environment. In November it was being said 
that officials from the AGA had said that the army would arrive to pave the way for the 
mine, meanwhile running the ?troublemakers? and ?guerrillas? out of Anaime (in Cajamarca), 
where the extractive activities are due to take place. The community has denounced an 
increased militarisation of the territory, hand in hand with the mining project. On 22 
February, with the occasion of the Mesa Ciudadana Ambiental (Citizens? Environmental 
Forum) in Ibagu? (in which the opposition by the community to the project was evident), 
journalists captured an exchange of messages between the then vice-president of 
sustainability of AngloGold, Rafael Hertz, and the then chief of communication of La 
Colosa, Ivan Malaver, in which they spoke of having ?identified amongst the oppositional 
community several guerrillas of Anaime? [4].

Following these threats, rumours and stigmatisation, official violence against the 
community has manifested itself more forcefully during the savage repression by the ESMAD 
(the riot squad) of protestors who participated in the Popular Agrarian Strike towards the 
end of August. On that occasion, police opened fire, missing the target, on Julio Vargas, 
president of the community association (Junta de Acci?n Comunal) of El Cedral, Anaime. 
Today, various threats are still pending against him [5]. This atmosphere of 
criminalisation of grass-roots organisations as well as social protest in Cajamarca is not 
an isolated thing, but rather forms part of a generalised context of violence in the 
department [6].

Unsuccessfully, the Environmental and Rural Committee had been demanding security for its 
members, denouncing the stigmatisation campaign, alerting people against the ugly face of 
counterinsurgency policies which has been used to crush social protest against mega-mining 
projects and in defence of rural the economy and the environment. This climate has become 
even more difficult following the bomb attack suffered on 25 October by a delegation of 
IGAC (the national geographic institute) participating in the Convention to Demarcate the 
Wetlands and Forests (Convenio de Delimitaci?n de P?ramos y Humedales) in the highlands of 
Potos? village, which fortunately did not claim any victims (unfortunately, the driver of 
the vehicle attacked died days later of the burns caused by the explosion). The media 
immediately pointed to the people in opposition to the multinational mining company as 
suspects, leading the editorial of El Espectador to affirm, in an unfounded and reckless 
manner, that the environmental struggle was supposedly incubating a ?new generation of 
terror? [7]. This is equivalent to the criminalisation of social protest, equating them 
with some form of ?terrorism?, when in fact, all the evidence points out to right wing 
paramilitaries as the authors of this hideous attack.

Who benefits from this environment of anxiety and terror?


In this moment of anguish, as well as extending the hand of solidarity to our comrades of 
the Environmental and Peasant Committee in Cajamarca and their fellow groups in the 
department and the rest of the country, as well as lending a shoulder of support to the 
family of C?sar Garc?a in this time of need, we should ask the following question: Perhaps 
now those who defend environmental rights (as insinuated in the El Espectador editorial) 
will be added to the list of ?terrorists?, along with those who defend peasant rights, 
agrarian reform, the commons, etc, etc. We know the latent danger when these descriptions 
are employed; they represent a green light for military and paramilitary violence.

It is also key to ask ourselves, who benefits from this crime? Activists working against 
La Colosa have expressed fear that, apparently, there has been a campaign aimed at 
destabilising public order in favour of the militarisation of the municipality. This would 
be a prerequisite to advance a project which causes such resistance in the community. 
Unfortunately we are all too familiar with this situation, where the interests of powerful 
people are threatened, then ?dark forces? arise which plant the seeds of destabilisation, 
terror, death?after which, in the midst of the onslaught of repression to guarantee 
?investor security?, the ?peacemakers? make their triumphant entry with portfolios 
brimming with business contracts.

We demand that the truth about this crime comes to light. That the facts surrounding this 
killing are established, and that the masterminds behind this are clarified and given the 
appropriate punishment. We join in solidarity with the struggle of the Environmental and 
Rural Committees in Tolima (Comit?s Ambientales y Campesinos), as well as with their 
demands for justice and protection. We demand that pressure being brought on the part of 
the multinational AGA (with complicity of the State authorities) against a community which 
clearly rejects their mining project be stopped. Today, the department of Tolima, like the 
rest of the country, requires the unity and the solidarity of grass-roots sectors in the 
struggle. Unity needs to be understood beyond a mere tactical, circumstantial, sense; we 
need a profound sense of unity with regard to articulating a vision of the country we 
want: a country in which people can organise themselves and express their opinions without 
fearing for their lives, a country in which development is sought equally for everybody, 
where rights are guaranteed, where important decisions are centred around communities and 
the environment and not, as in this case, in the profits of a bunch of millionaires and 
their transnational friends.

Jos? Antonio Guti?rrez D.
3 de Noviembre, 2013


Tagline: How deplorable, indeed, are the killings of Edier Otero and Ana Isabel Valencia, 
members of the Marcha Patri?tica in Quind?o, the lip-service the government is giving to 
its promises with the agrarian movements after the Popular Agrarian Strike, the 
militarisation of Caquet? and the forced displacement of the community of Pitalito in 
Cesar. Are these the fresh winds of peace and social dialogue which are blowing in 
Colombia? It is truly surprising that this oligarchy, with its mouth full of blood, does 
not choke when it pontificates about peace in the media.

[1] The press release of the Environmental and Peasant Committees of Tolima can be checked 
at http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=176358&titular=a...a%29-
[2] http://anarkismo.net/article/25970
[3] For more details about gold mega-mining in the department, its consequences and the 
opinions of those opposed to it, check the following article (in Spanish) 
http://anarkismo.net/article/25101
[4] http://www.elnuevodia.com.co/nuevodia/tolima/regional/1...s_3=2 and 
http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/nacional/articulo-...ogold Both, in June, resigned 
their positions.
[5] http://www.anarkismo.net/article/26143
[6] http://anarkismo.net/article/25847
[7] http://www.caracol.com.co/noticias/regionales/atentado-....aspx and 
http://www.elespectador.com/opinion/editorial/nos-falta...54901 The editorial from El 
Espectador was replied by the Environmental and Peasant Committees 
http://www.elespectador.com/opinion/cartas-de-los-lecto...55469