“There is a responsibility to these communities”: European parliamentarian during visit to indigenous reservations in La Guajira

This week, three European parliamentarians visit Alta Guajira and the Sierra Nevada in order to verify the human rights violations of coal mining and other energy mining projects that threaten the survival of the Arhuaco, Wayuu, Kogui and Wiwa peoples.

The delegation of the European Parliament is led by representatives Brendan O'Hara, from Scotland, Claire Hanna and Gary Gannon, from Northern Ireland, during their visit to Alta Guajira, found that the work carried out by Carbones del Cerrejón is forcing the displacement of nearly 35 communities indigenous and afroguajiras.

Thus, Gary Gannon, a member of the Irish Foreign Affairs Committee, said that, “there is a responsibility to these communities” and added “we have a responsibility to these communities, we cannot be indifferent”.

According to Jenny Ortiz, a researcher at the Centre for Research and Popular Education (CINEP), European parliamentarians “are going to prepare a report and a process of parliamentary debate in Europe will begin on the responsibility of companies, in particular, those that owned Cerrejón on responsibility and behavior business”.

In addition, during this first visit, delegates have seen how the Cerrejón guajiro went from a sacred place to a sacrifice zone for indigenous peoples, and of the 35 indigenous and afroguajira communities displaced by the expansion of the mining project, eight live in confinement, others stripped and uprooted of their practices, cultures and networks. of solidarity.

“The cumulative impacts and daily sufferings that people and nature suffer in sacrificial zones end in slow and silent death of the territory for which no one takes responsibility,” the Cinep team of researchers explained to parliamentarians.

They also specified that the ethnic communities have raised a cry to the British and Irish parliamentarians for the liberation of the Bruno stream, which has been diverted from its original course by almost four kilometers; that the territories of sacrifice cease and that there is respect for life.

They also called on the international community to design and implement projects that seek to improve the quality of life for Wayuu and Afro women and their communities; that there be comprehensive reparation of ancestral territories, compliance with agreements and promotion of productive projects.

“I am well aware that we are standing on what was once the channel of a river, which for generations gave sustenance to the communities that live here, and how these communities relate to the environment. I am also aware of the choices we made in Ireland and the coal we have consumed from El Cerrejón for 20 years. We have a responsibility to these communities, we cannot be indifferent, that is why we are here,” said MP Gary Gannon during his visit.

The parliamentarians also highlighted that Colombia continues to promote the expansion of the mining frontier, and in particular coal, while European countries are implementing processes of decarbonization of their economies.

Finally, they ratified that the Cerrejón mining operation runs until 2034, which will have an impact on climate change, increasing heat-related diseases and pollution, affecting food sovereignty and making access to water even more difficult in La Guajira.

It is worth recalling that in a 2022 report by the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) it stated that, “Colombia's indigenous peoples suffer from disproportionate levels of poverty that prevent them from exercising their social and economic rights. In 2021, at least 32 boys and girls under the age of five — mostly from Wayuus indigenous communities — died in the department of La Guajira.”

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