On March 26, 2017, the inhabitants of the town of Cajamarca, in the department of Tolima, held a popular consultation to support or not the mining projects in that area of the country. The result was overwhelming. 97.9% of voters opposed these processes.
To the question of: Do you agree, Yes or No, that mining projects and activities are carried out in the municipality of Cajamarca? , 6,165 people out of the 6,296 who voted said No, while only 76 people gave an affirmative vote, with an electoral roll of 16,312 eligible to vote.
The consultation was mainly based on the La Colosa gold project, which was being carried out by the South African multinational AngloGold Ashanti since 2008 and according to its intervention plan set out on its website, this project is expected to “obtain resources estimated at 28 million ounces of gold, which would represent the country in taxes and royalties projected to be nearly 500 billion pesos annually”.
After the citizens of Cajamarca said no to mining in their territory through the popular consultation, Cortolima issued Resolutions 1646 and 1649 of 2019, declaring the termination of the water concessions granted to AngloGold Ashanti, so they had to suspend their operations in the area.
But the transnational company did not stand still and filed an action for nullity and restoration of rights before the Council of State against Cortolima. That decision of the Council is not yet known and the future of this mine lies in the air.
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For this reason, the Foundation for the Defense of Mother Earth, the Cajamarca Agricultural and Water Despensa Corporation, the Councillor of the Coello River Basin, the Cajamarca City Council and the Municipal Mayor's Office, presented various supporting documents to support the validity of the resolutions made by the authority of the department of Tolima.
For the signatory organizations, AngloGold Ashanti's lawsuit seeks to ignore Agreement 003 of 2017 of the Cajamarca Municipal Council, which adopts the results of the popular consultation and, on the other hand, seeks to attack the decisions of the environmental authorities for the environmental protection of the territory.
However, five years after the people of Cajamarca banned mining, “the extractivist threat is latent, which is why it is imperative to continue defending the popular will in litigation scenarios such as the one currently being carried out before the Council of State”, can be read in the organizations' statement environmentalists and societies.
The same groups referred to the action to be taken by the Council of State. “The decision taken by the Magistrate on this case is of particular importance for the respect of democracy, since these resolutions were issued in accordance with the results and in support of the popular consultation. In addition, it is a relevant decision because its effects will affect the territory's water resource,” they said.
Finally, Elizabeth Muñoz, a member of the Environmental and Campesino Committee of Cajamarca, said: “This popular consultation has become a milestone in the country's socio-environmental struggles and is a legitimate reflection of the territorial defense processes that resist the imposition of the extractivist development model that threatens integrity of the environment and peasant livelihoods”.
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