Mining and Ecocide in Santander, Colombia · Global Voices
Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez

Illegal mining is a problem affecting the Colombian department of Santander, where residents have seen first-hand how extraction and other processes linked to mining cause pollution. The video below was produced by Corporación PODION, as part of the project “Caravan for the awareness and collection of complaints in defense of the land and the environment within the department of Santander”. It was carried out in October 2014 with the goal of highlighting different complaints and testimonies regarding the violation of environmental rights in the region:
The Observatory of Mining Conflicts in Latin America explained the seriousness of the situation in Vélez and Landázuri in a statement:
La comunidad de estos dos municipios, se ha opuesto de manera enérgica ante el inminente deterioro de sus condiciones de vida y el grave daño ambiental que implicará la explotación de 60.000 toneladas de carbón al mes tomando 3 lt/seg de agua, lo que implica más de 93 millones de litros de agua anual, el vertimiento de 0.83 lt/seg , es decir, más de 25 millones de litros de agua contaminada vertida sobre sus territorios y, la remoción de más de 821.955 metros cúbicos de madera nativa, entre ceibas, roble y caracolí.
The community of these two municipalities has vigorously opposed the imminent deterioration of their living conditions and the serious environmental damage that the exploitation of 60,000 tonnes of coal monthly using 3 litres/sec of water will entail. This means more than 93 millions of litres of water yearly at a flow of 0.83 litres/sec. In other words, more than 25 million litres of contaminated water discharged over the land as well as the removal of more than 821, 955 cubic metres of native trees amongst which kapok, oak and cashew can be found.
Photos of the environmental damage caused by mining have circulated on Twitter:
@PrensaRural @IvanCepedaCast @angelamrobledo ecocidio en Santander, miles de peces muertos por Hidrosogamoso pic.twitter.com/4DeJ41lsqD
— jhoney (@J_honey20) junio 9, 2014
ecocide in Santander, thousands of fish dead because of Hidrosogamoso
Twitter users have also expressed their disagreement with the mining developments in the region:
Imagínense esa locura. Santander es una zona inestable geológicamente y pretenden hacer minería y piscinas con cianuro. Un suicidio.
— yoligrilla (@yoligrilla) noviembre 25, 2014
Just imagine the craziness of this. Santander is a geologically unstable area and they are trying to mine and make cyanide pools there. Suicide.