Tens of thousands of coffee growers will attempt to bring roads across Colombia to a standstill in February to demand the government step in to save their troubled industry, said a strike organizer Wednesday. The coffee growers strike will block national highways across 12 departments of Colombia, in an attempt to save an industry for…
Category: Journalism
Mining Projects and Popular Movements in Colombia: Chasing AngloGold Ashanti
The road to Doima, at best unpaved and bumpy, is today crossed by rivers in flood. The rivers have submerged the low concrete bridges and at the second bridge the river is so high the bus has to stop and wait for the waters to subside. The rainstorm that caused the flood gradually dies and…
Cartagena’s poor see hopes fade along with mayor’s health
The first Afro-Colombian mayor of Cartagena is too ill to govern and his potential replacements are not similarly popular figures, said a local NGO on Sunday. Campo Elias Teran became mayor of the popular tourist city of Cartagena on January 1, 2012 riding in on a wave of popular support having made his name on…
Colombia lawyer takes on multinational mining companies
An environmental lawyer who has already helped several towns ban mining in their territory, on Monday said he will help create a provincial assembly in western Colombia with more powers to exclude mining. Juan Ceballos, a lawyer with a passion for the environment, plans to help residents in the Antioquia department in western Colombia form…
AngloGold Ashanti gold mine sparks protests in central Colombia
Multinational gold mining company AngloGold Ashanti has sparked protests as it considers processing ore in a central Colombian town 50 miles west of the capital Bogota. Hundreds of protesters gathered in Doima, a small town in the Tolima department, on the day before Christmas to demonstrate against their municipality of Piedras being considered for an…