In the Ministry of Mining and Energy, Carlos Rodado said on March 17 that GreyStar had notified they were withdrawing their request for a technical and environmental license for gold exploitation in Santurban, as part of an open pit project called Angostura. The following day, the company claimed it had been misinterpreted and clarified in a press release that it did not aim to “withdraw” from the project, which could pollute the drinking water for over two million Colombians, but to study “alternative options”.

The withdrawal of the application for the licenses was an attempt of the multinational corporation to “demobilize us”, Mauricio Mesa told Real World Radio. He works in Corporation Compromiso of Colombia, an organization which is part of the Committee in Defense of Paramo Santurban. This is a “scheme to get in the paramo”.

Corporacion Compromiso works in defense of human rights and the environment. They are different environmental, human rights, women, trades people, professional, religious, students organizations and trade unions that are part of the Committee in Defense of Paramo Santurban, the main focus of resistance to mining in that region.

The Colombian law bans all kind of mining exploitation in the paramos. However, 21 out of the 34 existing paramos have mining licenses awarded. This is part of what Manuel Santos administration calls “mining locomotive”. “We are taking about a ’bulldozer’ that wants to destroy the country’s strategic resources”, says Mesa. He explained that mining development has become a public policy of the current Santos administration, following the steps of his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe.

GreyStar has considered carrying out underground exploitation in Santurban, instead of its proposal of open-pit mining. But it was rejected by minister Rodado, who said mining in the paramos is banned in Colombia.

Mesa acknowledged that Rodado has been emphatic on this, but he said it falls under the scope to the Ministry of Environment. “They have not issued one resolution to defend the paramos”, he said.

“We are alert in case there is an agreement between the transnational corporations and the government” said Mesa. Social organizations that resist the Santurban project have been working carefully because
GreyStar has carried out a discredit campaign against them.

The Committee in Defense of Paramo Santurban is planning to mobilize on May Day, the International Workers’ Day, in defense of water and the paramos.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gord99/