The North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee Blog

As many of you know, the North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee helped to organize protests at the Coaltrans conference in Miami last week, where major players in the global coal industry met. Among those presenting were Leon Teicher, president of Cerrejon Coal, and Hernan Martinez Torres, Colombian Minister of Mines and Energy. (Mike Tracy of Drummond was on the program, but did not show up.)

While protesters gathered outside the luxury resort, Steve Striffler was inside the conference, and managed to raise a pointed question after Leon Teicher's talk. Below, Steve's description of the events, a transcript of the exchange, and an excerpt from the speech by Brent Blackwelder of Friends of the Earth, in which he included information that Steve provided him. Blackwelder was invited by the conference organizers, apparently to be the "alternative" perspective on the program.

Excerpt from Steve's report:

Our friends on the outside gave me some excellent newspapers with articles about mountain top removal and other problems associated with coal mining that I distributed throughout the conference – along with “facts” and “information” about events in Colombia, including statements by Sintramienergetica and Sintracarbon as to problems at Drummond and Cerrejon. Conference participants got an alternative perspective. Participants were aware of the protests, and apparently Coaltrans conferences in other countries often see such protests. They had also seen our presence on the web. They saw the protesters as being against both mountain top removal and the poor treatment of Colombian workers.

Exchange after the Colombia panel:

Steve Striffler: As you suggested in your talk, Colombian coal brings additional political challenges in terms of being a good partner with communities [a terms he continually used], human rights issues, etc. And some of this perhaps can be dismissed as “noise” or “rubbish” just as some of what environmentalists say about US coal can be dismissed in that way. The problem, though, is that [these kinds of issues] makes the utilities that are buying coal kind of nervous in the United States and in Europe. And also that with some of this “noise” and “rubbish” there is really something to it: In the case of Cerrejon there has been problems with displaced communities, indigenous communities and Afro-Colombian communities that have been there for a long time. My question is: To what extent is it possible for coal companies in Colombia to address these kinds of political problems in addition to simply being “good neighbors.” And in the case of Cerrejon in particular what is being done on behalf of these [displaced] communities?

Leon Teicher, President of Cerrejon Coal: What I call rubbish is the fact that some people choose to ignore the facts..not the fact that we have to be conscious of our responsibility and be fully responsible as corporate citizens. What I tried to show in the Cerrejon presentation is that not only are our shareholders, but ourselves, are extremely conscious of our responsibility vis-à-vis the environment, vis-à-vis the safety of our workers, vis-à-vis the appropriate distribution of income that we generate, the payment of taxes, our relationship with the communities, etc. I tried to show you some facts, and some information about what we are doing, and so I would hope that that conveys at least in the case of our company..I cannot speak for any other company.. what we are doing and how responsible we are. Rubbish is when people who are politically and ideologically biased, who choose to ignore facts and information despite the fact that we open our doors and we show them what we are doing, and despite the fact that we talk to people around us...they choose to start campaigns of disinformation which obviously are designed to make our customers nervous. Customers that do know us, and come and see what we do, know what I am talking about. I don’t mean to minimize at all the importance of all those elements, just like the coal industry needs to be aware of our impact on the environment, our impact on global warming, and the power generation industry needs to be aware about that, and we are, and companies all over the world are doing something about that. And so again, anyone of good faith who wants to come and take a look at what we are doing is welcome. And we intend to continue to increase our focus on all those aspects of our business.

Hernan Martinez Torres, Minister of Mines and Energy, Colombian government: I would like to add something because this is a very delicate issue. In support of what Leon just said, Colombia has very strict regulations and rules to be applied… To my knowledge, none of the major companies in Colombia has acted without full compliance with the local regulations. Obviously, when you are trying to transfer a community there are all kinds of stories out there and obviously there are a significant amount of people who want to take advantage of the situation for their own benefit. And I think we had that case in certain communities that wouldn’t move in La Guajira. But I can assure that the majority of companies in Colombia comply with the regulations.

Excerpt from Brent Blackwelder's speech: (Blackwelder was representing Friends of the Earth, and was invited to speak at the conference. He used information that Steve provided him in his speech.)

Human rights abuses associated with coal mining are not confined to the United States. Researchers Garry Leech, Aviva Chomsky, and Steve Striffler have compiled a shocking account the forced displacement of villagers by coal mining operations in Colombia, South America. Many abuses are associated with the Carrejon mine, the world’s largest open-pit coal mine. They provide a chilling account of massacres, kidnappings, and assassinations.