The People Behind Colombian Coal

This book, as the title states, is about the people behind Colombian coal. More precisely, it is about the people behind the coal produced at El Cerrejon, the world s largest open-pit coal mine in La Guajira in northern Colombia. But the term people behind Colombian coal does not only refer to the mining companies that exploit this natural resource in Colombia; it has a much broader meaning. This book aims to illustrate how the multinational mining companies that own El Cerrejon profit at the expense of the people of the Guajira region whose plight has remained hidden behind the Colombian coal that many of us in North America and Europe rely on to generate our electricity.

Since the Cerrejon Mine opened in 1983, initially as a joint venture between Exxon and the Colombian state, its operations and constant expansion have forcibly displaced indigenous Wayuu and Afro-Colombian communities. The reports and articles in this book, written by various Colombians, North Americans and Europeans familiar with the issue, document this process and the human rights and environmental consequences.