Plunder: Canadian companies in Colombia, episode 1: the disregard for the territories of Indigenous Peoples

In Villagarzón, Putumayo, Indigenous Inga communities remember how in 2012 Gran Tierra Energy began seismic oil exploration activities in PUT-1 Block and ignored, in collusion with the Colombian authorities, the presence of the Inga people. As a result, the Association of Indigenous Councils of Villagarzón Putumayo - ACIMVIP filed a tutela action and in 2015 the Administrative Court of Nariño ordered the competent authorities to verify the presence of indigenous communities in the territory where the APE-La Cabaña project is being developed. In 2021, the Directorate of the National Authority for Prior Consultation of the Ministry of Interior confirmed the presence of the San Miguel de La Castellana reservation, ignoring the other indigenous settlements. Despite the fact that the company has withdrawn the APE-La Cabaña platform, communities and accompanying NGOs highlight that it continues to ignore due participation in the process of dismantling and abandoning the project, as well as the reparation of the environmental and spiritual damage caused to their territory and communities., as well as the reparation of the environmental and spiritual damage caused to their territory and communities.

In Cabo de la Vela in Uribia, La Guajira, the ancestral authorities of the Wayúu Indigenous people claim that Isagen's (part of Brookfield) "Guajira I" project did not include all affected indigenous communities in the prior consultation process in 2009 and did not respect their ancestral authority in their territory. In particular, the Indigenous territory of ancestral authority Denis Velázquez, whose cemetery is 800 metres from the wind farm infrastructure, filed a tutela action in 2022 so that she and her family could access prior consultation after being accepted within the area of direct influence of the wind project. Meanwhile, for the Wayúu people, immaterial damages that significantly affect Indigenous uses and customs are perpetuated, and Isagen's wind turbines continue to negatively impact the Wayúu's cemeteries and spiritual dimension.

The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited all the companies mentioned to respond to the allegations of abuse linked to their projects and operations in Colombia. Find all the responses and non-responses at https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/expolio/