By Luke Finn Before there was Colombia, there was the extractive industry. The legend of El Dorado stems from a Spaniard, Juan Rodriguez Freyle, watching a High Priest of the Muisca getting covered in gold dust and jumping in Lake Guatavita, near Bogotá, in a...
Extractive Industries
Cargill Illegal Land Grabs Implicate Colombia Presidency
By Jake Van Jenzen A century of neglect, drug trafficking, and civil wars had made the “wild-east” Colombian department of Vichada a publicly designated “wasteland”. By the 1990’s, however, reduced hostilities allowed the government to open it up in specially...
Coal Pollution Displaces a Community
By Emily Schmitz Weaving a concrete thread through red dust and boiling sun, a winding two-lane highway curves through the northern department of Cesar, Colombia, carving out a familiar route. Passing between housing settlements of mud and brick stained the color of...