This book, as the title suggests, is about the people behind Colombian coal. More precisely, it is about the people behind the coal produced at El Cerrejón, the world’s largest open-pit coal mine, which is located in La Guajira in northern Colombia.
Since the Cerrejón Mine opened in 1983, 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.
The book aims to illustrate how the multinational mining companies that own El Cerrejón 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.
Reviews
“… full of useful testimony, analysis, and reflection on the state of contemporary capitalism as it expresses itself in the mining zones of Guajira, Colombia … a valuable resource for activists, students, and critical scholars alike.” – Upside Down World
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Authors: Aviva Chomsky, Garry Leech and Steve Striffler
Publisher: Casa Editorial Pisando Callos
Published: July 2007
Paperback, 200 pages
ISBN: 9789589799550
Garry Leech 