The train from El Cerrejon, one of the largest open-cast coal mines in the world, and its 110 wagons loaded with black ore tear through the ocher desert of Guajira, in Colombia. “We call it the monster or the boa. Two members of my family have already been killed by the train, goats and sheep by the dozen! “, says Denise Velasquez, a Wayuu indigenous leader from the Uriana clan. His isolated house is located a few dozen meters from the rails, near Cape Vela, in the far north of Colombia.
Despite significant natural resources, the Guajira peninsula remains poor and ignored. The Colombian state has always neglected this department, inhabited almost exclusively by the Wayuu, the country’s main indigenous community (380,460 people, according to a 2018 census). Native Americans who, historically, always resisted the Spanish conquest.
Dolores Epieyuu, leader of the Siwolu clan, also lives near the El Cerrejon train tracks, a few dozen kilometers from Uribia, the largest town in the north of the department. She is worried and tired. “It comes around every four hours, all year round, night and day. The wind covers us with coal dust escaping from the open wagons”she says, her traditional vermilion tunic fluttering in the wind.
Jump in exports to the EU
The El Cerrejon open-air mine, from which the coal is extracted, is located about a hundred kilometers further south, in the center of the Guajira department. Nicknamed the beast (“the beast”), it is running at full capacity again after having had to reduce its production, from 2019, due to the fall in global demand for coal, a consequence of international agreements to combat global warming and then the Covid-19 pandemic.
An early closure was even considered despite a contract with the Colombian state running until 2034. Hope was short-lived for the Wayuu and Afro-Colombian communities of Guajira. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 reshuffled the global energy cards. European Union countries have become the main buyers of Colombian coal to compensate for the cessation of imports of Russian gas. Exports to the Old Continent have jumped 37% since the start of the conflict. And the daily convoys linking the mine to Puerto Bolivar, the export terminal, have resumed with a vengeance, reaching 90,000 tonnes per day.
A boon for the Swiss mining giant Glencore, exclusive owner of the mine since 2021, which has seen its activity in Colombia become profitable again. These profits have even awakened desires to expand the exploitation, which already extends over 690 square kilometers, to the great displeasure of the Colombian head of state, Gustavo Petro.
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