The ‘consultas populares’ in Colombia: restrictions on mechanisms for citizen participation in foreign extractive projects from the perspective of the capitalocene

ABSTRACT

This article discusses from the perspective of the capitalocene how judicial decisions have limited legal mechanisms utilized by local communities as emancipatory tools. It focuses on the case of consultas populares (popular consultations) using the consultation in Cumaral, Colombia, to illustrate the argument. These judicial decisions have favoured a few transnational actors who pursue a hegemonic view of development. These actors are aligned with the logic of commodity speculation in financial markets. The restrictive interpretation of popular consultations has limited the communities’ participation, who suffer most directly from the consequences of large-scale investment and ‘development’ projects. These judicial decisions also exert control over territories, disregard local views of development, and contribute to worsening the current climate crisis.

KEYWORDS:

• Participation
• local communities
• capitalocene
• foreign investment
• development
• extractive activities

Acknowledgements

The author thanks the representatives’ communities from Cumaral, Marmato, the paramo of Santurbán and the Wayúu and the Zenú indigenous peoples. The author thanks specially Jerson López, representative and spokesperson of the popular consultation in Cumaral, who participated in the workshop on ‘Foreign Investment in natural resources: the voices of the communities’ at Externado de Colombia University (Bogotá, Colombia) on August 1 and 2, 2018. The author also thanks Nicolás Perrone, Brendan Schwartz and Ella Hartsoe, for reading earlier drafts of this article and their suggestions. A first draft of this article was presented at the Law and Society Association 2019 Annual Conference (Washington DC) in the panel ‘Resources Extraction and Contested Global Commons’.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See: http://www.secretariasenado.gov.co/senado/basedoc/ley_0134_1994.html

2 See: http://www.secretariasenado.gov.co/senado/basedoc/ley_0136_1994.html

3 See: https://ejatlas.org/conflict/consulta-popular-en-piedras-tolima

4 See: https://ejatlas.org/print/tauramena-casanare-colombia

5 Judges María Victoria Calle and Luis Ernesto Vargas dissented from this decision. They argued that the Court’s reasoing did not protect the autonomy of territoiral entities appropriately. The magistrates explained that it is not realistic for territorial entities to exercise their power and to decide autonomously on the uses and management of the soil, including the conservation of water basins or the promotion of agriculture, without taking ‘one single drop’ from the subsoil or without totally or partially excluding mining from certain areas located within their territories. To explain this, the judges Calle and Vargas used as a metaphor, the play ‘The Merchant of Venice’ written by William Shakespeare.

6 ‘Where does the wealth that foreign investors take from the territory go?’

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ximena Sierra-Camargo

Ximena Sierra-Camargo Ph.D in Law (Rosario University, Colombia), MA in Socio-legal studies (La Plata National University, Argentina) and BA in Law (Externado de Colombia University). Visiting Research Fellow at the Transnational Law Institute (TLI), King’s College London and at the Centre for Critical International Law (CeCIL), Kent Law School. The author has performed as an attorney and consultant in NGOs, public entities and International Organizations and as a lecturer and researcher in Transnational Mining, Public International Law, Human Rights, Law and Development and Socio-legal studies. Her interests research relies on International Law, Transnational Law, Law and Development, Socio-legal studies and Political Ecology. At the moment, the author is enrolled as a Catalyst Fellow at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. Email: [email protected]