Direct democracy in mining conflicts in Latin America: mobilising against the La Colosa project in Colombia

ABSTRACT

This article examines the conditions under which popular consultations serve as a means of protest against mining and the socio-political effects that result. Building on empirical research into the protests against the La Colosa gold mining project in Colombia, the analysis is rooted in social movement studies and democracy theory. It shows that the use of popular consultations is enabled by long-term political-institutional changes and short-term changes in structural conditions. The outcomes range from changes in project design to political agenda setting, and the opening of spaces for participation and public debate.

RÉSUMÉ

Cet article examine les conditions dans lesquelles des consultations populaires peuvent servir de moyen de protestation contre l’exploitation minière et les effets socio-politiques qui en résultent. Appuyée par des recherches empiriques centrées sur les contestations du projet minier aurifère de La Colosa, en Colombie, cette analyse s’inscrit dans le champ des études des mouvements sociaux et des théories de la démocratie. Elle montre que l’utilisation des consultations populaires est rendue possible par des changements politico-institutionnels sur le long terme et des changements structurels sur le court terme. Leurs effets peuvent inclure des changements dans la conception du projet minier, la définition de l’agenda public ou l’ouverture d’espaces de participation et de débat.

KEYWORDS:

• Popular consultations
• mining conflicts
• democratisation
• social movements
• Colombia

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the interview partners in Colombia for their time, support and trust. Special thanks to Bettina Engels, Carla Noever Castelos, Sergio Coronado, Hanna Thiesing and Astrid Ulloa for their valuable support of my research. Thanks to Jan Brunner, Anna Dobelmann, Sarah Kirst, Louisa Prause and Mario Schenk for helpful comments on an earlier version of this text, and to Alex Finkle and Zoe Goldstein for translation and style editing. Useful comments and criticisms from two anonymous reviewers and the editors of Canadian Journal of Development Studies greatly enhanced the article. All remaining errors are, of course, my own.

Notes

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6. https://www.registraduria.gov.co/Habitantes-de-Cajamarca-Tolima,23943.html [accessed 8 May 2018].

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8. https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/medio-ambiente/el-municipio-de-sucre-santander-le-dijo-no-la-explotacion-minera-articulo-715950; https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/medio-ambiente/jesus-maria-santander-le-dijo-no-la-mineria-articulo-713662; http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/medio-ambiente/asi-exploto-el-boom-de-las-consultas-populares-articulo-695826 [accessed 6 October 2017].

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) under its funding line “Global Change” [Grant Number FKZ 01LN1302A].

Notes on contributors

Kristina Dietz

Kristina Dietz is director of the research group “Global Change and Local Conflicts? Conflicts over Land in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa in the Context of Interdependent Transformation Processes” at the Freie Universität Berlin. She received her PhD in political science from the University of Kassl, Germany. Her current work focuses on conflicts over land and mining in the context of extractivism in Latin America. Her main research fields are political ecology, spatial and democracy theory, critical agrarian studies and social movement studies.