Mining and Peace

Oct 23, 2016 | Manuel Rodríguez Becerra
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The recent ruling by the Constitutional Court over mining has caused a stir in government officials and private sector leaders. According to the ruling, "territorial entities have the competence to regulate the use of the soil and to guarantee the protection of the environment, even if in exercising said prerogative they end up prohibiting mining activity." In addition, it establishes that the popular consultation is a suitable mechanism in the processes related to the decisions on mining, with which it ended the interpretations of the Government and some control entities that have tried to prevent its use.

But these critics seem to ignore that it is a sentence that could contribute to the construction of peace, since if something is distinguished by the mining sector in Colombia, both legal and illegal, it is because of its capacity to create socio-environmental conflicts that, few times, have triggered untold violence, dispossession, displacement and unacceptable environmental conditions.