Colombia can be viewed at the bastion of United States sponsored neoliberalism. Rich in natural resources like coal, gas, and gold- the history and success of extractive industries in Colombia are a testament to globalization's remarkable ability to seek out and penetrate new markets. For most of the 20th century, the developed world's inexhaustible consumption habits have fueled the multinational business of extractives, all the while wreaking havoc on largely rural, Afro-Colombian communities.

According to reports from SER, the Risaralda teacher trade union, environmental campaigner and teacher Jorge Eliecer de los Rios was assassinated by gunmen on Wednesday 8^th June. He was shot several times from a motorbike as he was going from one building to another of the Santa Sofia School, in Dosquebradas, in the city of Pereira, Risaralda where he taught social sciences.

A large Canadian mining company has just released numbers for the amount of gold, silver and copper present underneath one of Colombia’s most fragile ecosystems. The study was made public after the Colombian Ministry of Mines and Energy denied the company, Greystar Resource Ltd., access to the Santurban region of the Colombian state Santander. But Greystar has not given up and is now fighting back with new mining plans and a brand new management.

How a Colombian city united against gold greed

BUCARAMANGA, COLOMBIA—Spirits were high last month among students, environmentalists, businesspeople, and politicians as the news came in that Greystar Resources had revoked its application for a large-scale open-pit gold mine in the mountains of northeastern Colombia.

But just twelve hours later, Greystar’s intentions became clear—it was withdrawing that application to bring in a new one for a redesigned, underground mine.

Letter blasts Harper government for killing Bill C-300, a law that would have held Canadian mining companies accountable for human rights and environmental abuses abroad.

In this article, we describe Canada as a mineable power. At a domestic level, laws controlling this activity are extremely permissive and political authorities provide multiple supports to this field. For this reason, we determine the Canadian Miner-State jurisdiction, in other words, a State permitting a mineable oligarchy enrichment placing the state machine at its service. Canada, an international mineable leader, is searching to spread its own pattern beyond its frontiers.

"Land and Conflict : Resource Extraction, Human Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility: Canadian Companies in Colombia" looks at four case studies of Canadian extractive industry investment projects in Colombia, analyzing their associated potential human rights risks.

The Chocó is a biogeographical region that forms part of the neotropics (meaning that it contains the largest area of tropical rainforest). Its high rainfall levels, tropical temperatures and isolation have helped make it one of the world’s most biologically diverse regions as well. In Colombia it encompasses the Pacific Coast region and, among others, the department of Chocó, located between the jungles of Darién and the basins of the Atrato and San Juan Rivers.

The following article by Senator Jorge Enrique Robledo, translated by dear friends of La Chiva, describes the consequence of Canadian mining investment in Colombia (though it could be of any nationality, in any other country). Colombia Goldfields, a Canadian junior company operating under its Colombian subsidiary Mineras de Caldas, has for the past several years threatened to destroy an historic community of small miners through large-scale extraction.