In 1995, Glencore acquires Prodeco, a Colombian coal-mining group that owns the Calenturitas concession in the Cesar region of northern Colombia. Production begins in 2004, and is significantly expanded by the acquisition and integration of the nearby La Jagua mine.1 The residents of La Jagua see very little of the coal riches, and so in 2007 protest against the mine, the suspension of public works, the mistreatment of workers, and the lack of social investment.2
As is typical for a Glencore operation, mining at Calenturitas was marked by violence and repression – there are wide ranging allegations, documented by PAX, that Glencore Prodeco was complicit in the violence of paramilitary death squads that ravaged Cesar [see 2014 for more].3
1 “Our History”, Groupo Prodeco, http://www.grupoprodeco.com.co/en/who-we-are/our-history/
2 Observatorio de Conflictos Ambientales, “Graves disturbios en La Jagua de Ibirico,” https://conflictos-ambientales.net/oca_bd/actions/view/622
3 Marianne Moor and Joris van de Sandt for PAX, “The Dark Side of Coal: Paramilitary Violence in the Mining Region of Cesar, Colombia,”, June 2014, https://www.paxforpeace.nl/publications/all-publications/the-dark-side-of-coal