In November 2000, a consortium representing Glencore, BHP and AngloAmerican buys a 50% stake in the Cerrejón mine, a coal mine in La Guajira, northern Colombia.1 The consortium, which would go on to take full control of the project in 2002, undertakes multiple large expansion projects. These violent expansions into the lands of the indigenous Wayúu communities and those of African descent in La Guajira are devastating. Entire communities are forcibly evicted to make way for the mine, rivers that provide drinking water are diverted, and those that are left are contaminated with toxic heavy metals leaching out from the mine.2 For more, see the BHP profile page.
1 Christian Aid, Undermining Human Rights: Ireland, the ESB and Cerrejón coal, February 2020, pg. 19-22, available frm https://www.christianaid.ie/resources/undermining-human-rights-ireland-esb-and-cerrejon-coal
2 Ibid, p. 10