In 2014, the peace movement PAX releases a report on the paramilitary violence that occurred in Cesar between 1996 and 2006 – a region of northern Colombia in which Glencore owns two mines through its subsidiary Prodeco [see 1995].1
In that period there were over 3,000 killings and forced disappearances attributable to the Juan Andrés Álvarez Front, a paramilitary group operating in the region around the mines.2 Testimony from Prodeco security staff and paramilitary commanders alleges that Prodeco directly funded the JAA Front, and bought land for the expansion of the mine from paramilitaries who had violently seized it from its occupants. Furthermore, it is alleged that Prodeco security staff infiltrated mining trade unions and shared the information they gathered with the army and the JAA Front – who regularly assassinated trade unionists. The testimony alleges that this was done in collaboration with Drummond Co., a US-based mining group that operate a coal mine nearby.3 Glencore claim these allegations are untrue and unsubstantiated.4 Drummond have since been charged by the Colombian courts with complicity in gross human rights violations.5
Problems with Prodeco continued: In 2016 Glencore was fined 60 billion pesos by the Colombian Financial Control Office over an investment treaty dispute, which was later overturned by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.6 By 2021, Glencore announced that it would leave Calenturitas and La Jagua. The group says that it is “proud to have…supported the important Peace Process in Colombia.”7
1 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
2 The Dark Side of Coal, pg. 22.
3 The Dark Side of Coal, pg. 56-78.
4 The Dark Side of Coal, pg. 90.
5 PAX, “Top-level Drummond managers charged with financing paramilitaries,” Jan 13, 2021, https://www.paxforpeace.nl/stay-informed/news/top-level-drummond-managers-charged-with-financing-paramilitaries
6 Enrique Prieto-Rios and René Urueña, “ Glencore contra Colombia : una condena agridulce,” RazonPublica, September 9, 2019, https://www.razonpublica.com/index.php/econom-y-sociedad-temas-29/12260-glencore-contra-colombia-una-condena-agridulce.html
7“Glencore subsidiary Prodeco to hand over mining contracts to Colombia,” Mining Technology, February 5, 2021, https://www.mining-technology.com/news/glencore-subsidiary-prodeco-mining-contracts-colombia/