Photo: PBI-Colombia accompanies the CSPP and COSPACC, organizations that supported the U’wa community impacted by Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc. in 2011.

Canada has been involved in oil and gas in Colombia since the 1920s, but significant changes have been seen in the last twenty years.

New regulations for oil companies, 2001

Montreal-based author Yves Engler has written: “In the late 1990s, Canada’s aid agency supported petroleum legislation reform, which benefited Canadian firms.”

IPS has also reported: “The drafting of Colombia’s laws governing oil and mining has come under scrutiny from trade unionists and human rights activists, who allege that CIDA, the Canadian International Development Agency, helped write the legislation to advance the interests of Canadian companies operating in the country.”

And NACLA has explained: “In 2001, the Colombian government established new regulations that no longer required foreign companies to enter into a 50-50 production partnership with Ecopetrol, allowing private companies to keep up to 70% of the oil they extracted from new fields—even more in incremental production contracts for existing fields.”

That article adds: “[The Colombian government] also extended the length of time that foreign companies retained production rights and dramatically lowered the amount they had to pay the government in royalties on their percentage of oil production. Before the new regulations, Colombia demanded a Latin American high of 20% in royalties, but the new rules included a sliding scale under which most of Colombia’s oil fields—under 5,000 barrels a day—only required an 8% royalty payment as described earlier.”

One of the first companies to secure a contract under these new terms was Calgary-based Petrobank Energy and Resources.

Speaking about the energy and mining legislation, Francisco Ramirez, president of SINTRAMINERCOL, stated: “The new code flexibilized environmental regulations, diminished labour guarantees for workers and opened the property of afro-Colombian and indigenous people to exploitation.”

And Scott Price, a spokesperson for the Calgary-based oil and gas company Solana Resources, stated: “We think the fiscal legislation governing oil exploration [in Colombia] is very attractive, far more attractive than what is being offered in Canada.”

The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, 2011

Canadian oil companies were also interested in the passage of the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

In May 2008, nine members of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce called on the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper to move forward with the deal. Three of them were representatives of oil companies, all of them based in Calgary. The agreement was signed by November 2008.

It then came into effect on August 15, 2011.

Canadian oil and gas companies in Colombia

By November 2011, PBI-Colombia reported on oil exploration being conducted by Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc. on U’wa territory in Casanare.

It commented: “It is impossible to deny the drastic environmental and cultural effects the oil industry could have on a culture like that of the U’wa.”

PBI-Colombia further cautioned: “In addition to the obvious effects of seismic exploration, the arrival of oil companies would also entail felling trees; building platforms, pools, wells, stations and oil pipelines and roads; depleting water sources; pollution from spills and waste; particles in the air; and noise and light from natural gas combustion.”

By July 2016, the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR) co-authored the report The Human Cost of Oil: A Human Rights Impact Assessment on the Activities of Pacific Exploration & Production Corp. in Puerto Gaitan.

The CCAJAR report concluded: “In its activities in the Rubiales and Quifa fields, Pacific has failed to comply with labor, environmental and consultation standards.”

It also noted: “Oil activities are indirectly related to abuses and criminalization suffered by trade union and community leaders as a result of the conduct of its private security company and funding of law enforcement agencies.”

By 2017, Pacific Exploration & Production Corp. had changed its name to Frontera Energy Inc., a company that is still active in Colombia.

$8 billion of Canadian energy assets in Colombia

In 2018, Canadian energy assets abroad (CEAA) totaled $233 billion. Natural Resources Canada has noted: “The top five countries by CEAA value are the United States ($190 billion), Colombia ($8 billion), Germany ($6 billion), Mexico ($6 billion) and France ($4 billion).”

While still significant, Canadian energy assets abroad totalled $149.7 billion in 2014, with $10.3 billion of that in Colombia.

In June 2019, Gustavo Galvis, a Bogota-based representative of Export Development Canada, wrote: “At one point, Canada was one of the largest investors in [the oil and gas] sector in Colombia. One of the reasons is because there’s a lot of similarities between the Alberta foothills and the Colombian geography.”

Still, Galvis highlights: “Today, some of the most important companies in exploration and production in Colombia are Canadian.”

At present, those Canadian “operators” include Calgary-based Parex Resources Inc., Toronto-based Frontera Energy Inc., Calgary-based Canacol Energy Ltd., Toronto-based Sintana Energy, and Calgary-based Gran Tierra Energy Inc.

New profits from fracking?

Claudio Ramirez, Canadian Trade Commissioner for Colombia, has highlighted “key sectors and growth trends” for Canadian investment including oil and gas.

Ramirez notes: “Oil and gas: Colombian resources are depleting fast, so there’s a push to increase exploration through the auction of new blocks. Technologies related to oil recovery and mature fields are much sought after, as well as in the development of unconventional resources, like fracking and deep-water exploration.”

Oilprice.com has reported that Ecopetrol estimates that Colombia may have up to 12 billion barrels of recoverable shale oil.

At least three Canadian companies – Parex, Canacol and Sintana – have expressed interest in fracking in Colombia.

Monitoring and documenting concerns

PBI-Canada continues to monitor human rights concerns in relation to these oil and gas companies in Colombia.

Toronto-based Continental Gold’s Buriticá mine in the department of Antioquia.

Canada has a strong presence in Colombia’s mining sector.

In 2019, according to Natural Resources Canada, 23 Canadian mining companies held assets there totalling $1.38 billion. And the Colombian National Agency of Mining has stated Canadian companies hold 42 mining titles for copper, silver and gold. 

The Trade Commissioner Service, a division of Global Affairs Canada that supports Canadian companies, has also identified mining as a priority area which it defines as “where Canadian capabilities and interest match local opportunities and demand.”

This investment environment has significantly been shaped by the 2001 Mining Code (Law 658/01); the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, ratified in 2011; and the Framework for Cooperation in Natural Resources, signed by Natural Resources Canada and Colombia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy in March 2016 at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention in Toronto.

Notably, the Canada Colombia Chamber of Investment and Trade hosted the PDAC – Mining Opportunities in Colombia 2021 virtual event this past March that featured the Colombian Minister of Mines and Energy, Diego Mesa Puyo, and the President of the National Mining Agency, Juan Manuel Duran Prieto.

Minister Mesa highlighted in his presentation that the Fraser Institute’s annual survey of mining companies in 2020 ranked Colombia first in the Investment Attraction Index in Latam. He also noted that Colombia is working on a “new mining model” and with respect to “legality and security” pointed to the “protocol with the Ministry of Defense”.

Controversies

There have been controversies with respect to Canadian mining interests in Colombia.

In 2006, Francisco Ramirez Cuellar, president of SINTRAMINERCOL, Colombia’s State Mine Workers Union, told the Inter Press Service that the involvement of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in the 2001 Mining Code constituted a “Canadian manipulation to benefit foreign companies to the detriment of Colombians” and that it “flexibilised environmental regulations, diminished labour guarantees for workers and opened the property of afro-Colombian and indigenous people to exploitation.”

Then on September 2, 2011, Father José Reinel Restrepo was murdered reportedly because of his opposition to the Toronto-based Gran Colombia Gold proposal for a vast open pit mine that would destroy the town of Marmato, Caldas.

Fr. Javier Giraldo has stated he believes Fr. Restrepo was murdered by paramilitary groups “secretly co-opted by the armed forces and by the government security agencies” who “do not hesitate to murder the leaders of this resistance.”

In 2016, Vancouver-based Eco Oro Minerals Corp. sued the Colombian government for $764 million after its Angostura gold concession in Santander was reduced following a constitutional court ruling and new regulations that expanded wetland protections.

And in December 2019, the Walrus reported that Gran Colombia Gold is involved in an investor-state challenge under the free trade agreement  that accuses the Colombian government of failing to protect the company’s investment from “illegal miners” stealing gold ore from inside the company’s mining title near Segovia, Antioquia.

Mining in Antioquia

Prominent in a list of concessions near Ituango, Antioquia are Vancouver-based Cordoba Minerals (with 11 concessions), Toronto-based Continental Gold (with 4 concessions) along with its subsidiary CGL Berlin with 1 concession in the area.

Some of the Canadian mining projects in Antioquia also reportedly include the Toronto-based Antioquia Gold Cisneros mine, the Vancouver-based Red Eagle Mining San Ramón mine, and the Gran Colombia Gold Segovia and Marmato mines.

Two Canadian mines not yet in production in the area include the Continental Gold Buriticá mine and the Vancouver-based B2Gold Corp. Gramalote mine.

PBI-Colombia accompanies the Humanitarian Action Corporation for Coexistence and Peace in Northeast Antioquia (Cahucopana).

PBI-Colombia has noted: “Many of the people Cahucopana works with involved in artisanal gold mining. Parallel to small-scale gold mining, which has been an important economic activity for generations, large mining companies backed by the national government have begun to implement large-scale commercial mining projects.”

It further cautions: “As a result, social conflicts and armed violence in the area have intensified. Instead of bringing wealth, the precarious health and education situation and the lack of social investment and employment have worsened further. The systematic violation of the human rights of local communities is complemented by the deterioration of local ecosystems due to the effects on the environment caused, above all, by large-scale mining.”

Earlier this month, PBI-Colombia accompanied the Corporation for Judicial Freedom (CJL) and leaders of Ituango at a virtual meeting with the Embassy of Canada in Colombia to discuss the humanitarian crisis in the area, a situation compounded by the construction of the Canadian-financed Ituango hydroelectric dam.

PBI-Canada continues to follow this situation with concern.

Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN) video of Francisco Ramirez Cuellar speaking in Canada, May 2012.

On August 20, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project posted: “Our Social Fabric Reconstruction Support Team is in Valle del Cauca at the Memory School alongside the Movement of Victims of State Crimes and Collective Lawyers. We are honored to share this space of commemoration and resilience.”

PBI-Colombia has previously explained that the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR), the Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE) and the Standing Committee for Human Rights (CPDH) have been developing regional formation processes that center memory as a key element in peacebuilding and non-repetition.

PBI, through its Reconstruction of Social Fabric (ARTS) team, has accompanied this process since it began 2016.

It has been estimated that 261,619 people were killed between 1958 and 2018 as a direct result of the armed conflict of which 214,584 were civilians. Earlier this year, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) inquiry found that 6,402 civilians were killed by the military between 2002 and 2008 and falsely passed off as enemy combatants.

CCAJAR has written: “Let’s build memory so that it is not nipped, this is and continues to be the motto of the School of Memory.”

And MOVICE has highlighted: “From our experience we consider that state crimes are mainly those perpetrated by State agents, or by non-State agents (such as paramilitary groups) acting in complicity with, or whose crimes are tolerated by, the State.”

“We consider that the majority of the crimes against social and popular movements in Colombia are the result of political and economic interests. In this context, this sociopolitical and State violence was not born as a result of the internal armed conflict but is rather a root cause of the conflict.”

And it notes: “MOVICE has adopted a clear political posture that emerged from the crimes committed against the popular and social movement in Colombia [were done] in favour of the interests of the dominant classes and transnational companies.”

In the PBI video below, Andrés Felipe Blackborn, the coordinator of the Memory Schools, explains: “The schools manage four lines: the first is the truth and historical memory from the victims’ point of view. The second has to do with effective participation. The third is about the understanding of the Peace Agreements or the pedagogies of the Peace Agreements. And the fourth is protection and self-care.”

He adds: “At this point PBI comes in, to accompany very concrete spaces at the time and to observe some psychosocial cares.”

For more on this, please see the 3-minute video 2016: Escuelas de la Memoria – para que la Historia nunca se repita.

RCMP photo: A Canadian police trainer in Colombia, March 6, 2017.

The Colombian police have been implicated in 195 acts of aggression against journalists and 35 sexual assaults since the national strike began in April. We ask for clarity on the relationship between Canadian and Colombian police.

In January 2017, the CBC reported: “Canada will contribute up to 10 police officers to the international effort to demobilize guerilla groups and monitor the ceasefire in Colombia, CBC News has learned.”

That article adds: “Some of the officers are expected to be under the United Nations flag, while others would be part of a bilateral deployment, working directly with the South American country’s national police force.”

Several months later, on October 30, 2017, the Canadian Press reported on a “bilateral police initiative” between Canada and Colombia.

At that time, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated: “We’ve agreed to work together to establish a bilateral police initiative. This effort will support post-conflict policing efforts in Colombia, and will see Canadian police providing training, capacity-building, and strategic advice to our Colombian friends.”

That article noted: “Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale was reportedly briefed last year on a proposal to contribute up to 10 police officers to peace efforts in Colombia, but it wasn’t clear whether the bilateral deployment was a part of that plan.”

An October 2017 Backgrounder from Global Affairs Canada further noted: “The governments of Canada and Colombia are developing a bilateral police initiative to support police capacity building for the post-conflict environment in Colombia.”

It adds: “Through the CPA [Canadian Police Arrangement], Canadian police will deploy to Colombia to provide training, capacity building and strategic advice to the National Police of Colombia and the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia.”

And it notes: “The areas of focus under discussion include police capacities and needs related to improving citizen security in rural Colombia in the post-conflict context, with a focus on gender.”

That Backgrounder differentiates the “Bilateral Police Initiative between Canadian and Colombian Police” from the “Canadian Police Participation in the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia”.

With respect to the latter program, it noted: “Canada deployed two police officers as observers to the first United Nations Mission in Colombia in February 2017. That mission has transitioned to a second: the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia.”

Subsequent to that, on November 15, 2017, this statement from Prime Minister Trudeau again noted: “Up to 10 police officers are also being deployed to Colombia to contribute to UN efforts to support the peace process and to help strengthen Colombian police capacity in the post-conflict environment.”

Human rights violations by Colombian police

In June of this year, Human Rights Watch stated: “Members of the Colombian National Police have committed egregious abuses against mostly peaceful demonstrators in protests that began in April 2021.”

Human Rights Watch further notes: “On May 14, the Ombudsperson’s Office reported 2 cases of rape, 14 cases of sexual assault, and 71 other cases of gender-based violence by police officers, including slapping and verbal abuse.”

José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, says: “These brutal abuses are not isolated incidents by rogue officers, but rather the result of systemic shortcomings of the Colombian police.”

PSOPs and Canadian police

Last month, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Marc Garneau spoke with Colombia’s Vice-President Marta Lucía Ramírez and announced over $3 million in new Peace and Stabilization Operations Program (PSOP) funding.

While there is no indication this funding will further support collaboration between Canadian and Colombian police, the Government of Canada has explained: “PSOPs plays a key role in deploying Canadian police officers from participating police services across Canada to multilateral peace operations and other stabilization-related missions.”

Given the concerns about gender-based violence and human rights violations by the Colombian police, PBI-Canada is seeking further information about the relationships between Canadian and Colombian police.

On July 8, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project accompanied the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in the twenty-first anniversary commemoration of the massacre in the village of La Unión in 2000.

The Peace Community is located more than 700 kilometres northwest of Bogota in the mountainous northern region in the department of Antioquia.

On March 23, 1997, the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado was formed. The farming community declared itself neutral in the armed conflict and rejected the presence of all the armed groups in its territory.

PBI-Colombia began accompanying the Peace Community in 1999.

PBI-Colombia notes: “21 years ago, PBI accompanied the families of the victims in the village of La Union. The day before, on July 8th, 2000, members of the Peace Community, Rigoberto Guzman, Elodino Rivera, Diofanor Correa, Humberto Sepulveda, Jaime Guzman and Pedro Zapata were assassinated by paramilitaries.”

That article adds: “According to Father Javier Giraldo, who has accompanied the community from its beginnings, this massacre was not the product of confrontations in the midst of the armed conflict, nor was it a war crime.  This massacre was planned and carried out with a single and indisputable objective: to wipe out the Peace Community.”

On the twentieth anniversary of its formation in 2017, the Peace Community stated that 326 of its members had been murdered and that more than 4,000 human rights violations had been committed against the community.

Earlier this year, Yes! magazine reported: “The Peace Community, in addition to suffering [a] new wave of violence [after the peace agreement in 2016], is also under the threat of losing their communal land from a state project of agrarian reform, according to Germán Romero, a lawyer with dhColombia, a nonprofit organization in charge of representing the community in court to seek justice for the violence they have experienced.”

PBI-Colombia says: “PBI will stand by the Community in this dignified struggle until they have security guarantees and the life they long for and deserve.”

To read the full PBI-Colombia article on this, click here.