A few days ago, in Caramant, in the Colombian department of Antioquia, democracy clashed against the power of the transnational corporations. The Municipal Constituent Assembly was hindered, attacked and pushed so as to not carry out the session and prevent them from expressing the impacts of the mining activity on the municipality by the Mayor Juan Guillermo Valencia.

B2 Gold had been requested to appear in the session of May 16th. B2 Gold is a transnational company which owns almost half of the territory of the municipality and exploits gold deposits. The assembly and the communities were demanding an explanation about the magnitude, length, importance, impacts and potential benefits of the mining exploitation. In spite of the fact that the mining company agreed to participate in the assembly, the transnational didn´t show up in the democratic space created in 2001.

At the beginning of the session, the police “came into the scene”. The Dean of the education centre which served as venue and the Commander of the National Police of the municipality, with the direct order of the Mayor, decided to abort the meeting for considering it “a political act”.

As people didn´t want to leave, the authorities decided to give it a “clean break”: the sound equipments were disconnected and the electric power was shut down. But the members of the assembly knew they were right and carried out the session despite it all, with the presence of the authorities and a great number of social organizations like Consejo Ciudadano, CENSAT Agua Viva, ASAP Caramanta and the Youth Network of Medellin, among others. These organizations jointly stated after the attacks that “the goal of these participatory spaces, instead of political proselytism is to inform on the environmental and social impacts caused by the intervention of the mining multinational companies in the region”.

From, Malaga, Santander, María Estela Sandoval, member of CENSAT-Agua Viva told Real World Radio the context of the clash between Caramanta communities and the corporate power of the mining transnational company.

The Colombian activist stated that without light and a proper sound system, the communities expressed their disagreement with the gold project, which is controlling 50 per cent of Caramanta´s territory, bought through different front men.

Sandoval also said that in spite the company didn´t show up at the public forum, it was meeting with high officials at the same time.