Introduction

‘Jorge Enrique’, not his real name, sits across from me in a restaurant of his choosing with maps and newsletters. He is one of two leaders of Eccoterra, a local group opposed to the development of a mine in and around Cajamarca, Tolima Department, Colombia, by AngloGold Ashanti, the South African mining giant. There are several opposition groups in the towns surrounding the Tolima capital of Ibagué but the ones I am introduced to are Eccoterra and Comité Ambiental de Cajamarca.

That Jorge Enrique had been fighting for nine years to preserve a community he was displaced from as a child struck me. It reminded me of something an older man had said to me the day before. A member of the Comité had almost joked when he said, ‘It is no longer going to be said that time is gold, but that time is water.’ The proposed mine was having a significant effect on the way local environmental and human rights defenders (‘E-HRDs’ or ‘defenders’) were spending their lives. The Comité member viewed both water and time as precious, but to protect the water they had to sacrifice their time.

I visited Ibagué in May 2016 to examine the impact of the intended La Colosa mine, whose trailings (mine waste) would reportedly flow from Cajamarca through Ibagué and into another village, Piedres. Literally translating to ‘the Colossus mine’, it was expected to be the largest gold mine in Latin America.