EL CERREJÓN — The largest open pit coal mine in the world lies in Colombia. Health damage caused both to its workers and the communities – silicosis disease among them – is peremptory and alarming.
Mineral coal is one of the main sources of energy in the world and the main cause of global warming due to the gases emitted during its combustion. The balance is not easy between Colombia, the largest coal producer in Latin America, and Germany, the largest coal consumer in the EU.
In both Germany and Colombia, coal mining plays a significant economic role as it is an important source of wealth, but it is also the cause of the destruction of communities and natural spaces and the displacement and persecution of thousands of people.
For several decades, the Colombian State, informally and manipulating the law, has ceded to international industrial conglomerates, Swiss giant Glencore among them, the territories which belong to indigenous communities. Essentially, it offers the possibility of exploiting natural resources with the minimum demands for environmental care and/or protection of human health. Our investigation ( text + pictures) expores how the coal industry affects respective countries in a very unequal way.
With the support of Journalism Fund Europe and Leica Mexico, with the Leica Q2
Pictures : Anita Pouchard Serra
Text : Rocío Periago y G Jaramillo Rojas
Emilio Pérez, Ines Pérez's father, who suffered Police violence during the expulsion of Tabaco, shows the mine El Cerrejon from the window of the new family house in Albania, La Guajira, Colombia on July 2023.
View of the mine " El Cerrejon" in Hatonuevo, La Guajira, Colombia on July 2023.
Emilio Pérez, Ines Pérez's father, who suffered Police violence during the expulsion of Tabaco, poses for a portrait in the new family house in Albania, La Guajira, Colombia on July 2023.
Tags against the coal mines in the streets of Aachen, Germany, on August 2023. Anita Pouchard Serra with Journalism Fund.
A gigantic shovel from a machine used in mine excavation at Energeticon Museum, Alsdorf, Germany on August 2023.
Inés Pérez, legal representative of the Junta Social Proreubicación de Tabaco at her home in Albania, La Guajira, Colombia on July 2023.
View of outside the house of Inés Pérez's family, legal representative of the Junta Social Proreubicación de Tabaco at her home in Albania, La Guajira, Colombia on July 2023.
Tabaco, a small Afro-American and peasant village in southern La Guajira, was violently evicted by El Cerrejon mining company in August 2011.
Traditionnal dancers during the closing show of the Wayu games organized by the community in the " Resguardo indigena El Provincial", Barrancas, La Guajira, Colombia on July 2023.
View of the old and abandonned church in the village of Manheim, abandoned as the mine company RWE needs space around the project in Etzweiler, once they will be closing the infrastructure of the mine, in Manheim, Germany on August 2023.
Wayu games organized by the community in the " Resguardo indigena El Provincial", Barrancas, La Guajira, Colombia on July 2023.
Old mine equipement in the exhibition at Energeticon Museum, Alsdorf, Germany on August 2023.
Paul Breuer speaks all the time in the past tense: it seems that coal is something that ceased to exist decades ago when the mines closed down. However, a 30-minute drive away, in the mines of Garzweiler, Hambach and Inden, it is something that still determines the lives of many people.
Paul Breuer, 71 years old, english guide poses for a portrait at Energeticon Museum, Alsdorf, Germany on August 2023.
A publicity of RWE talks about "future" at the Lookout Jackerath Garzweiler Skywalk, Juchen, Germany on August 2023.
A young couple enjoy the view of the RWE mine site at Etzweiler from the Terranova Vantage Point, in Etzweiler, Germany on August 2023..
A giant truck of the mine " El Cerrejon" exposed on the main road in Barrancas, La Guajira, Colombia on July 2023.
A miner's helmet with key ring and bottle opener on sale in the musem shop at Energeticon Museum, Alsdorf, Germany on August 2023.
View of a tree in the process of being transformed naturaly in coal, exhibited at Energeticon Museum, Alsdorg, Germany on August 2023.
Eckhardt Heukamp, farmer of 58 years old and deplaced by the growth of the mine, in the camping car of his friend, in Erkelenz, Germany on August 2023.
The yellow cross is the symbol of the activism against the mine in the region , in the garden of the provisory house of the farmer Eckhardt Heukamp, after his land has been taken by the mine, in Erkelenz, Germany on August 2023.
Eckhardt Heukamp has become a familiar face in the resistance to the advance of the RWE power company in the Rheinisches Braunkohlerevier region in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
A closed letter box in the abandonned zone of Keyenberg, due to the growth of the RWE Mine around, in Keyenberg, Erkelenz, Germany, on August 2023.
A sign of a street in Keyenberg (neu), the new city of Keyenberg, after the inhabitants have to leave the old one. The streets have the same name, with the " neu" ( new) word attached, to make the difference. In Keyenberg (neu), Erkelenz, Germany on July 2023.
Old house of the family from the Wayu community " El Espinal" abandoned because of the growth of El Cerrejon mining company in Hatonuevo, La Guajira, Colombia on July 2023.
Despite being a project planned to the millimeter, the expansion of the mines in Germany to extract lignite from the subsoil has put enormous pressure on thousands of people.
View of the old street where the family house of Eva Rüttgers took place in the former village of Manheim, abandoned as the mine company RWE needs space around the project in Etzweiler, once they will be closing the infrastructure of the mine, in Manheim, Germany on August 2023.
Mayra Quintero and her daugther, in their courtyard in the " Resguardo indigena El Provincial", Barrancas, La Guajira, Colombia on July 2023.
Jose Carlos Quintero, is going to plunge into the Ranchería river, between the mine and the " Resguardo indigena El Provincial", Barrancas, La Guajira, Colombia on July 2023
"I don't know how to swim. When I was three or four years old, my grandmother dreamed that I drowned. The Wayuu believe a lot in dreams and that's why they forbade me to go near the river. My son, on the other hand, seems more from the water than from the land. I don't have a problem with that, but he gets hives and rashes all the time. They are horrible allergies caused by his constant bathing in the river," says Mayra, her voice barely audible, thanks to the invariable industrial hum.
Collective space outside the houses in the Wayu Community El Espinal, in Hatonuevo, La Guajira, Colombia on July 2023.
Dilvania (42), Nellys Beatriz (45), Yolanda Cecilia(51), in their old house of the family from the Wayu community " El Espinal" abandoned because of the growth of El Cerrejon mining company in Hatonuevo, La Guajira, Colombia on July 2023.
Daily life scene around Mayra Quintero'house in the " Resguardo indigena El Provincial", Barrancas, La Guajira, Colombia on July 2023.