Colombian court slams the brakes on mining corporation

[rabs]

It's the Constitutional Court on a roll again. The one that shut the door on uribito's bid for a third term and the same one that is looking into the legality of the U.S./Uribe bases accord.

Today, the court ordered the Muriel Mining Corporation to cease all operations in northern Colombia, near The Darien region. The company mines copper, gold and other minerals in a large swath of jungle. The company relies on the Colombian military for protection.

The court sais the company had not consulted with indigenous and afro-colombians who live in the region about the project, as required by law and that ecological studies about the effects of the mining had yet to be finalized.

The Muriel Mining Corporation appears to be based in either Canada or the United States. Only murky info turned up for me on Google but the contract in Colombian is for 30 years.

For readers of Spanish, the CC's ruling today in Bogota:

http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/justicia/suspenden-explotacion-en-complejo-minero-del-choco_7468487-1

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Background:

Colombia: Militarized mining tramples ancestral rights of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities in the Chocó

The Chocó is a biogeographical region that forms part of the neotropics (meaning that it contains the largest area of tropical rainforest). Its high rainfall levels, tropical temperatures and isolation have helped make it one of the world’s most biologically diverse regions as well. In Colombia it encompasses the Pacific Coast region and, among others, the department of Chocó, located between the jungles of Darién and the basins of the Atrato and San Juan Rivers.

For centuries, this region has been inhabited by Embera indigenous communities and the Afro-Colombian communities of the Jiguamiandó River basin, who are now threatened by a mining project. In 2005, the Colombian government granted U.S.-based Muriel Mining Corporation a 30-year concession for the mining of copper, gold, molybdenum and other minerals (the Mandé Norte mining project) in an area encompassing 11,000 hectares of indigenous and Afro-Colombian territory in the municipalities of Murindó (Antioquía) and Carmen del Darién (Chocó). This area has already been hit by the violence of numerous Colombian army operations backed by paramilitary groups, which resulted in repeated displacement of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities.




More:

http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/139/Colombia.html

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and more

So who is this Muriel Mining Corporation?
Muriel Mining Corporation is a very mysterious company with a seemingly bad reputation when it comes to human rights.

When looking for Muriel on the internet you get a lot of hits, but all are websites mentioning Muriel Mining, the company itself doesn't seem to have a website of its own.

According to the Colombia Support Network, the company is from Colorado, but browsing through the yellow pages leaves you nowhere. No address, no phone number, nothing.


The company is mentioned on the Portfolio website, a Colombian economic magazine, that says its office is in Medellín. No phone number in the Medellín yellow pages though.

When googling the company, the only thing you find is a continuous row of accusations of human rights organizations of the company financing paramilitary groups, torture, responsibility in the murder of 85 people in Urabá in the 1990's, etc.

It seems the only time Muriel Mining seems to do business is when there's some exploitation to be done and locals need to be shut up.


Good article here

http://www.colombiareports.com/opinion/107-human-rights/2631-muriel-mining-modern-conquistadores.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Thanks for providing info. on this mining company. I hope to find out more about it.

Very strange learning it's militarized, rabs.

Also reprehensible is the way they acquired their property.

We've seen this happen before, it's so sad to admit.

A democratic government wouldn't have allowed this.

So it's unknown at the time exactly where the hell the company is headquartered. They clearly have a lot they want to conceal.