KFTC and Witness For Peace have joined together over the last three years to forge closer connections between coal-affected community members and miners in Appalachia and in Colombia. Foreign corporations, mainly U.S. ones, mine millions of tons of coal in Colombia every year, even though Colombia does not use coal for its own electricity. And, 80% of coal mined in Colombia is exported to the United States. To bolster this exchange, every year Colombians visit Kentucky and KFTC members visit Colombia. 

Join this year's tour!

As a part of an Earth Day commemoration, KFTC member Randy Wilson will discuss the connections between Eastern Kentucky, where he lives, and a region in Colombia affected by the coal industry on Monday, April 18^th at Bellarmine University in Louisville. Randy will talk about the impacts of the coal industry on people, culture, and the environment.

Randy will also give hope by presenting solutions that Kentuckians and Colombians are working towards. He'll describe organizing efforts in Lynch, Kentucky and the creation of a completely sustainable community called Gaviotas in a violent and decimated region of Colombia.

Join Randy to hear this presentation in the Hilary meeting room in Horigan Hall at 9 a.m. on April 18.

Randy visited Colombia last year on a Witness For Peace tour that KFTC co-sponsored. KFTC and Witness For Peace have joined together over the last three years to forge closer connections between coal-affected community members and miners in Appalachia and in Colombia. Foreign corporations, mainly U.S. ones, mine millions of tons of coal in Colombia every year, even though Colombia does not use coal for its own electricity. And, 80% of coal mined in Colombia is exported to the United States. To bolster this exchange, every year Colombians visit Kentucky and KFTC members visit Colombia. Learn more at kftc.org/colombia.

KFTC and Witness For Peace have joined together over the last three years to forge closer connections between coal-affected community members and miners in Appalachia and in Colombia. Foreign corporations, mainly American ones, mine millions of tons of coal in Colombia every year, even though Colombia does not use coal for its own electricity. And, 80% of coal mined in Colombia is exported to the United States. To bolster this exchange, every year Colombians visit Kentucky and KFTC members visit Colombia.

Coal miners Raul Sosa and Jose Brito, members of Colombian coal mining unions representing workers at American-owned Drummond coal company and multi-national Cerrejon coal company, visited Kentucky in October. KFTC and Witness For Peace co-sponsored the trip as a part of an ongoing Appalachia-Colombia exchange. 

Unionists in Colombia face increasingly numbers of violence and threats from private security forces hired by foreign extraction companies, many of which are American. Raul was fired from Drummond after working as a union leader. As some of his union leader colleagues have been murdered over the last few years, he fears for his personal safety.

Raul and Jose meet with Kentucky coal miners and KFTC members in Whitesburg.

During their time in Kentucky, Raul and Jose toured eastern, western and central parts of the state. They visited a mountaintop removal site, spoke with community members and miners about the impacts of coal mining, toured an underground mine in Henderson, Kentucky and visited the Cane Run coal ash dump with directly affected KFTC member Jes Deis. 

Raul, Jose, Amy and Darrell Shelton, 4 miles down into an underground mine

In Whitesburg, a KFTC member asked Jose and Raul whether they thought surface or underground mining was worse for health and the environment. Jose's responded, "All types of coal mining are bad...We shouldn't argue over whether underground mining or surface mining is worse for the environment. We need to focus on the fact that we have shared struggles against a common enemy - transnational corporations that don't have our interests at heart."

Jose and Raul also spoke to crowds in Bowling Green and Louisville. During their talks, they detailed human rights abuses inflicted on coal miners and community members in Colombia and discussed their vision for a better future. Jose mentioned sustainable agriculture and wind generation companies as two possible economic development opportunities for his community. He focused on the shared struggle that Kentuckians have with Colombians in working towards these solutions.

"It's time we start thinking together like brothers and sisters. What we have to do is learn how it is that we can live together in this world, how we can live in balance with nature, with people."

If we all come together there are solutions out there we can find. We have taken one of the first steps - we have admitted the problem and we are now walking the same path to find the solution."

Learn more about the Appalachia - Colombia connection here. You can join the delegation to Colombia next year!

Daira and her translator at Old Louisville Coffee Shop

Afro-Colombian human rights activist Daira Elsa Quinones visited Kentucky in October to speak out about the impacts of foreign corporations seeking natural resources in her home country. The tour was sponsored by Witness For Peace.

Daira was brutally removed from her home village by private militia hired by extractive-industry companies. She has endured multiple death threats against her and her family for her work fighting for human rights. During her visit to Kentucky, Daira told crowds about how the brutality, threats and murders inflicted on her people by multi-national and American corporations seeking Colombian natural resources inspires her to work even harder against the oppression.

"Everyday I feel stronger, I feel a great responsibility to do something about these problems - and it is not just Colombia. These problems exist in countries across the world."

She called on all of us to join the effort, saying "We all have a responsibility to work for a world that is more just. We are all human beings - the only way to go forward is to unite and work for a more just world. This is the only way this world will change. These politics are affecting all of us."

To bolster the exchange, KFTC member Cari Moore of Knott County, spoke with Daira at several events. Cari visited villages near where Daira used to live on Witness For Peace's recent tour to Colombia in July 2010, entitled "The People Behind the Coal in Appalachia and Colombia." (To learn more about the Kentucky-Colombia exchange, click here).

Daira and Cari Moore

In her presentations, Cari discussed the cultural connections and the legacy of destruction by outsiders that is shared between her home of Appalachia and Daira's Colombia. After hearing Cari speak so eloquently about her home, Daira recognized their shared love of land and sense of place.

As a result of her connection with Cari, Daira chose to spend the only days she had open on her schedule in Kentucky - her "rest" days - traveling to Appalachia learning about the human rights struggles, the struggle for clean water and health, faced by Cari and others. After touring with several KFTC members and staying with Randy Wilson, Daira, just like Cari, found herself in love with Appalachia and yet torn by its destruction.

KFTC co-sponsored a few events during Daira's tour through Lexington, Bowling Green and Appalachian Kentucky as a part of our ongoing exchange with Colombia. Please learn more about the Kentucky and Colombia connection here. You can join the delegation to Colombia next year!

Raul Sosa and Jose Brito, members of unions representing workers at American-owned Drummond coal company and multi-national Cerrejon coal company, will speak about human rights abuses inflicted on coal miners and community members in Colombia. Last year, 80% of coal imported to the U.S. came from Colombia.*

Above: Cerrejon open pit mine in Colombia - the largest of its kind in the world.

Join us to hear this compelling presentation!

WHAT: Potluck dinner and presentation
WHERE: Casa Latina Catholic Worker
230 Woodbine Street, Louisville KY 40208
(502) 636-5461
WHEN: Thursday, October 28th at 6 p.m.

Colombia is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the hemisphere, and also the country with the highest levels of official and paramilitary violence, including forced displacement, killings of journalists, trade unionists, and human rights activists. Foreign corporations, including coal companies, are some of the major beneficiaries of this situation.

Raul Sosa worked at the Drummond for fifteen years until he and several other union leaders were unjustly fired on June 17, 2010. José Brito served two terms as the national secretary for health for the union representing miners at Cerrejon, during which time he helped initiate new studies on occupational health risks for mineworkers including exposure to carcinogenic substances and osteo-muscular disorders.

*Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration

This event is co-sponsored by Kentucky Interfaith Task Force on Latin America and the Carribean and Kentuckians For The Commonwealth. It is a part of an ongoing effort to facilitate an exchange between communities affected by the coal industry in Central Appalachia and Kentucky. For more information, visit www.kftc.org/colombia.

A delegation of 5 KFTC members - including Cari Moore - participated in a Witness for Peace trip, in July focused on "The People Behind the Coal in Appalachia and Colombia." This is one in a series of blog stories about the trip. Visit www.kftc.org/colombia or attend KFTC's Annual Meeting this weekend to learn more about our experiences there.

By KFTC Member Cari Moore (seen below, right with Avi Chomsky, trip leader, left)

Listening to residents from so called “coal fields” speak, some sentiments are consistent: “They have bought out our officials,” “Companies can respect the rights of workers, but they just aren’t,” “These companies do not fulfill their responsibility to people’s rights,” “What [the company] is doing, is against the law,” “[the industry] sold us the illusion, the mines were going to bring development.” “We’re basically giving them the wealth of our land,” and “They do not respect our environment or our history.”

As a resident of Appalachia- a region that is being exploited and sacrificed for coal- these quotes sound very familiar, but they did not come from my state, my region, nor even my country. They were all expressed by citizens of affected communities in Colombia, where the battle against coal is far younger, but no less intense nor destructive.

More than one resident expressed their dismay that Colombians had been promised economic and social growth by the coal industry, yet the companies had failed to deliver any such thing. Again and again we were told, “…they promised us prosperity.” One resident said of the unfulfilled promise, "years ago…[the industry] sold us the illusion, the mines were going to bring development. We haven’t seen social, economic or cultural development. Diseases, prostitution, crime, delinquency, corruption in government have all been increased by the mine, so yes, we’ve seen some development.”

Mining companies such as Cerrejon and Drummond, have been displacing members of Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities, sometimes violently and forcibly. The Indigenous Wayuu people of Tomaquito, who once had access to 5,000 hectares of land, are now limited to a mere 10, due to nearby mining operations. Driven out by encroaching pollution, and the loss of resources and land, the residents are awaiting relocation by the company, Cerrejon. During their negotiations, the people asked for only 500 hectares of land- 10 times less than what they once laid claim to- and the company denied this request. The community’s second request was for 300 hectares, which was originally declined, as well.

Tamaquito Village

The people of Tomaquito do not use electricity, no one in the community works for the company, they have a deep connection to the land on which they are living- it is home to them- and will now be moved to a strange land that will be somewhere between 16 and 17 times smaller than their original communities- so where is the profit for them? Like the Wayuu, many other communities are full of residents who feel they had been dealing with the sacrifices, but reaping few if any benefits.

Colombian miners are not fairing much better financially. According to workers, they are only paid minimum wage- barely enough to support their families, and the very lives that they put on the line every day they work in the mines. To the industry’s credit, I must concede that it has resulted in profits for some- the heads of the industry being one example, and politicians, another. In Appalachia, it’s a well known fact that many of our local politicians are financially supported by the coal industry, and some are even coal industry employees. According to many residents, a similar situation exists in Colombia.

Not only has coal failed to be the economic salvation of the region for ordinary people, but the destructive mining activities are threatening other local industries and economic possibilities. Traditional agricultural and fishing industries have suffered as a result of pollution, and workers’ limited and severed access to the land. Coal related water pollution has caused the fish population to dwindle, and mining officials sometimes block access to once utilized waterways, due to companies’ questionable claims of land ownership. One gentleman told us that they were “not allowed to go to our own rivers, where we got to gather fish. The army doesn’t allow us to enter.”

The industry, on the other hand, claims the ability to trump God and Mother Nature, by “allegedly” improving upon the natural environment. In Appalachia, the industry claims to “create” habitat for fish and wildlife in what is already an extremely biodiversity region, by bombing the land into greater fertility. I like to call it the coal company’s big bang theory. In Colombia, I was reminded of this when a scientist working a reclamation site for Cerrejon, assured me that the loss of ephemeral streams was trivial, and other changes in the environment- alteration in topography, and extreme change in the soil’s absorbency- were beneficial. One reclaimed site thirstily drank 70% of the rainfall, but had previously absorbed only 30%.

During a meeting I attended with the mining company Cerrejon, one industry official who apparently did not grasp having a sense of place or dignity, claimed the houses being built for displaced residents of La Roche, in their future community, were “better” than what they had to begin with. There’s that word again- “better”. In other words, these companies promise residents they will make everything better- better economies, better communities, better environment, better quality of life.

Yet, I am confused as to how a person can offer someone something “better” than what they have, if they do not even understand the value systems of the people to whom they are speaking. Many residents expressed pain at having to leave the land they felt such a deep connection with, and the residents of Tomaquito, having a belief in spirits, are worried that the spirits in the new land will not be as accepting of them, as the spirits that are familiar with their presence.

These concepts are probably completely foreign to the people who sit at the head of these companies. You cannot promise a person better, until you know what that means to them. In 1540, when Francisco Vasquez de Coronado invaded Indigenous villages in New Mexico searching for the 7 cities of gold, he wrote of the inhabitants, “As far as I can tell, these Indians worship water, because it makes the corn grow and sustains their life.”. His priority was the mineral, gold, but to them, it was simply, water.

Today, the coveted resource threatening Appalachia and many Colombian communities is coal, but the companies seeking it don’t seem to understand, that the communities they are robbing have values of their own, and some of us are of the belief that coal is not our greatest resource.

KFTC members Cari Moore, John Capillo and Randy Wilson along with 2 KFTC staff visited Columbia from July 19th-26th to learn about the impacts of coal mining on Northern Colombia as a part of a Witness For Peace (WFP) tour. WFP, an international organization, aims to support justice and sustainable economies by changing U.S. policies and corporate practices that contribute to poverty and oppression in Latin America and the Carribean.

The tour, called “The People Behind the Coal in Appalachia and Colombia,” began with a Mountain Witness Tour in Eastern Kentucky. After that, tour participants spent 10 days in the Cesar region of northern Colombia, where coal mining has taken place for about 20 years. This is the third year that KFTC has participated in this exchange.

Read more about this trip by clicking here or by visiting www.kftc.org/colombia.

What can you do to help the people in Colombia that are affected by coal?

Here are a few ideas of some actions steps you can take:

1. Consider joining the Witness For Peace delegation to Colombia next year. Information will be sent out from KFTC about the trip early next summer.

2. Send this postcard to Gary Drummond, CEO of Drummond Mines, which are engaging in serious violations of human rights and in union busting activities, according to Colombians.

3. Send this postcard to the U.S. Embassy in Colombia to request improved security protection for union and community organizers.

4. Learn more - attend KFTC's Annual Meeting from October 8-10 to join in a discussion about the connections between Kentucky and Colombia.

Our goal was to explore the connections between the impacts of the coal industry in Kentucky and Colombia. An important part of the exchange and the high point for many was a celebration of culture and an exchange of the things that people in both places love about where they are from.

A delegation of 5 from Kentucky - including 3 KFTC members and 2 staff - participated in this Witness for Peace trip, which was focused on "The People Behind the Coal in Appalachia and Colombia." The exchange began with a tour of mountain communities impacted by coal mining in Eastern Kentucky. From July 19th to July 26th, the group traveled on to Colombia. We spent the week learning about the impacts of the coal industry on Colombian communities in a northern coastal region called Cesar.

In a village called Tamaquito, we sat under a cool canopy of trees in mud huts with palm thatched roofs. KFTC member Randy Wilson took a moment of space to do some pickin' for the villagers. People were immediately at ease, and the space filled with laughter and song.

Randy Wilson's Banjo in Tamaquito, Colombia from Kentuckians For The Commonwealth on Vimeo.

The villagers then performed a dance for us where the women, covered from head to ankle in flaming red capes, circled the open ground to the sound of a drum. Then one woman was joined by one man and they twirled together in an intense circle, rounding one another and bumping shoulders. 

After the dance, the villagers fed us a rich meal of marinated rice and goat meat. We talked as much as we could with them and played with the children who ran all around us. It started to rain and we quieted, sitting under the shade and listening to the sounds of the drops in this beautiful little village. With only one solar panel in the village, no one went inside their homes during this pleasant afternoon rain, but sat watching, experiencing it instead.

When we asked the villagers what they loved about the place they call home, several of them smiled. One said, “When the sun sets and night falls it is dark, we know where we are. We are not lost. Once, we lived in peace here.”

Tamaquito is being forcibly displaced from their land by a coal mining company. We're losing communities and cultures like them around the world at a rapid clip, due to our driving demand to consume. As Randy Wilson said, "The very people who know how to live sustainably, who figured this out long, long ago, are being displaced by a society whose principles and policy don’t have a clue."

The hope we can find is in communities standing together to learn from one another and to protect the values, the culture and the possibilities of transition that still remain here in Kentucky and abroad.

To learn more about the issues and the trip, plan to attend KFTC’s Annual Meeting and participate in a multi-media presentation about the trip.

By Randy Wilson, KFTC Member, Clay County

From July 19th-26th, a delegation of 5 from Kentucky - including Randy Wilson and two other KFTC members - participated in a Witness for Peace trip, which was focused on "The People Behind the Coal in Kentucky and Colombia." We spent the week learning about the impacts of the coal industry on communities in a northern coastal region called La Guajira.

    We got up @ 5:30 am and were on the bus by 6:00....another day on the road in the Guajira region of northern Colombia.  I don't think I saw more than 12 tourists the whole 7 days we were in that region....perfect for mining coal....nobody comes up there.  But we were there as a part of Witness for Peace observing what the mines were doing to the region.  Everywhere we went leadership said, "They promised prosperity and jobs...."and then the long list of economic, environmental, and health problems they had inherited from the coal companies.

Tabago Open Pit Operation at Cerrejon Mine

This day we had to leave the tour bus and take a four wheel van back into those villages directly effected by a coal pit the size of Long Island!   Thirty five miles long and five miles wide.  We pitched to and fro through rutted roads, crossed a swelling river once...then got caught in the rising river a second time.  Locals rustled up a long rope and a bus pulled us out to safety.  At one time all these villages were joined by a convenient trade route.  They traded tobacco, garden vegetables, goat and cattle.  They had no clear boundaries.  Their cattle ranged fair and wide.  Some indegenous tribes lived in the region before the European invasion in 1499.   But here was a different kind of invasion led by mining multinationals, supported by the US and Colombian governments, and strong armed by military and paramilitary thugs....displacing folks right and left in their path. 

Dancers in the Tamaquito Village

Some villagers were united.  Some were not.  The company picked off some, divided others.  All were in negotiations for removal.  One such village was Tomaquito, home of the indigenous Wyhuu people.  Once lord of thousands of hectares, now they were reduced to ten and bound within the confines of their village, dependant on food sources from town some 25 miles of treacherous road away.   They lived under a cool canopy of trees in mud huts with palm thatched roofs.  They performed for us a dance where the women covered from head to ankle in flaming red capes circled the open ground to the sound of a drum.  They told us of their life there.  "Once we fished, we hunted, we grew crops, we tended goats and cattle.  We had no boundaries.  We traded with nearby villages.   There was no need for electricity.   When the sun sets and night falls it is dark, but we know where we are.  We are not lost.  Once we lived in peace."

   Every year 132 million tons of Colombian coal goes to fire coal fired plants in places like Mobile,Ala, Tampa, Fla., and Salem, Ma.  These plants put us all at risk.  The very people who know how to live sustainably, who figured this out long, long ago, are being displaced by a society whose principles and policy don't have a clue.

"Many social leaders refrain from publicly speaking out. As soon as they do, they'll become targets. They'll kill them. While telling you these stories puts the life of the person telling you at risk, it is important to get this information out. This can serve as a powerful denouncement of these activities in the U.S."

And maybe it can lead to change.

This from a human rights activist in a town called Cienaga just a few hours after our Witness for Peace delegation stepped off the plane in Colombia. In this meeting, we heard story after story of how a privately owned U.S. corporation named Drummond degrades the local community, abuses human rights and even has instructed its paramilitary forces to kill union leaders, according to community members. The message about the danger of speaking out would be echoed in nearly all the meetings we had with communities, unions and other local groups during the week.

Above (left to right): Cari Moore, John Capillo, Patty Tarquino, Nancy Reinhart, Randy Wilson

A delegation of 5 from Kentucky - including 3 KFTC members and 2 staff - participated in this Witness for Peace trip, which was focused on "The People Behind the Coal in Kentucky and Colombia." We spent the week learning about the impacts of the coal industry on communities in a northern coastal region called La Guajira.

Drummond Corporation, owned by Gary Drummond from Birmingham, AL, built a port in Cienaga about 20 years ago to ship the coal it mines to the U.S. and Europe. Drummond also purchased part of the Colombian national railroad, privatizing it to run coal.

Drummond Railway                     Drummond Port                           Barbed Wire Surrounding Port

The company now uses the railway to transport coal from its coal mine to its port, where long conveyor belts take the coal out into the sea and dump it onto barges. The port is guarded by a combination of private militia and national police and is surrounded by barbed wire. About 30 million tons of coal is exported from the port annually.

At the time of the port's construction, Drummond management promised the community that the port would yield prosperity for the people and employ local workers. Instead, community members say it is has polluted local waters with coal dust so fishing has become impossible, it has polluted the air with coal dust leading to many adults and children getting sick with rashes and respiratory problems, and it employs very few local people. The royalty monies that the mine pays are often stolen by corrupt politicians, leaving little of it invested in Cienaga community projects.

Randy Wilson, a Clay County KFTC member, responded to the stories he heard in this first meeting, saying, "It doesn't fit in my head how the U.S. – a country that preaches to the world about freedom – can step all over people here." He went on to draw parallels between the impacts of the coal industry on Colombian communities and workers and the industry's impacts in his home, eastern Kentucky.

A Cienega city representative and community activist mentioned his hopes for the future. "Our hope is in making the security situation better here so that we can organize. Our best hope is in community organizing."

Cari Moore, a Knott County KFTC member, left charged up to bring these stories back and affect change here in the U.S., in Kentucky and in Colombia.

"Injustice is everybody's business. It is so important that we show the connections [between Kentucky and Colombia], and show Colombians our reality. It is great to leave this on a note of hope, thinking about things we can do to help."

This is the first in a series of blog posts to come about the KFTC group's experience during this Witness for Peace tour in Colombia.