Bogotá Declaration

We, the indigenous peoples and communities of the Andean Amazonian region, the workers within the mining industry, small and medium scale Colombian miners, and social movements, as well as brothers from organisations in Guatemala and the US, used to live among mountains and clean water, in villages with a good quality of life. Now our lives are affected by the mining industry. We came together at the Andean Forum against the Mining Industry and after wide-reaching debate, we declare:

Considering that:

1. We, peoples and communities of the Andean region suffer the consequences of the mining industry carried out by the multinationals. This includes large -scale environmental damage, the drying up and pollution of water sources, soils erosion, air contamination, loss of biodiversity and the displacement of communities, and – also –the impossibility of our own food sovereignty and security.

2. Many governments have handed over our natural commons, such as minerals, to the greed of these companies without demanding environmental, labour, or tax standards, nor any human, economic, social and cultural rights. The mining industry does not generate a significant income for the States.

3. Across the region and continent, affected communities and indigenous peoples have extensively denounced the ill-fated effects that the exploitation has had on the quality of life, mother earth and human survival.

4. The mining multinationals implement precarious labour conditions and violate the right to health. For example degenerative illnesses have increased in the membership of the organisations of mineworkers.

5. Small and medium scale miners are persecuted and banned by some governments that wish to see foreign investors have total control over the exploitation. In the case of Colombia the government fails to recognise the contributions made by small and medium scale mining to local development through the generation of employment to two million families and fewer environmental impacts than the large mining industry.

6. Protests against these situations have been repressed, those people that participate are criminalised and the rights of organisations and to protest are violated.

7. The aggression of the mining industry is accompanied by regressive legal reforms, the removal of rights, paramilitarism, political violence in various forms, assassinations and the persecution of thousands of popular leaders that defend the right to life.

8. The mining industry plays a key role in the imposition of neoliberal globalisation that aims to advance an economic model based on extraction and export. This is carried out through free trade (TLC - Free Trade agreement with the US and Canada, and AELC-European free trade association), megaprojects (IIRSA-South American Regional Infrastructure Integration Initiative, Puebla-Panama Plan), bilateral trade agreements, agrofuels and GM. All of this renders impossible food sovereignty, sustainable development, self-determination of the people and their alternatives of living a good life in harmony with nature.

We resolve to:

a) Call for a continental action in order that the states, peoples and communities regain control of their territories, natural commons and biodiversity, respecting their own ways of life.

b) Strengthen and consolidate the territories and productive and social strategies of the communities, on the basis of living a good life, development of their own and economic relations with social equity, sustainability and interaction between cultures. This is done as an alternative to the neoliberal model that is based on suppression and the mining industry; and in the case of the indigenous communities, reclaim and strengthen the way they understand the cosmos and spirituality.

c) Struggle for the recuperation and nationalisation of the natural commons by local communities, indigenous communities, workers and citizens as an alternative to privatisation, plunder and denationalisation.

d) Develop popular mobilisation in diverse spaces, including the promotion of alternative public policies in the mining industry around themes such as: preliminary consent, prohibition of the exploitation of underground water reserves where there is low precipitation, contamination, labour rights, profits and others.

e) Unite and link campaigns and actions with indigenous, union and social movement networks that bring together all those affected by the same groups of capital. Also to make alliances with unions and encourage shareholder withdrawal from these companies.

f) Encourage the exchange of experiences of struggle, through visits, tours, and caravans of leaders at both national and international level.

g) Investigate and document emblematic cases and disseminate them as effective tools in public and to international political actors.

h) Support the struggles that are currently taking place and vigorously denounce the criminalisation of social protest:

· Colombia: Cerrejón, Represa Río Ranchería, Marmato, Támesis, Cauca

· Perú: Cerro de Pasco, Doe Run, Majaz, Antamina, Bambas, Yanacocha

· Chile: Pascualama

· Bolivia:Inti Raymi-Newmont, Sinch'i Wayra-Glencore, San Cristóbal Apex Silver

· Argentina: Bajo La Alumbrera

· Ecuador: Intac, Pangui, Cordillera del Cóndor, Nor occidente de Pichincha

· Guatemala: San Miguel Ixtahuacán en San Marcos, Ixcán El Kiché, Polochic, Alta Verapaz, El Estor en Isabal, San Juan Zacatepeques

· Estados Unidos: Western Shoshone


i) Have solidarity with the popular struggles in Colombia, such as those of the sugar cane cutters and prosecuted workers.

j) Reject the criminalisation, prosecutions and repression of the popular struggles against the mining industry in the entire continent.

k) In the case of Ecuador, demand that the government respect the decision of the communities who are against mining projects and halt the persecution of those who prefer living a good life to mining.

l) Demand that:

· Consent is agreed with the affected communities in a free and well-informed manner before investment decisions are made (in agreement with the ILO Convention 169 and the Declaration of the UN on Indigenous communities),

· The States adopt effective measures of environmental controls, adequate labour conditions, community protections and the reform, and possible suspension, of the above mentioned exploitation, in view of the threats to the life of the communities, the environment and regional development,

· The States recognise the preliminary consultations carried out by communities, such as Majaz (Peru), San Marcos (Guatemala) among others.

m) Support the declaration of the Colombian organisations against the reform of the Mining code and for the amended proposal put forward by small-scale mining organisation.

n) Promote broad alliances in order to use international mechanisms on racism, indigenous communities, environment, water, human rights and others, presenting documented cases before the Commission and the Interamerican Court of Human Rights, the UN and Convention 169 of the ILO among others.

o) Defend the autonomous decisions of local communities, whether to prevent all mining investment or to prioritise the small and medium scale mining, in such a way that they benefit the sovereign development of nations.

p) Improve, unite and link networks of communication that include local community alternative media, and promote our own voices on a continental level.

q) Develop legal actions that involve the reconstruction of indigenous rights and Traditional Native Law[1]; the creation of a tribunal to judge the multinationals; advance constitutional changes in order to restore the communal property of natural commons and create an observatory of the indigenous communities to monitor compliance with international treaties.

r) Create an awareness-raising campaign against consumerism, specifically around luxurious metals, with the aim of reducing the demand and impact.

s) Arrange to participate in the following international actions:

· 12th October: Continental mobilisation of Indigenous communities.

· 7th November: National popular and union mobilisation in Colombia.

· Organise national referendums to declare water as a fundamental human right, as is happening in Colombia

· Promote a continental forum on the indigenous and popular alternatives to the mining industry that links networks in struggle and decides on a day of continental action.


The struggles of the Andean people against the mega mining projects that affect their existence are becoming stronger and bigger. This Andean Forum against the Mining Industry: Alternatives proposed by communities, indigenous peoples and workers, is a step forward in the uniting and linking of experiences. We hope this will support other actions on a continental level.

On this journey we call for the broadest unity that links all resistance to the devastation caused by the mining industry. This includes the communities directly affected, intellectuals and writers that denounce the impacts, indigenous and non-indigenous lawyers that defend the communities, human rights institutions, unions which comprehensively defend rights, small miners (dependent on the particulars of every country and zone, NGOs with technical support that respect the autonomy of our organisations, consumers that question the purchase of luxurious metals and alternative media.

Bogota, 27th September 2008

Alianza Social Continental.

Coordinadora Andina de Organizaciones Indígenas – CAOI

Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia – ONIC

Consejo de Ayllus y Markas del Qollasuyo – CONAMAQ (Bolivia)

Confederación Nacional de Comunidades del Perú Afectados por la Minería – CONACAMI

Confederación de Pueblos de la Nacionalidad Kichwa del Ecuador - ECUARUNARI

Federación Regional Única de Trabajadores Campesinos del Altiplano Sud Bolivia (FRUTCAS)

Coordinadora en Defensa de la Cuenca del Río Desaguadero y Lagos Uru Uru y Poopo-Bolivia - Coridup

Observatorio Latinoamericano de Conflictos Ambientales - Caso Pascua Lama (Chile)

Red de Veedurías de Colombia - Redver

Movimiento Pachakutik del Ecuador

Convergencia Nacional Wakib Kej (Guatemala)

Pueblo Western Shoshone (Estados Unidos)

Consejo de Pueblos de la Comunidad San Marcos (Guatemala)

Organización Indígena Yanama

Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Colombia – CUT

Unión Sindical Obrera – USO

Sintracarbón, Cerrejón

Pueblo Shuar Arutam del Ecuador

Asamblea de los Pueblos en Defensa de la Naturaleza – Ecuador

Coordinadora de defensa del nor occidente de Pichincha (Codecono)

Asamblea Nacional Ambiental de Ecuador

Ecuador Solidarity Network – Canadá, Estados Unidos

Comunidades en Resistencia del Consejo de Pueblos del Occidente - Guatemala

Resguardo Indígena Cañamomo Lomaprieta Rio Sucio Supía Caldas

Organización Indígena Wayuu de Mayabamgloma

Asociación de Mineros del Bajo Cauca

Asociación de Mineros del Nordeste Antioqueño

Corporación por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos del Nordeste Antioqueño

Grupo Cívico de Nanmatu

Asoguayabal – Asociación de Artesanos y Alfareros Barrichara

Sindicato Nacional de la Industria del Carbón - Sintracarbón

Red Colombiana de Acción Frente al Libre Comercio – Recalca

Instituto de Investigaciones y Estudios Energéticos de Trabajadores de América Latina y el Caribe – Ieetalc.

Funtraenergética

Sintramienergética, seccional El Paso

Sintracerromatoso

Federación Colombiana de Mineros del Oro, Plata y Platino – Fedoro

Federación Agrominera del Sur de Bolivar, Fedeagromisbol

Corporación Aury Sará

Centro de Estudios del Carbón y la Gran Minería

Federación de Mineros de Santander – Fesamin

Organización Colombiana de Estudiantes – OCE

Federación de Areneros y Balasto del Eje Cafetero

Ecuador Decide

La Chiva – Canadá

Comités de las minas El Caño, La Esperanza, San Martín y La Vega de San Martín de Loba

Centro de Estudios del Trabajo – Cedetrabajo

Congresistas del Polo Democrático Alternativo: Orsinia Polanco, Germán Reyes y Jorge Enrique Robledo.