Colombia to charge US firm employees

31 January 2014 Last updated at 19:50 ET A barge is loaded with coal in Santa Marta: the practice is now illegal in Colombia Colombian chief prosecutor Eduardo Montealegre says he will bring charges against six employees of the US coal mining company, Drummond, over an environmental disaster last year.

The company spilled hundreds of tonnes of coal into the sea at Santa Marta, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, when it tried to rescue a sinking barge.

Drummond said it regretted what it described as “an industrial accident”.

The company had been ordered to pay a $3.5m (£2.1m) fine.

The accident happened in January 2013.

Drummond says on its website that one of its barges loaded with coal “took on water overnight due to high wind and wave conditions”.

In the operation to rescue the barge, crane operators ended up dumping tonnes of coal into the sea.

The six employees being charged include onsite supervisors and crane operators.

Earlier this month, Colombia banned the use of cranes and barges in all its ports.

The rules are aimed at preventing spillage and sea pollution.

Environment Minister Luz Helena Sarmiento ordered the Alabama-based company to stop loading coal until it complies with new environmental rules.

The company is building a new conveyor belt loading system that complies with the legislation. It is expected to be operational in March.

In the meantime, the ban is expected to affect Colombia’s coal exports.

The South American nation is the world’s fourth coal exporter, and Drummond accounts for 30% of that total.

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Colombia to charge US firm employees

VIDEO: Colombia "welcomes" Starbucks coffee

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VIDEO: Colombia "welcomes" Starbucks coffee

Colombia agricultural strike spreads

24 August 2013 Last updated at 14:19 ET Farmers demanding government help have blockaded 30 major roads Thousands of anti-riot police have been deployed across Colombia as protests by agricultural workers spread further.

Some 200,000 farmers have blocked dozens of roads, leaving the central province of Boyaca cut off.

The workers want the government to agree to a wide-ranging set of demands including subsidies for their products, and cheaper fuel prices.

The government says it will not negotiate until all roadblocks are lifted.

The strike entered its sixth day on Saturday, sparking fears that residents of the capital, Bogota, could face shortages of basic goods such as potatoes and milk.

Coffee and potato growers, dairy famers and lorry drivers have been staging protests in eleven of Colombia’s 32 provinces.

Worst affected have been Boyaca and the southern province of Narino.

The main roads connecting Boyaca with neighbouring provinces have been blocked off by the protesters and local residents have reported a shortage of fuel.

Lessons were cancelled in most schools across the province and many shops remained closed.

‘Just demands’

The protesters accuse the government of President Juan Manuel Santos of failing to put in place “concrete action to help the farming and agricultural sector”.

Residents had to transport milk on horseback in the worst-affected areas

Dairy farmers also complained about milk being smuggled into Colombia from neighbouring Venezuela and Ecuador and sold at lower prices, undercutting Colombian milk producers.

Interior Minister Fernando Carrillo wrote on Twitter that many of the demands “were just, but violent protests will not bring about solutions, but rather only deepen the crisis”.

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Colombia, Jordi Raich, called on the protesters to let ambulances and emergency workers through the barricades.

He said there had been 12 cases in which emergency workers had been hindered in their work.

The farmers say they need help from the government as the prices for raw materials and fuel needed to transport their goods rise, while the prices their products fetch have been falling.

The government says it will not sit down with the protesters until they lift the roadblocks.

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Colombia agricultural strike spreads

Colombia peace talks "make progress"

10 August 2013 Last updated at 18:49 ET Former vice-president Humberto de la Calle expressed optimism after the latest round of talks The Colombian government and the country’s main rebel group, the Farc, have hailed progress after the end of the 12th round of peace talks in Cuba.

The government’s chief negotiator, ex-vice president Humberto de Calle, said they had never got this far before.

In a joint statement, the two sides say they are “building agreement” on the rebels’ participation in politics, despite a tense week in Colombia.

The five-decade-old conflict has claimed more than 600,000 lives.

Meanwhile, President Juan Manuel Santos praised the army for killing the regional Farc leader, Jesus Antonio Plata Rios, known as Zeplin, on Friday.

“Thanks to the joint work of the air force and the army, the head of Farc’s western front, Zeplin, has been neutralised,” he wrote on Twitter.

Mr Plata Rios led the rebels in western Colombia and was also in charge of gathering support for the rebels in the region, authorities say.

‘Secure opposition rights’ The joint statement issued by the Colombian government and the left-wing rebels in Cuba says concrete proposals have been presented and discussed by both parties.

They started building an agreement to “secure rights and guarantees for the exercise of the political opposition”, it says.

Political participation is the second bloc of issues being negotiated at the talks aimed at ending more than 50 years of armed conflict.

“Never before has anyone come this far,” Mr de la Calle told reporters at the end of the latest round of negotiations.

Land reform was the first item agreed on the six-point agenda of the talks, in May, after more than six months of negotiations.

Mr de la Calle’s optimistic words on Saturday came after a tense week in Colombia, with strong words coming from the government.

Farc leaders criticised Mr Santos remarks on Friday, saying that rebel leaders would be tracked down and killed by government forces.

In an interview earlier in the week, the Army commander, General Sergio Mantilla, said Colombia’s largest rebel group was “in agony”.

But the left-wing group said they were not “demoralised” and blamed the government for pre-emptying the talks.

Despite the slow pace of negotiations, the Colombian government has insisted a peace accord can be agreed before the end of the year.

The Farc warned of the dangers of rushing into a settlement.

“It is possible [to reach an agreement by November]. But to achieve peace, you need time. A bad peace deal is worse than war,” he said in an interview with Colombian network RCN.

More than 600,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the conflict, most of them civilians.

There is huge pressure in Colombia for justice for those who have perpetrated acts of violence from both sides of the conflict.

The government has promised to bring to justice those responsible.

The rebels say most of the victims were poor peasants and other civilians targeted by the army and right-wing paramilitaries for their alleged support to the rebels.

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Colombia peace talks "make progress"

UN: Colombia coca area drops by 25%

8 August 2013 Last updated at 16:54 Narino, in the south, continues to have the highest density of coca plants The area of land planted with coca – the raw ingredient for cocaine – in Colombia has fallen by 25%, a UN report has said.

The land under coca cultivation is now about a third of that in 2001, says the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

While coca areas fell nationwide, they rose in three provinces plagued by rebels and drug gangs.

Colombia is one the world’s top three cocaine producers and has made the war on drugs one of its main priorities.

Prevention v eradication

The annual report by the UN’s Integrated Illicit Crops Monitoring System says that the land planted with coca bushes has dropped from 64,000 hectares in 2011 to 48,000 hectares in 2012, the lowest figure since monitoring started in Colombia more than a decade ago.

The report confirms preliminary figures quoted to the BBC by the Colombian Defence Minister in June.

Analysts say the fall in coca production suggests illegal groups which have so far financed themselves through drug trafficking may increasingly be moving into illegal gold and emerald mining, both of which have been increasing in Colombia.

The groups take advantage of the fact that, unlike coca or cocaine, gold and emeralds are legal to transport and sell.

Mine field

But the head of Colombia’s counter-narcotics police, Gen Luis Alberto Perez, told the BBC that the UN figures showed that their strategy to focus on the worst-affected areas had worked.

Drug gangs and Farc rebels turn coca leaves into cocaine to finance themselves

He said that even though the police had eradicated less coca than in previous years, the force had increased its presence in those regions where most of the coca was grown, preventing people from planting coca bushes in the first place.

He also praised the government’s social programmes, which aim to convince farmers to switch from growing coca to legal crops.

The UNODC report, which uses satellite imagery to map areas planted with coca, says that there was an increase in coca plantations in three provinces: Norte de Santander, Choco and Caqueta.

According to Gen Perez, police activity in these three provinces was hampered by left-wing Farc rebels and drug gangs.

The general says an increased use of landmines by these groups means that eradication workers cannot pull out the plants by hand without the risk of stepping on a mine.

Border trouble

The border regions have the highest density of coca plants, with the southern town of Tumaco again topping the list.

Gen Perez says a ban on aerial eradication – using planes to spray herbicides on coca plants – in a 10km-wide (6-mile wide) strip next to the border has made this area a magnet for drug growers.

Colombia agreed to the exclusion zone after Ecuador brought a complaint against its neighbour at the International Court of Justice in 2008 saying its territory was being poisoned by the spraying.

According to UN figures released earlier this week, coca growing also decreased in Bolivia.

The UNODC said coca cultivation had dropped by 7% between 2011 and 2012 to 25,300 hectares.

Bolivia is, along with Colombia and Peru, among the world’s top three producers of cocaine.

The figures for Peru are expected to be released over the next weeks.

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UN: Colombia coca area drops by 25%

Colombia accuses Farc as talks resume

28 July 2013 Last updated at 20:43 ET The army says it will continue fighting the rebels until a final settlement is reached Chief Colombian government peace negotiator Humberto de la Calle has said the leftist Farc rebel group will be held to account for all the acts of violence it has committed.

His comments come as peace negotiations resume in Cuba aimed at ending more than five decades of conflict.

Mr de la Calle reaffirmed that the army would continue fighting until the end.

More than 600,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the conflict, most of them civilians.

“I must remind you that the government has decided not to agree a ceasefire until, of course, the conflict comes to an end,” said Mr de la Calle.

Mr de la Calle said the Farc must offer guarantees that will renounce to violence

“If we sign a final peace accord, then the Farc will be able to get into politics. But in a democracy and without weapons, only after they demobilise.”

The current round of negotiations is intended to focus on the Farc’s transition into formal politics.

But a Farc negotiator in Havana confused journalists by reading a statement making reference to land reform, an issue on which there was agreement in May.

“There would be no point in discussing land reform in Havana if the government continues to reduce what has been agreed to empty words which vanish in the wind,” said Andres Paris.

‘Worse than war’

The talks were launched last November in the Cuban capital, 10 years after the failure of previous face-to-face negotiations.

At the time, the Colombian government was accused of being naive by agreeing to a ceasefire and allowing the rebels to operate in a vast demilitarised area.

But the government of President Juan Manuel Santos has decided to continue fighting the rebels until they give up their armed struggle and join the legal political process.

There is huge pressure in Colombia, however, for justice for those who have perpetrated acts of violence from both sides of the conflict.

“The guerrilla will be held to account for everything that has happened during the conflict,” said Mr de la Calle.

The rebels say most of the victims were poor peasants and other civilians targeted by the army and right-wing paramilitaries for their alleged support to the rebels.

Earlier this month, the main Farc negotiator, Ivan Marquez, said Colombia had to prepare for peace as the conflict was “nearing an end”.

The government said a final settlement must be agreed by November. The Farc warned of the dangers of rushing into a settlement.

“It is possible [to reach an agreement by November]. But to achieve peace you need time. A bad peace deal is worse than war,” he said in an interview with Colombian network RCN.

His comments came days before at least 15 soldiers were killed in an ambush near the Venezuelan border in an ambush the government blamed on the Farc.

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Colombia accuses Farc as talks resume