Because of the Ukraine war, Berlin wants to import more coal from the El Cerrejón mine. Latin America's largest coal mine has a nickname: “Monster” because of insufficient environmental and human rights standards.
The El Cerrejón open-pit mine in the Colombian province of La Guajira
What the nearby villagers only call “monsters” stretches over 69,000 hectares, a  ;Area the size of 100 soccer fields. It swallows 30 million liters of water every day in the barren semi-desert region of the second poorest Colombian province of La Guajira. In return, it also satisfies the hunger for coal in countries like Germany, with an annual production of 30 million tons.
Its name: El Cerrejón, the largest opencast coal mine in Latin America and one of the largest mines in the world, owned by the Swiss company Glencore. If Chancellor Olaf Scholz has his way, the “monster” will make sure that the Germans don't have to freeze next winter. At the beginning of April, the Chancellor called his Colombian counterpart Ivan Duque, after all, Germany needs a replacement quickly in order to become independent of Russian coal.
A classic win-win situation, one would think. Just not for people like Dulcy Cotes. She says: “The transnational corporations are choking us with their greed for profit.”
Unannounced visit by an armed gang
Cotes is one of the almost 700,000 indigenous Wayuu people who live in Venezuela and northeastern Colombia. More than 500 years ago they were among the first to suffer under the European conquerors. Half a millennium later, they were among the first victims of illegally armed drug cartels, were murdered, blackmailed and expelled. Now, for the Wayuu, history is repeating itself for the third time: Because many of them live near the black gold of El Cerrejón, they live dangerously again.
“The government is inactive and denies the existence of paramilitary groups” – Dulcy Cotes
“One of our indigenous leaders, who is campaigning to ensure that the Bruno stream is not diverted by the mining company to continue mining coal, was visited by three gunmen on motorcycles a month ago. Such intimidation attempts are typical against those who stand up for the environment and human rights.”
Dulcy Cotes is familiar with this constant hostility, she is also a popular target as an organized member of the “Fuerzas Mujeres Wayuu”, the “Forces of the Wayuu Women”, who are trying with all their might to resist the effects of mining. She says: “A lot of communities have had to move because the mine has been getting closer and closer to them. We don't feel safe.”
Mining: A source of income that makes people sick
But there is also a rift in the Wayuu community: there are people like Cotes who are taking to the barricades. On the other hand, there are those who work in the Cerrejón and urgently need the money: Thousands are employed there in opencast mining in a region that otherwise offers hardly any opportunities for work and where every second person lives below the poverty line. But Dulcy Cotes knows what a backbreaking job it is to work in the mine.
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“The people who work there work twelve hours at a time, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. early shift or from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. night shift, they hardly sleep. That and all the dust make them sick. It's maximum exploitation. If they insist on severance pay because of illness, they have to sue, it never comes from the company itself.”
Colombian coal of all things for climate rescuers Germany?
When Colombians like Cotes see no way out in their David versus Goliath battle, their last straw is called “Cajar” – a human rights organization in Colombia that has been representing thousands of smallholders, indigenous leaders, students and trade unionists for more than 40 years.< /p> 
“The tabaco community was completely expelled 20 years ago” – Rosa María Mateus Parra
“Cajar” lawyer Rosa María Mateus Parra says: “It's a contradiction in terms that Germany wants to import coal from a mine with so many problems and complaints. Every country in Europe should actually refuse with such a history. And now Does Germany of all people want more coal from Colombia, the country that is promoting a coal phase-out worldwide?”
What Olaf Scholz should know about El Cerrejón
Mateus Parra could tell Chancellor Scholz a lot about El Cerrejón, it's not a pretty story, rather one horrible chapter follows the next: They are exploitation and expropriation, forced resettlement and expulsion or destruction and irreparable damage to the environment. And child mortality, which has increased rapidly in recent years: 5,000 Wayuu children starved and died of thirst in the region around the mine. A frightening number that even brought the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to the scene.
Dried up river bed nearby the El Cerrejón mine
“The reason for this is the lack of water, because rivers and streams are contaminated or dried up. And the lack of food, because where the indigenous communities grew their vegetables, coal is now being mined. The children who survive have skin rashes and respiratory diseases because of it fine dust pollution, we have proven all of this in court,” says the human rights lawyer.
Last hope: a new president
And the Colombian state? Mateus Parra dismisses the idea. She now has high hopes for Gustavo Petro's victory in the presidential elections next Sunday. The former guerrilla, economist and former mayor of the capital Bogotá is the only one who is critical of the overexploitation of nature. The other candidates, according to the human rights lawyer, advocated continuity: exporting coal as a means of getting the domestic economic crisis under control.
Hope for environmentalists: Presidential candidate Gustavo Petro
“The provincial government of Guajira is one of the most corrupt in the country and what we are observing from Bogotá is a policy that is one thing above all in relation to economic and corporate interests: subservient! Man don't look too closely when a company like 'Carbones del Cerrejón' prides itself on protecting fauna, flora and reforestation, but the reality is completely different.”
“Garzweiler, on the other hand, is a kindergarten”
Stefan Ofteringer has already seen the “monster” with his own eyes, he was at the edge of the mine a few years ago. In the sweltering heat of La Guajira, the advisor for human rights in Colombia at the Misereor bishop's relief organization strolled along the open-cast mine, and he still can't get it out of his head: “On the one hand, there is this massive destruction. Then there is this enormous fine dust pollution both through the mining and through the transport. And the earthquake and the noise from the daily explosions. The German opencast mine Garzweiler is a kindergarten.”
Really safe territory? The El Cerrejón mine
Misereor is one of the 160 organizations from 30 countries that called on Scholz and Duque to keep their hands off the coal from El Cerrejón today rather than tomorrow with the “Life instead of coal” campaign at the beginning of May. And before that, to insist that human rights and environmental standards are finally observed. “Diverting the nearby creek, as the mine operators are pushing for more coal, would be a socio-ecological catastrophe.”
Does the Supply Chain Act pass the reality check?
Ofteringer sets high hopes for the supply chain law passed by the Bundestag last year. Accordingly, German companies are also obliged to trace back and remedy grievances when importing coal from Colombia. Energy companies such as Steag and EnBW are then required, and Uniper and RWE are also buying coal from Colombia.
The “monster” El Cerrejón could lose its terror if everything goes well, the mine should still be in operation by 2034 remain operational. But the human rights activist also says: “Until now, companies have never set standards that did justice to the local population. And the benefits of mining in Colombia have always benefited capital, but never the impoverished population.”