Travel
Lost bones, dreams and water: Life and death at the foot of one of the world’s biggest coal mines
Indigenous communities living by the Swiss-owned Cerrejón mine in Colombia describe their suffering over the past 40 years.
“Where there is water, there is life. Without it, where are we going to live?” asks Leobardo Sierra, a 48-year-old Wayuu Indigenous leader from Colombia. He lives at the foot of Cerrejón in La Guajira, one of the world’s largest open-pit coal mines.
Sierra built his house in line with traditional Bahareque techniques, using sticks and mud. At his wood-burning kitchen stove, he boils water to make his daily tinto, plain coffee with water. He leads a humble lifestyle, far removed from consumerism, which comforts him. “I don’t need millions of euros to live well,” he says.
The Cerrejón mine hit the region like a black hole in 1984, causing damage to the water supply, health, spirituality and culture of the communities from La Guajira.
Pregnant women fear that their children will be born sick. Bed sheets left to dry outside turn black from the mine particles. And speaking out against the mine comes with retaliation, threats and forced evacuations.
Sierra grew up without the mine, and his childhood memories are vivid. “Before, we used to go fishing, hunting, collecting and gathering medicinal plants. Now it’s almost impossible because they send people to watch over us. If the mine had never come, things would be better off,” he says.
A few metres from his house is one of the few water sources that the community managed to save: the Bruno Creek.
In 2017, the Cerrejón mining company was granted permission to divert the creek three kilometres from its natural course, but the local communities challenged this in court.
The Colombian Constitutional Court ruled in their favour, stating that there was uncertainty regarding the social and environmental impacts of the diversion. But five years on, the monitoring body on this ruling found that Cerrejón had not complied with it.
Locals say the coal arrives in Europe ‘tainted with blood’
Where Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities saw their home and sacred trees, mining giants saw a million-dollar opportunity to extract tonnes of coal.
Cerrejón exports most of its coal abroad and is owned by the Swiss multinational Glencore – a source of grievance among the Guajiros who feel they live in poverty while others prosper.
According to Cerrejón’s 2020 annual report, 43 per cent of the coal was exported to the Mediterranean region and 15 per cent to other countries in non-Mediterranean Europe.
Cerrejón is the second most profitable mining company in Colombia. In 2022, its revenues increased by 149 per cent. But these corporate success figures contrast sharply with the living conditions of the population.
“They say we are rich because there is a company that generates a lot of profit, but in reality, the people are poor. We used to be the rich ones,” says Sierra.
“It’s not fair that we have to die intoxicated and forced to uproot with sadness and pain while a multinational takes the money to another country,” says Afro leader Samuel Arregocés. He claims that the coal arrives in Europe “tainted with blood.”
The data confirms the devastation in this region without drinking water, from which 25 Indigenous communities have been displaced. La Guajira has the highest rates of child malnutrition in the country, and 39.7 per cent of the population lives in conditions of extreme poverty.
Sierra claims that when the mine arrived, they deceived the people by promising them a better life and imposing an idea of progress that he rejects.
“I learned that progress is something very different from what we have today. Progress isn’t about destroying the environment; it’s about protecting life. This is a setback because without water, we die,” he says.
‘We don’t know where our family’s bones are’
Arregocés belongs to the Afro-descendant community of Tabaco, displaced in 2001 to make way for the mega mining project. “Some of us were kicked out [after being deceived], and others by force and threats,” he alleges.
In 2002, a ruling by the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia ordered the Tabaco Community to be rebuilt in a suitable location, something that to this day has not been fulfilled. “My grandparents passed away while waiting,” he adds.
Arregocés still gets emotional when remembering what his life was like prior to the mine. His grandfather raised the animals they would eat, and they had access to clean drinking water almost all day thanks to a water supply system they built themselves.
“We went from having those amenities to losing them and right into unemployment and cultural displacement. Our youth didn’t even get to know our community,” he laments.
There has also been a spiritual dispossession, he says, with the desecration of his communities’ cemeteries. “We don’t know where our family’s bones are. It has caused us emotional trauma; I have stopped being a happy person,” he says.
Being a social leader is not an easy task in the country with the highest number of environmental activists murdered on the planet. That’s why Arregocés doesn’t leave home without his bulletproof vest. “For a while, there were people watching me 24/7, and we were afraid they would kidnap or harm my two-year-old nephew,” the leader says.
Despite this, there is a ray of hope. This Afro authority finds comfort in the broad social support it receives, such as through a change.org campaign, supported by more than 222,000 people from 166 countries, demanding the return of the Bruno Creek to its natural course.
“This shows that it’s not just us; there is an organised citizenry in Colombia and around the world fighting to defend water,” he says.
The dream of the Wayuu women
Mónica Lopez lives with her partner, Misael Socarrá, in the 4 de noviembre Reservation in La Guajira. For her, understanding the role of women in this process is essential. “Our essence as Indigenous peoples is our spirituality, and us, women, are the ones who master it,” she says.
The mayoras, usually the grandmothers of the family, are the spiritual guides for the Wayuu people. According to their worldview, they can avoid future misfortunes through dreams. “When they dream that something bad is going to happen to someone, we perform a ritual with clothes in the river to prevent it,” she explains.
But this changed forever when more than 150 kilometres of railroad tracks were built across Wayuu territory to transport millions of tonnes of coal each day. “The noise of the train has robbed our mayoras of their sleep. That connection they had with their spiritual journeys no longer exists,” Lopez says.
Wayuu women transmit spirituality to their children. However, they are often forced to migrate to cities in search of support and education for them, which can lead to the loss of their cultural essence. “One maintains one’s culture through practices. No matter how Wayuu you are, if you don’t practice it, you forget it,” she emphasises.
Likewise, Lopez explains that having children brings a lot of uncertainty. “When you’re pregnant, it’s not the same because you’re afraid that the baby will be born sick due to the mine,” she says.
Her daughter’s face is covered in spots and rashes, and no matter how many times they consult specialists, she hasn’t recovered. “In the past, these kids didn’t have these illnesses, but nowadays they do. Today, children constantly suffer from the flu because the air we breathe is contaminated,” she says.
An expert from the UN called for an end to certain activities at Cerrejón, highlighting the health impacts on the population, which have been the subject of numerous studies.
‘The death shift’: Mine workers are suffering too
The mine workers are also fighting against alleged abuses by Cerrejón. Igor Díaz, president of the Sintracarbón union, recalls episodes of labour repression and claims that their jobs are constantly at risk.
“They fired 226 workers, most of whom were affiliated with the union, after a 92-day strike demanding an end to what we call ‘the death shift’, which forced us to work nearly 60 hours more per week,” he says. According to the union, this meant a greater exposure to lethal workplace accidents due to mental and physical exhaustion.
Their main battle is for recognition of the diseases they are susceptible to. “Working in the mine can lead to musculoskeletal and respiratory diseases. Our struggle is to demand that Colombia’s social security system recognises these occupational diseases and proves that they result from mining exploitation,” he stresses.
The union leader sees the struggles of Indigenous people, Afro-descendants and farmers in the region as inseparable from the struggles of the workers. “We raise our voices when the company turns a deaf ear to the demands of the communities because that’s where our families are,” he states.
Will the EU’s new due diligence law help?
While the struggles in northern Colombia continue, the European Union is negotiating a due diligence law to hold companies accountable for their impacts on human rights and the environment throughout their supply chains.
Yukpa Indigenous leader Juan Pablo Gutierrez, exiled in Paris after facing murder attempts for opposing the Cerrejón mine, criticises the law as a way to keep colonialism going.
“It’s a distraction measure because it maintains the logic of exploiting Mother Earth and doesn’t question Europe’s unrestrained consumption model,” he says.
More than 8,000 kilometres from Brussels, Leobardo watches the black mountains of the mine with unease but never loses hope.
“My ancestors fought for my future, now I fight for those who will come. This place is no longer mine but belongs to those who come after us; that’s what my grandparents told me, and it’s what keeps us alive,” he concludes.
What does Cerrejón say?
In response to a request for comment concerning the impact of its activities on Indigenous and Afro communities, Cerrejón said it “deeply regrets the humanitarian crisis in La Guajira, which is part of a complex context, where the efforts of local and national governments have been insufficient to address the structural situation.
“Cerrejón rejects accusations of connection between this dramatic situation and the company.
“On the contrary, Cerrejón has strengthened its social investment, both mandatory and voluntary, to achieve greater scope and impact on dispersed communities in a territory with challenging climatic and geographic conditions.”
Author
Although Singapore is now in pole position, many European passport holders have impressive freedom of movement.
Singapore has risen to the top of a ranking of the world’s strongest passports, knocking Spain off the top spot.
Despite that blow for the country, European nations – including Spain, now relegated to second place – make up the rest of the top five.
VisaGuide.World’s ranking is seen as one of the most reliable within the travel industry, along with the Henley Passport Index.
The company evaluates 199 countries and territories globally and bases its results on factors including visa-free access, eVisas, and global mobility.
It then uses its own Destination Significance Score (DSS) to assign a unique value to each passport, although the DSS is not revealed in the ranking.
With this system, VisaGuide.World has found that the Singaporean passport is officially the strongest passport in the entire world – with a score of 91.27 out of a possible 100 as of September 2024.
Spain in second place, with a score of 90.60 is closely followed by France, whose score is 90.53.
Next up are the Italian and Hungarian passports, which come in with scores of 90.31 and 90.28 respectively.
It’s good news for Europe overall, with only one other country not on the continent, Japan, in the top 20. Japan takes 15th place, the same position as last year.
Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria round out the top 10 ranking.
How does VisaGuide.World rank passports?
Released four times a year, VisaGuide.World’s passport ranking examines the number of destinations passport holders can access without a visa. Henley, usually thought of as the authority, takes a similar approach but has yet to release its ranking for this quarter.
VisaGuide.World takes other factors into consideration, creating its DSS for each travel destination.
That score factors in the type of entry policy each country enforces on an individual passport. That encompasses visa-free entry, Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), visa on arrival, e-Visas embassy approved visas, passport-free travel or banned entry.
This means the next ranking could look very different as Schengen countries introduce the Entry/Exit System (ETS) and ETIAS visa waiver for some non-EU countries and the UK rolls out its ETA.
The DSS also assigns points for the country’s GDP, global power and tourism development.
Not all of its criteria are considered equal, though. Visa-free access to a country with a high DSS earns a passport more points in the index than entry to a country with a low score.
The fact that VisaGuide.World does not specify the DSS of each country means that other factors may also affect the outcome of the index.
Why did Spain fall to second place in the ranking?
In VisaGuide.World’s last ranking, Spanish passport holders could travel visa-free to 160 countries and territories. In September’s results, that number has fallen to just 107.
It appears to be a drop across the board, though. Singaporean passport holders could previously visit 164 places without a visa but today, that only applies to 160.
While the ranking doesn’t explicitly say why this is the case, it is a regularly-changing figure due to shifting diplomatic ties, mutual visa policies, and the political and economic stability of countries and territories globally.
Spain, though, and all the European countries in the top 20 do have a benefit that Singapore doesn’t. Passport holders of these nations can travel to more than 30 countries without using their passports at all, thanks to the existence of the European Union and the Schengen zone.
For these citizens, travelling with just an ID card is possible, making freedom of movement simple.
With that in mind, perhaps the drop from top spot in this ranking won’t make too many Spanish citizens unhappy after all.
Author
Valencia, Budapest and Athens are all putting in place new legislation to tackle overtourism and illegal short-term accommodation.
As the main tourist season winds down, cities are putting in place legislation to control overtourism and crack down on badly-behaved visitors alongside landlords who run illegal accommodation.
Valencia in eastern Spain has announced its plans to cut off electricity and water for illegal tourist accommodation in the city.
The mayor, María José Catalá, believes that the providing of too much water and electricity to short-term lets has a serious impact on permanent residents.
Local media reported that she told the State of the City Debate the existence of tourist apartments “impacts the price of rents, displaces the population,… implies the gradual disappearance of local commerce in favour of shops for tourists, and implies an imbalance in public provisions” which favours tourists over locals.
Catalá appears to be taking the situation very seriously. On behalf of the city council, she has requested the power to sanction illegal tourist apartments, and impose fines of up to €600,000 on landlords who refuse to comply with the new laws.
Records show that, under Catalá, inspections of tourist apartments have increased by 454 per cent this year alone and that police activity against illegal tourist apartments has risen from 73 reports in 2022 to 449 so far in 2024. The closure of some 278 illegal residences has already been ordered this year.
Valencia is following in the footsteps of Seville
The move comes after the council of the southern Spanish city of Seville was told it was within its rights to cut off the water supply to illegal tourist accommodation.
Before the decision was made in late August, Seville had already disconnected the supply to six apartments which were found to be illegal.
While three of the owners appealed, the judge accepted the council’s argument that the apartments were not the owners’ residences, instead taking the sides of neighbours who had complained about noise.
Seville’s council believes there are some 5,000 illegal apartments in the city, in addition to 10,000 legally licenced ones.
Officials confirmed that the water supply would only be restored once the apartments have reverted back to being regular residences.
Tourism in Seville has boomed since the end of the COVID pandemic. The city of just 700,000 people has seen an influx of around 3.5 million visitors a year, most of them choosing to stay in the small historical centre.
Valencia is also considering restrictions on cruise ships in the city
Back in Valencia, and the mayor has also suggested that the city may move to change the rules on cruise ships docking there in the future.
Saying the issue of the boats “deserves reflection” Catalá floated the idea of “limiting and reducing the arrival of mega-cruise ships”.
She announced that there are plans in the works to set up a permanent group with members of the City Council, the Port Authority and the cruise sector “to regulate cruise traffic”.
“We want to design a shared social and environmental sustainability strategy for cruises and ensure quality cruise tourism, seeking the deseasonalisation of stopovers, the distribution of the flow of cruise passengers at the destination and planning,” she said.
Catalá also indicated her team will “prioritise those ships that use Valencia as a base port, that is, those that spend the night in the city and, therefore, that generate a greater economic impact and… seek quality tourism.”
Budapest plans to ban short-term rentals
Hungary’s capital is also cracking down on overtourism, and has just announced it will be banning all short-term rentals in the city.
Budapest residents narrowly voted to ban this form of accommodation – but it won’t come into effect until 1 January 2026.
It won’t be a sweeping measure, however.
From 2026, the ban will only affect one small part of Budapest, District VI, also known as Terézváros.
Despite its relative diminutive size, the ban will likely be felt with some significance as it’s one of the most densely populated areas of the city.
54 per cent of people living there voted in the affirmative on the ban and it’s now suggested it might be just the first of such decisions to be made.
Victor Orban’s government has reportedly been keen to put bans like this in place across the country.
Many people in Hungary are unhappy over short-term lets contributing to an ongoing housing shortage as well as unaffordability for local residents.
Athens will ban some new short-term lets from 2025
Greece’s capital has also announced its plans to ban new short-term lets from 1 January 2025, although the move only seems to be temporary at the moment.
Just one day after the Budapest decision, Greece’s government has announced it will stop issuing new short-term rental licences in the first, second and third municipal districts in the centre of Athens
For now, the restriction will only remain in place for 12 months.
After that period, authorities will take a close look at whether the ban has had enough of an impact on overtourism and the local housing situation before deciding whether or not to extend it.
Previously, the government had only wanted to test out the scheme for 90 days, but it was soon decided that would not have been long enough.
Instead, the year-long trial will apply to districts where short-term lets comprise more than 5 per cent of the total housing stock and, therefore, have a noticeable impact on the lives of residents.
Authorities in Athens will also work with landlords to encourage them to be more considerate to locals and the environment.
Athens tourist tax to rise
Following a summer of natural disasters related to climate change, the local government will impose a daily tax on short-term rentals to deal with the ongoing crisis.
During the busy April to October period, the tax will increase from the current €1.5 a day to €8.
In the low season, it will go up from €0.50 to €2 per day, according to news agency Reuters.
Despite overtourism and forest fires, which have seen countless evacuations, 2024 is set to be a record year for Greece in terms of tourism revenue. It’s expected the country’s income from the sector could reach up to €22 billion by the end of the year.
Such measures haven’t affected other European tourism hotspots too negatively in the recent past.
In August, following the lead of cities like London, Dublin, Amsterdam and Paris, the Czech capital announced it’s planning to limit the amount of short-term tourist accommodation available.
Prague’s authorities are hoping that the proposed move will bring down real estate prices – and ensure residents are not forced out by tourists.
Barcelona has gone one step further still.
The popular Spanish coastal city has announced plans which, it hopes, will eliminate all tourist rentals by 2028. Reaction has been mixed there, however, among local Catalans and the city’s large foreign-born population, which has now reached a significant 25 per cent.
Author
Japan Airlines says the promotion is designed to provide a “seamless travel experience” across the archipelago.
Japan Airlines is offering some international travellers free domestic flights to explore more of the country.
The airline’s domestic network includes services to 64 airports on 133 routes. It hopes the free flights will encourage passengers to delve deeper into regions of Japan they wouldn’t normally explore.
That includes experiences like visiting Kyoto’s 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites or getting away from the big city in the magical landscapes of Hokkaido in the north of the country. Or in Kagoshima, known as the gateway to Japan’s southern islands, you could experience some of the country’s top outdoor adventures.
Japan Airlines says the promotion is designed to provide a “seamless travel experience” across the archipelago.
It could also help to ease overtourism in some of the country’s most popular destinations – such as Mount Fuji, which has had to introduce entry fees and daily visitor caps to reduce crowding.
Earlier this year, surveys from more than 21 million passengers in 100 countries flying with more than 350 airlines named Japan Airlines as one of the best in the world.
How to get free domestic flights with Japan Airlines
The offer means you can get complimentary domestic flights if you book an international flight into the country with the airline. To qualify, both a Japan Airlines international flight and a matching domestic flight must be booked in the same reservation.
A stopover fee applies for passengers from the US, Canada, Mexico and China if they plan to stay in their first destination for more than 24 hours before travelling on.
Currently, the offer is only open to travellers from the US, Canada, Mexico and Thailand. It will open up for visitors from Singapore on 18 September, Australia and New Zealand on 19 September, Vietnam and the Philippines on 25 September and Indonesia, India, China and Taiwan on 27 September.
Japan Airlines also says it plans to expand the list of eligible countries later in September.
The offer also has a generous baggage allowance. If you purchase a Japan Airlines domestic flight fare from outside of Japan, economy class passengers can check in up to two pieces of luggage weighing up to 23 kg.
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