Colombia faces lawsuit over mining regulations

Late last week, the board of directors of Canadian multinational mining company Eco Oro Minerals Corp announced that it would sue the Colombian government because of the Colombian Constitutional Court’s ruling to ban all mining activity in the country’s protected zones and high-altitude moorlands. Eco Oro explained that it would be suing under the investment chapter of the free trade agreement between Canada and Colombia. The report noted that Tobie Mining Inc also decided in February to sue Colombia for $16 million for the same reason.

In oil-related news, the New Republic, the storied liberal American political magazine, published a lengthy piece exploring what will happen in Colombia after a peace agreement is signed between the government and the FARC. Astutely, the New Republic argued that, “In large part, the story of a ‘post-conflict’ Colombia is a story about oil.” Roger Cohen recognizes that the Colombian government’s lofty promises of rebuilding and bringing government services to marginalized parts of the country require financing. And oil revenue, which has subsidized much of the government’s spending over the last decade, has disappeared and is unlikely to return.