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José Antonio Vaca Bello is married and has two daughters. He has been a member of the Mennonite Church for more than 35 years and has carried out different responsibilities within the church at a local and national level. Currently he serves as treasurer of the church leadership team. During his time as a student in university, he became interested in ecological and environmental themes. Amy Eanes of MCC Colombia sat down for an interview about mining issues and the Mennonite church in Jose’s city of Ibagué, Tolima, Colombia.
Explain a bit about the situation regarding mining in Ibagué.
Some years ago, a “locomotive mining” process of giving mining titles to big multinational companies began as a way to drive economic development in Colombia. Unfortunately the government awarded these titles in a disproportionate way without any type of control, affecting large expanses of our territory, including protected areas such as páramos (alpine tundra-like watersheds found only in a few countries in Central and South America). Particularly in the municipality of Ibagué, they have already awarded and/or are processing requests for mining titles covering 53% of our territory, the majority of which are located in delicate ecosystems, such as the páramos of the Los Nevados National Park and the watershed of the Combeima River, which provides practically all of the water which we consume. These titles endanger our right to safe and clean water.
Banner made by the youth of the Mennonite Church (Water is worth more than gold. Get out Anglogold Ashanti) Left to Right: Juliana Gil, Marleny Calle, Rosemberg Ipuz, Isaías Rodríguez, Alejandra Avendaño, Daniel Vargas, Marta Tamayo, José Vaca, Rut Atarama y Luz Amanda Valencia. / Pancarta hecha por los jóvenes de la iglesia Menonita (Vale + el Agua, que el oro. Fuera Anglogold Ashanti) Aparecen de Izq. A Der. Juliana Gil, Marleny Calle, Rosemberg Ipuz, Isaías Rodríguez, Alejandra Avendaño, Daniel Vargas, Marta Tamayo, José Vaca, Rut Atarama y Luz Amanda Valencia.
How has the Ibagué Christian Mennonite Church been involved in these processes?
One of the companies which possesses more than 73% of the mining titles in our municipality is Anglogold Ashanti (AGA), a South African company who began a mining megaproject ten years ago called La Colosa. La Colosa is located in a neighboring municipality, Cajamarca, which is known as the agricultural basket of the department of Tolima, as it is the municipality that produces the majority of our food. As soon as AGA began an exploratory phase for the megaproject, many environmental organizations warned us about the negative consequences of this project, particularly in regards to the water sources but also regarding the socioeconomic impacts it would have on the population. This served as the motivation for different demonstrations against the project, known as the Marcha Carnaval, which include cultural, creative, and peaceful expressions which show love for our territory, as well as for mother earth who provides us with the essentials of what we need to live, and rejecting the contaminating mega mining which brings death in various forms. This year, the 8th march was held. Since the 3rd march, a group of youth from the church as well as some other interested members decided to support the cause. We made protest banners that read “No to Mega Mining” and “Water is worth more than gold, get out AGA” which we posted on the front of the church where the march was passing by, and we also joined in the march.
How do you see this work as part of the mission of the church? What is the theological basis for the work that you do?
We firmly believe that the salvation God offers is not only for human beings, but also for all of his creation. We began to get interested in this topic as a church in 2000 with the celebration of the Biblical Jubilee, when we received material from the organization Dimensión Educativa entitled “Let the Whole Creation Rest!” The mission of the church should be holistic and inclusive, which means that it should not just center on human beings but also on their surroundings.
One Biblical passage we use as a theological basis for our work is Romans 8:22-23 (NLT):
For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children including the new bodies he has promised us.
God will restore his creation, but he needs an instrument in order to do it. We as people of faith are the instrument that he will use for this restoration.
José A. Vaca (at center) with Ibagué mayor Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo / José A. Vaca (al centro) con el alcalde de Ibagué, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo.
What have been and continue to be challenges for the church in these processes?
The great challenge is to raise awareness in each of our brothers and sisters. This is not an easy task, since for many, environmental degradation is not evident or seen as a priority among other pressing concerns, such as unemployment and poverty. Little by little indifference has to be overcome and we need to make people aware that the future of our children depends on what we do now.
What have been the achievements or steps forward in this process?
At the beginning, it was difficult to involve our congregation. We are not a big church; we have around sixty members and an average attendance of eighty people on Sunday. We began with only four youth who began to get actively involved in the process, with some of the others participating in a passive way; in recent marches we have been able to involve 15-20 people from the church.
This process has also led to the creation of a social movement linked to other organizations, which in turn has little by little acquired some political influence and served to pressure the government to take into account care for the environment and environmental aspects of development projects. The election of our new mayor has also helped to protect the environment and water sources. His influence achieved a favorable climate, allowing a popular consultation on the mining project and its importance, despite the intense lobbying that AGA has done and their financing of many programs, including parties and sports.
Speaking of sports, a youth movement from popular neighborhoods became connected with the environmental movement, becoming protagonists in the marches. They were even able to eliminate AGA’s support in Tolima sports by pressuring the team’s owner to no longer receive financing from AGA in order to maintain fan support.
All of this has created the favorable conditions to talk about a popular consultation around mining rights. AGA had already received mining titles, but the new mayor presented the proposal of having a mining consultation (or referendum on whether a community would like to permit mining activities or not), and with people’s awareness raised, the council said yes.
Above what the central government decides to do with the subsoil, what local people say about the impacts of the project should be prioritized. We must have an argument which holds political weight in order to pressure the central government not to go against the communities and their right to protest, and which causes them to seek other sources of development in the regions, such as agriculture or tourism.
This movement has had other impacts, including questioning the practices of a nearby feldspar mine, which has had to change their practice of using dynamite during extraction.
Left to right / De Izq. A Der. Angelica Lopez, Luz Amanda Valencia, Daniel Vargas, Meri Elen Soto, Maria José Ospina, Sarita Ospina, Milena Bautista y Rosemberg Ipuz.
What hopes and future projections does the church have for the future related to this process?
I would like there to be a formal group within the church which reads and lives out the Bible through ecological and environmental lenses, and which can also have more spaces within the formative processes of the congregation via sermons and Biblical teachings. Right now we are facing the challenge of involving the entire congregation in the mining consultation, whose date has already been postponed twice.
Please pray for the Mennonite Church in Ibagué and other organizations participating in the process of claiming their right to referendum on whether they would like to allow mining projects in their communities. The consultation was originally scheduled for October 2, 2016, and pushed back to October 30th once the referendum on the Colombian peace accords was scheduled for the same date; recently, the consultation was pushed back indefinitely due to objections to the wording of the question. The churches and organizations involved are planning a demonstration on October 30th to show public support for the initiative.