Now that the FRG has stopped importing Russian coal in the wake of the EU coal embargo against Russia, it is looking for alternatives to importing coal to ensure energy security. The EU is currently dependent on Russia for about 45 per cent of its coal imports. One of these alternatives is Colombia. There were already talks between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Colombian President Iván Duque at the beginning of April. Duque named three areas in which he would be willing to increase production immediately. Oil and gas production, hard coal and renewable energies such as green hydrogen. In March, Germany already imported 1.3 million tonnes of coal from Colombia, an increase of 47.3 percent compared to the previous year.
Coal in Colombia is mainly produced in the El Cerrejón mine in the La Guajira region in the northwest of Colombia, which is operated by the Swiss mining company Glencor. The mine is one of the largest open-cast coal mines in the world. About 30 million tonnes of coal are exported annually from El Cerrejón to the world, for years also to Germany.
For years, the mine has even made headlines in the bourgeois press because of the eviction of the population or the destruction of nature in the area. The mine is located in the territory of the indigenous Wayuu, whose livelihoods are increasingly being destroyed by coal mining. The old Colombian state, with its armed henchmen, naturally serves as an enforcer of the interests of the imperialist mining corporation. Evictions of the population are the order of the day and would increase even more with an expansion of the mine in order to export more to Germany and Europe, as announced by Duque. So-called energy security in the FRG, as it turns out, is directly linked to the misery of the poor Colombian masses, who are displaced, fought against and murdered.
In order to secure social peace in the FRG and to continue to guarantee energy supply despite the crisis, the Colombian people have to suffer. This fact that the prosperity and the "good life" here in the FRG are built on the backs of the oppressed peoples further aggravates the situation worldwide, especially the main contradiction on the world level, which is between imperialism and oppressed nations. While the German imperialists are trying to ensure social peace here, new struggles will develop in Colombia. This system shows that it is not viable, because it is based on oppression and the oppressed will not stop fighting until they smash this system.
