The energy company Enel Colombia, one of those that was building one of the 16 wind projects that are planned to be developed in La Guajira, in the north of the country, announced this Wednesday that it will indefinitely suspend the construction of the Windpeshi park, capable of generating up to 205 megawatts of power. “This decision, adopted by the Board of Directors of the Company after exhausting the internal corporate instances, was made due to the impossibility of guaranteeing the construction rhythms of the project, due to the constant paths of fact and high expectations that exceed the framework of action of the organization,” the company says in a statement.
In it, they explain that, despite having invested more than 1,700 million Colombian pesos (380,000 dollars) in projects that benefit the communities, due to the blockades, “the works were stopped for about 50% of the working days during 2021 and 2022, and so far in 2023 the figure has risen to 60%”.
During the first days of May, the company had warned that it was evaluating “all possible scenarios” about the future of the park. Although the project already had prior consultation carried out and approved by the 12 communities where the wind turbines would be installed, on several occasions Wayuu indigenous people from nearby territories had blocked the project to claim that they too should have been consulted and received compensation for the presence of the 45 wind towers that the company would build.
Enel’s announcement comes just days after the Ministry of Mines and Energy indicated that a consultation table had been reached between this portfolio, the office of Indigenous Affairs of Maicao (La Guajira) and the Wayuu Nation organization, to calm and solve the protests that were developing communities in Romana and Julapa.
But as América Futura recounted in a recent report, not all the communities were against the development of the project, especially those that had already approved the prior consultation. In Flor de la Frontera, a territory bordering Venezuela, several of the compensation agreements that were signed with Enel were viewed favorably. An access road and a micro-aqueduct were created, as well as projects to improve housing, cattle and goats, and the enclosure of cemeteries. This, despite the fact that area leaders also warned that there were things they would like to have, but they were left out. “We wanted to be part of the company and have light. But Enel tells us that it is not possible, that it is very expensive to put electricity here, for that reason they are giving us some compensation for the time they are in our territory”, assured Euniris Catherine Ramírez, Wayuu and daughter of the Flor de Flor de border.
The mess of prior consultations in La Guajira
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Despite the fact that La Guajira is considered the epicenter of the energy transition in Colombia, the arrival of wind projects has accentuated conflicts that already existed in this territory, mostly involving the Wayuu ethnic community. Studies carried out by Indepaz, as well as complaints filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), have warned that, in many cases, the wind companies are not signing the agreements or carrying out prior consultations with the Wayuu owners of the territory, but with people who live there, but are not the owners of the land, which has increased conflict in the region.
Even last December, a document signed by 105 Wayuu leaders from various areas of La Guajira and addressed to the Minister of Mines, Irene Vélez, requested to repeat all the previous consultations carried out in that territory within the framework of the energy transition. This, in order to be able to organize the territory and prevent the wind farms from bringing more disputes.
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