Multinationals 'on trial' for mining activities in Colombia http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/9737-multinationals-on-trial-for-mining-activities-in-colombia.html

Several multinational companies with activities in Colombia are ‘to be tried’ in Madrid this weekend during the fourth Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (TPP). Most cases deal with violations of human rights and liability for environmental degradation.

The companies being symbolically persecuted by the people’s tribunal include mining conglomerate Carbones de Cerrejón, British oil giant BP, the Italian multinational Impregilo and the Spanish-based utility companies Unión Fenosa-Gas Natural and Canal de Isabel II.

Carbones de Cerrejón, a Swiss/British/Australian joint-venture in which participate mining companies BHP Billiton, AngloAmerican and Xstrata, is held responsible for the killing of opposition leaders and forced displacement of indigenous and Afro-Colombian people in its areas of operation in the departments of La Guajira, Cesar and Antioquia