In the weeks following the Festival of the Sun that the culminated June 26th
in the park of the town of Gigante, the Movement for the Defense and
the Liberation of Mother Earth has been preparing for the next Minga. A
traditional Andean practice of collective and communal work, in recent
years the Minga has gathered strength in indigenous communities as a
collective and communal mobilization in defense of territories that have
been assaulted by state policies of militarization and resource
extraction. In recent weeks the media has focused on the Nasa people in north Cauca liberating their territories of the presence of armed groups. Hoever, not much has been mentioned about the weeks-long Minga of Resistance in the Sibundoy Valley in Putumayo against the San Francisco Highway and mining in sacred territories, as well as national mobilizations against mining and energy projects that kicked off August 1st that have brought people into the streets from la Guajira to Medellin.
In the opening days of July, despite photos continuing to surface from the Quimbo construction site showing the retention walls cracked and the river continuing its resistance to being diverted and workers from the site claiming that the tunnel in which the river was to be diverted in is also cracked, the press continues to neglect the story. Emgesa, the energy company responsible for the dam´s construction and operation, has still not been able to fully divert the Huacayo-Magdalena River and Emgesa and the Director of Environmental Licenses of the Ministry of Environment, Luz Helena Sarmiento, still have not made any announcements or have given explanations about the first and second die-offs of fish that have occurred in the dam´s construction area.
In
attempts to criminalize the Association of Affected of the Quimbo
Hydroelectric Project (Asoquimbo) and South Colombian University
Professor Miller Dussan, Colonel Juan Francisco Pelaez Ramirez of the
National Police of Colombia, ordered on March 7 an investigation of
Dussan for his behavior caught on video during violent and illegal
displacement of local inhabitants from the banks of the Magdalena River
on February 14 and 15. Days later, on March 16, Emgesa´s legal
representative for Judicial and Administrative Affairs Jairo Ernesto
Arias Orjuela, requested information from the South Colombian University
regarding Professor Dussan´s resume, later clarifying that it was to
solicit a background check through powers of the Attorney General's Office. As a result of these hostile actions, an international campaign led by academics has come out in support of Professor Dussan and the work he has done in defense of the affected communities. 
On July 10, the first communities
that Emgesa supposedly successfully negotiated with in 2009, la
Escalaereta and Balseadero, formed a strike at the entrance of their
community after local inhabitant, day laborer and renter Carlos Alberto
Marín, was displaced when Emgesa workers destroyed the house he was
living in after the owner sold the property. 
“To
date we do not want leave this territory, though we feel forced by the
government to leave our lands. The environmental license says that we
are to be relocated to an area where we will be set up in conditions
that ‘are equal to or better’ then how are living now, though to date
the company is showing its true colors and is going back on its words”
explained resident of la Escalereta, Estela Gutierrez. Inhabitants of
the two communities formed the strike demanding that the company keep
its end of the negotiations made in 2009, that renters be recognized as
part of the affected population, and that a new census be opened. 
While Emgesa agreed to relocate the entirety of the two communities to the Llano of the Virgin,
director of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project Julio Santafe told local
media days later during roundtable assemblies that the company did not
have the land to relocate the communities so land owners would be
compensated for their property, but that communities of la Escalereta,
Balseadero, San Jose de Belén and Veracruz will not be relocated and
that the company refuses to open another census.
Upon finding out that there would not be another census and that they
would not be relocated, the communities of Rioloro and Veracruz, members
of Asoquimbo, have also taken up a blockade
denying entry of representatives from Emgesa into their community.
While lacking funds to meet with the demands of the Environmental
License, Codensa (Colombian Endesa Conglomerate) and Emgesa had a 29.43% net increase in the first 6 months of 2012 which translates to $247 million in profits for Codensa and over $349 million for Emgesa. 
In
the final weeks of July, the Social Pastoral of the Colombian
Episcopalian Church and Conservative Party Deputy of the Regional Huila
Assembly Sandra Milena Hernandez exposed that even before the Quimbo
Hydroelectric Project has been completed, a team of 17 geologists,
hydrologists, architects, and civil and hydraulic engineers have been
touring southern Huila performing the preliminary studies and preparing
to purchase more lands for more dams. Chinese company Hydrochina, along with CORMAGDALENA (Autonomous Environmental Corporation of the Magdalena River), have been surveying the sites of Pericongo Canyon, the Guarapas River and the Sombrerillos Canyon
that would cover the world famous Estrecho del Magdalena in San
Agustin. As a result of these actions, the potentially affected
communities in the municipalities of Pitalito, San Agustin, San José de
Isnos and Oporapa have been having public forums to inform local inhabitants about the social and environmental impacts of these projects and prepare for the upcoming struggles against Hydrochina. 
Governor Cielo Gonzalez and other regional politicians of the Department of Huila were
not aware of the presence of the survey team in Huila told inhabitants
of the Municipality of Palestina on July 22 that during her term as
governor she “would not allow any more hydroelectric projects in Huila”. Hernandez, who denounced the survey team to local media, also sent a formal complaint
to the Ministry of Defense to only be reprimanded and threatened for
her actions by Colonel Pelaez Ramirez. The actions against Hernandez and
Dussan are treated as clear evidence and are being denounced for the criminalizing of freedom of speech and expression. 
As
a result of this advance in the transnational-corporate takeover of the Magdalena River and territory of Huila, on July 30 a public debate was
held in Neiva regarding the impacts of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Projects and future dams in the Department of Huila,
while once again invited guests such as Minister of Environment Frank
Pearl and Director of Environmental Licenses Luz Helena Sarmiento did
not attend. Secretary General of the department of Huila, Julio Cesar
Triana, guaranteed
that “the Departmental Government was making sure that the commitments
made to those affected by the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project are being
met”. 
Zoila
Ninco, day laborer, fisher-woman and member of Asoquimbo from the
community of La Jagua reminded those in the public debate that do not
even live in the affected region that, “I am here to demand answers from
the government regarding the destruction that has occurred in our
region and to remind everyone that where the Quimbo Dam is being built
is where we will have our Campesino Reserve, we do not want this dam or
any dam in our territory”.
In
response to continued assault of the Upper Huacayo-Magdalena River
Valley and the Colombian Macizo (Highlands) Asoquimbo, the Regional
Indigenous Council of Huila- CRIHU, the Civic Movement of La Plata and
the other entities in Huila that make of the Movement for the Defense
and Liberation of Mother Earth will commence a Minga for the Recuperation and Liberation of Mother Earth in the following week.
