News and AnalysIs for

The USO news this week is heavy on discontent at refineries with Cartagena refinery determining a strike date and Apiay refinery workers worried about losing their jobs. Ecopetrol plans to close the Apiay facility because of low productivity but workers accuse management of the problems. More workers in Meta face an uncertain future after Incoequipos, an oil services subcontractor closed its doors.

Caracol Radio reported that, according to Bruce Mac Master, director of the Social Prosperity Department, the number of poor people in areas that develop large scale mining projects has increased. Mac Master said that there are over 2.5M people living in poverty in departments as Antioquia, Chocó, Norte de Santander and Boyaca, in which the country’s major mining companies have influence.

The USO says that demonstrations continue in the region of Arauca. We reported on this news item last week. At that time the mayor of Arauca reported that the siege of Caño Limón had been lifted. This news item suggests the USO have taken the demonstrations on the road to other local towns. Gasoline distributor Terpel, which recently announced it was going for a bond issue, receives the usual USO castigation for the sin of outsourcing and Ecopetrol decides to give more jobs to local people in Barrancabermeja.

Business newspaper Portafolio reported that President Juan Manuel Santos said the government appointed six delegates of the National Planning Department (DNP) to decentralize this entity and establish direct contact with governors and mayors. The goal is to accelerate implementation of royalty-financed projects. The governors and mayors may think this is not enough.

National weekly news magazine Semana published an article with the collaboration of Juan Carlos Sierra on the need for prior consultations with indigenous people in the Tayrona National Natural Park, and how this may influence the approval of other projects in other regions of the country.

In an interview with RCN Radio, the mayor of Arauca, Luis Emilio Tovar, said that after a week of protests, the situation at the Caño Limon Coveñas complex was partially normalized: “The entrance to the Caño Limón complex was restored; we are already entering with a military convoy. The rest of the department is blocked but today the public transportation is available and people are coming and going to Arauca “.

The USO news this week highlighted an ongoing fight about the December 11th death of Milton Rivas, a union leader in Puerto Gaitan. Public officials claim his death was the union’s fault something obviously denied by the leadership. The USO’s president went to Washington to claim Rivas’ death was a result of deteriorating working conditions caused by the Free Trade Agreement with the US, a claim that makes no sense whatsoever considering this is Puerto Gaitan and not Caño Limón.

Multiple sources in the Colombian news media reported that Pacific Rubiales has signed an agreement with the National Agency to Overcome Extreme Poverty (ANSPE) and the Puerto Lopez mayor’s office, to help eradicate poverty in this municipality.

National newspaper El Tiempo reports that the government’s agenda has been slowed due to prior consultations with ethnic minorities. The lack of clarity in the process has suspended the progress of the rural development law, Mining Code reform, section 3 of the Ruta del Sol highway and the CARs (regional autonomous environmental authorities) reform, among other projects, until minorities approve them.

The USO is back protesting the creation of Cenit SAS, the Ecopetrol spinout that holds the state-owned oil company’s infrastructure assets. This would seem to be a train that left the station a long time ago but it does give the union a soapbox to preach from. In other news, the USO continues to target Ecopetrol contractors to get their workers back into the union fold.