The Socio-Environmental Conflict of the Santurbán Wetland.

A Bioethical Analysis with a

Political Ecology Focus

Abstract

This article presents an analysis, from a bioethical perspective with a political ecology focus, of the
socio-environmental conflict of the Santurbán wetland after the delineation. A case study was
performed that implemented qualitative techniques such as observation and in-depth interviews to try
to identify, first, the ideas of nature that are held by each of the diverse actors in the dispute, second,
the appropriation strategies of the social movements, and, lastly, to unveil if the “difference in equality”
as a bioethical value is present in the de elemental alternatives offered to the different communities
of the wetland. In the findings, it was determined that the diverse actors fight for the appropriation of
the wetlands with heterogeneous ideas. Nonetheless, these perceptions coexist in all the actors with
hybrid notions. The formation of the social movements was weak in the miner social leaders, and the
“difference in equality” as a bioethical value is not present in the developmental alternatives that will
redefine the future of the Santurbán communities.

Key words: Socio-environmental conflict, bioethics, political ecology, ideas of nature, re appropriation
strategies, “difference in equality” as a bioethical value.

Introduction

Socio-environmental conflicts in Latin America and Colombia are on the rise because of the extractive
policies of governments, for whom natural resources are sources of wealth and development,
regardless of whether this means the detriment of ecosystems or the quality of their lives. Life of the
populations that live there and that have established a relationship with their natural environments
different from those that are characteristic of the capitalist model. Consequently, for these
communities, the exploitation of these resources represents violations of their territory, autonomy,
collective rights, among others.

In this aspect, the investigative antecedents in the field of socio-environmental conflicts at a global
level establish that 40% of these take place in Latin American countries; Colombia is the country that
ranks second with 95 cases, after India. These conflicts represent the environmental degradation of
ecosystems, biodiversity, forests, water resources, as well as the involvement of peasant and
indigenous communities and other ethnic groups (see Envi-ronmental Justice Atlas, 2015). In this
sense, Pérez-Rincón (2014) points out that in Colombia the Andean Region is the most affected area
with 45 cases, especially mining and hydroelectric projects, followed by the Caribbean Coast with 23
cases, product of the extraction of the fossil energy These regions concentrate 90% of the inhabitants
of the country.

This study also shows that the most affected resource is water, since it involves 32% of cases.
Likewise, it highlights that social movements have been fundamental to stop
These exploitation projects to implement resistance mechanisms, including stoppages, marches, and
blockades, as well as legal and legal strategies. However, despite the fact that the struggle of these
groups occurs in unparalleled situations, to date 14 projects have been stopped, which has been
called "triumphs of environmental justice".

Among the cases of greatest socio-environmental conflict in Colombia is the Santurbán wasteland,
located in the Santander and Norte de Santander departments, which at the end of 2011 became the
object of dispute by various actors. The cause of the conflict was the claim of a multinational mining
company to exploit in the open, which would affect the water of more than two million inhabitants, and
at the same time it would damage the biodiversity of the complex. This caused the reaction of a group
of environmentalists who managed to stop the project through various strategies. In effect, between
2012 and 2014, the multinationals that were in the páramo entered stand by order of the government;
this caused a break in the livelihoods of the communities that historically have lived through the
exploitation of gold, which affected their economies and lifestyles. These social groups were
conformed in the other side of the conflict, since the small miners had sold their titles to these
companies, while the traditional mining fell by the great exigencies in the fulfillment of the
environmental norms.

On December 23, 2014, the national government issued Resolution 2090, which marked the limits of
the Santurbán wasteland, and demarcated the areas where mining could be carried out. Therefore,
it established that of the 260,000 hectares represented by the ecosystem , 129 743 will be protected.
As a result, this measure would harm small-scale miners while large multinationals would continue to
operate off-line, which in practice would not correct the pollution of the effluents that supply the
aqueducts of Santander and Norte de Santander. which continued the environmental protest.

On February 8, 2016, the Constitutional Court issued Judgment C-035, which prohibits any type of
mining activity in the delimited areas of the páramos, which would render Resolution 2090 flat. In
effect, the uncertainties about the future of the páramo and those who live there. This ruling led to
new demands from environmentalists against the 2090 demarcation. Uncertainty and expectations
continue to date, especially on the part of the Santurbán communities that are most affected by legal
decisions.

In this context, the questions that are generated are multiple and varied: what will be the future of
water in these territories? What will happen to the communities in the region that have historically
lived through mining? What are the ideas of The nature of the actors in this conflict? What is the
interference of the communities in the decision-making and design of their own futures? Will the
mining of the lands disappear? Do the legal decisions really protect the páramos? What bioethical
principles govern decision making? The opinions that are made regarding the future of the Santurbán
wasteland will possibly be replicated as a model for the other 34 páramos found in Colombian territory.
Hence the importance in analyzing this conflict from a bioethical perspective with a focus on political
ecology.

Political ecology is an approach aimed at analyzing the way in which nature is denatured since the
conquest and colonization
of America and how that idea has lasted until our times and has promoted the expropriation of
territories, cultures and identities. However, the expropriated populations struggle in an unequal way,
due to the appropriation of their worlds, Cosmo visions, therefore, their natural resources, which at
the same time mean their lifestyles, but above all their subsistence. This approach analyzes socio-
environmental conflicts from two dimensions: the ideas of the nature of the different actors of conflicts
and social movements. In this aspect, the research points out that the notions of nature in the different
Latin American cultural identities are diverse, yet there is still a tendency towards the anthropocentric
type, that is, they perceive nature as a mere object of consumption. For De Castro, Hogeboom and
Baud (2015, p.25) the recognition of the diverse conceptions of the nature of the different actors in
socio-environmental conflicts will be fundamental to determine the way in which these disputes should
be addressed, as well as the design of solutions and the establishment of priorities and agreements
between conflicting objectives.
Escobar (1999, p.284) classifies the ideas of nature into four types: capitalist, organic, technological,
and hybrid. The first is that nature converted into an object; as such, it is an article that is governed
by the values of use assigned by the logic of the market. The second presents a more integral
relationship between culture and biology, but above all it constitutes a different form to the capitalist
conception of nature. Stresses that currently it is not possible to speak of natures in pure state,
because in one way or another have been permeated by Western culture; nevertheless, these organic
worlds today struggle to continue according to their worldviews, interactions and exchanges. The third
is defined as the field of artificiality where technoscience mediates between biology and history. Here
nature is reinvented, by attending a redesign of evolution in which the organic is altered or replaced
by artificial models. Finally, the hybrid nature is built up in the exchanges between the traditional and
the modern, the global and the local; In this sense, it is pointed out that social movements, although
they have ecological and cultural roots, necessarily require certain strategies of the market economy
to subsist. In this way, resistances fight for their local models of nature that give rise to alternative
forms of development.

The study of social movements is also shaped in another dimension of political ecology. Saade Hazin
(2013) identified that the socio-environmental mining conflicts in Colombia, Mexico and Peru face the
actors in two ways: on the one hand, the mining companies and the communities; on the other hand,
conflicts between the national government and local authorities, because of the distribution of tax
revenues from mining activities, which are inequitable.

Sabatini (1998, p.6) points out that local environmental problems are of a unique and unrepeatable
nature, which is why government legislations are short to provide solutions. It also considers that the
concept of environment has multiple dimensions, including justice, but this can not be approached
only from a distributive justice model, but must be examined from the notions of justice of those
involved and their configurations in relation to its socio-environmental world. For its part, Urán (2013,
p.256) notes that, in Colombia, one of the main causes in socio-environmental conflicts is the large-
scale mining practiced by multinationals, that has all the guarantees, while artisanal mining is
demonized by the government, which decreases the life options of those who have traditionally
depended on this activity. Alimonda (2011, p.21) considers that these tensions due to the cultural
relationship -nature-life, which are being channeled through social movements in Latin America, must
understand the historical perspective of the region, which has been and continues to be that of a
colonized nature, which has been expropriated and denatured.

Although the focus of political ecology conforms to important dimensions such as those mentioned,
the ethics of life or bioethics of social groups against the denaturalization of nature still appear timidly,
hence the importance of articulating these two perspectives. bioethics was born in 1927 with the
German Fritz Jahr (see Sass, 2011) who coined this term to draw attention to human beings about
the ethical considerations they should have towards all life forms, especially with animals and plants,
to those that it recognizes as ends in themselves. Towards the second half of the 20th century, Potter
(1998, pp.2-5) presents bioethics as a global proposal that articulates society-nature-politics as axes
for human survival. However, Anglo-Saxon approaches disarticulate the global sense of bioethics to
guide it to three aspects: medical ethics, the eco-environmental and the social.2 For its part, Latin
American bioethical approaches are strongly based on medical ethics, although in the In recent years,
a bioethical proposal with an ecology which raises the need to articulate ecological issues with social
problems, marked by poverty and inequality in the global world.

Heinzmann and Fonti (2012) consider that the models of traditional bioethics and environmental
ethics do not provide answers to the complex situations emerging in Latin America, as in the case of
socio-environmental conflicts, whose social actors fight for the defense of natural resources, of
territory, of biodi-versity, in order to preserve the enormous natural heritage and, therefore, also social
and cultural that characterizes the continent. Consequently, the authors define bioethics as "the
place" where arguments and courses of action in favor of life and the environment interact, that benefit
the common good. They also denounce the recognition of the interlocutors as an essential condition
for dialogue. They consider that the contribution of bioethics goes beyond analysis and evaluation, to
elaborate strategies or to support existing ones in order to denounce and demand the violated rights,
particularly those that affect life; in this sense, they believe that recognizing the notions, conceptions
and practices of the actors that are affected in these disputes, constitutes the beginning of any
bioethical strategy.

At the national level, there is a clearer interest between bioethics and these environmental tensions,
but especially an approach that proposes bioethics as a mediator in socio-environmental conflicts is
being developed. The works of Pi-neda (2012, page 14), Mueses (2011, page 78) and Guerra (2012,
page 22) are on this horizon.

In spite of the above, bioethics in Latin America is still weak with respect to the recognition of cultural
differences and the way they relate to nature, creating alternative models not only productive, but
worlds impregnated with interactions, thoughts, practices, values, among others, built from their own
worldviews. The Andean philosophies4 constitute a valuable reference for the foundation of Latin
American bioethics; among them is the "buen vivir" (see Gudynas, 2012; 2013; Guillen & Phélan,
2012), a philosophy of the indigenous and marginalized peoples of the Latin American region,
therefore, its proclamations, different from the developmental model, they are oriented towards an
ethic of life that summons the world in a holistic, complex and collective way.

Consequently, this study proposed to articulate bioethics with political ecology, as such, was oriented
to identify the ideas of nature through which the various actors re-appropriate the Santurbán
wasteland after the delimitation, as well as the bioethics or ethics of the life that is interwoven in these
perceptions. He also determined whether "the difference in equality" as a bioethical value was present
in the development alternatives that will redefine the future of the páramo communities.

1. MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study was conducted through an interpretative approach, case study design, "which was oriented
to understand the meaning of an experience, and involved the intense and deep examination of
various aspects of the same phenomenon" ( Pérez Serrano cited in Galeano, 2004, p.66). The case
is marked by individuality, but at the time many other cases can be seen reflected in it. For Galeano
(2004, p.70), the singular history of a case is configured from of reading its complexity: cultural, social,
economic, physical, political, among others. Cases can be of three types depending on the interest
of study: intrinsic, its value lies in what is its own and characteristic, so that it reveals its own history;
instrumental, when it is part of a more extensive study; collective cases, which seek comparison to
obtain similar or contrasting results.

This case study was based on an intrinsic interest and was constituted by the socio-environmental
conflict of the Santurbán wasteland after delimitation, in which the various actors reappropriate nature
with multiple interests. The unit of macro analysis were the ideas or regimes of the nature of the
various actors, and their bioethics. Also, it was examined whether "the difference in equality"
proposed as a bioethical value was present in the delimitation that was made of said ecosystem.

As a result of the above, the actors of the conflict were selected according to their interests: individual
or collective, in short, fifteen actors. In effect, eleven leaders of collective character, among them nine
formal and informal mining leaders were named for this study as social actors; On the other hand,
two leaders of the group of environmentalists, since their interests are also of a collective nature.

Among the individual actors, three leaders of the company that provoked the conflict were elected.
Finally, a government leader was selected as mediating actor. The selection criteria depended on the
leadership status, the gender equity, the representativeness of each selected municipality and the
availability of it.

The techniques applied were the observation of the social, human and natural context of the
Santurbán wasteland and the in-depth interviews carried out between June 2015 and February 2016.
To the fifteen selected leaders.5This technique was developed in three moments: a first meeting with
the interviewee, in which he spontaneously commented on the context of the conflict, his role in it and
his perspectives. A second moment, which led to the design of the interview taking into account the
specific objectives set in relation to the theoretical framework that sought to understand the categories
of these axes, and the informal dialogues that were conducted in the first moment with the
interviewee. A third moment, which corresponded to the application of the interview, where the
interviewee in full freedom exposed their perceptions, visions, expectations, interests, demands,
among others, on the socio-environmental conflict of Santurbán.

Later, the interpretation that entailed the codification of the data, the elaboration of the categorical
matrices was carried out, and finally, the triangulation process, which was carried out from the
relations between the axes categories, the theoretical model, the horizons of meaning and the
researcher's analysis. In this process of comparison and comparison, causal relationships were
established, and articulations with conceptual categories; Finally, the conclusions and
recommendations were drawn up.

2. DISCUSSION AND RESULTS

The ideas of nature are diverse in the actors of the socio-environmental conflict of Santurbán. The
social actors of Santurban presented ideas of a capitalist nature, environmental actors organic ideas,
individual actors techno-scientific ideas, and the mediating actor hybrid ideas. However, these
perceptions coexist in all the actors with hybrid notions.

2.1 THE SOCIAL ACTORS OF THE SANTURBÁN PARM: BETWEEN CAPITALIST AND HYBRID
IDEAS

Capitalist ideas dominate the social actors, this is revealed by proclaiming the continuity of the
multinationals in the region as the only life option for survival and development. This capitalist
perception is a consequence of the environmental history of the region, determined by the times of
the conquest and the colony when the Spaniards enslaved the indigenous Chitareros settlers of the
region who, although they did not exploit the gold, were converted by the Iberian conquerors in
mitayos to work in the mines (see Agua-do, cited by Pabón (1992, p.22).) Also at the beginning of the
18th century, a fact in the history of this region stands out, namely that the distinguished wise scientist
José Celestino Mutis inhabited the territory in search of gold, and although it seems that he failed in
the mission. This historical passage is transcendental for the inhabitants of the region, who feel very
proud of the event. of its leaders: "José Celestino Mutis had great influence in the opening of this
mining economy in the region, he was a pure environmentalist father with wisdom and economic
prospection for the two zone. "Subsequently, in the independence, foreign companies came to the
region to exploit the gold, an activity that took place during the following centuries. At the time,
traditional miners of the region also enjoyed the territory; however, towards the end of the 20th
century, constant pressure from the guerrillas and other groups outside the law led a large group of
small miners to sell their mining titles to the multinationals. In this way, the arrival of a Canadian
multinational would change the history of the region, an aspect emphasized by a mining leader:

The multinational generated more than 1,000 direct and 2,000 indirect jobs. A worker from a
multinational gained approximately one million pesos, apart from food, transportation, and security
im- plements, that would amount to two million pesos [...] With the forms of employment of the
multinationals, a large family was generated , that no longer thought about being hired, but to
generate services to contract directly.

Thus, the boom in employment and, therefore, the increase in the quality of life led to a large
percentage of the Santurbán communities generating labor and economic dependence on the
company. However, the Angosturas project, which the Canadian multinational sought to carry out at
the end of 2012, raised the environmental conscience of a group of environmentalists, due to the
adverse effects it would have on the water of more than 2,000,000 inhabitants, as well as devas-
tadoras for the biodiversity of the páramo.

In this aspect, Castro (1994, p.94) points out that Spanish colonization would not have been possible
without the complicity of the original populations of America, hence the Latin American-Latin
American economies, in search of their development, did not question the hegemony. capitalist. It is
important to note that the literature on political ecology analyzes the ways in which the Latin American
communities have emancipated against the colonial forms that have denatured the region by
undermining cultures, identities, bodies, ecologies; However, the case of Santurbán is different from
that presented by these analyzes, since the statements of the leaders of the region ratified that the
communities are allies of the multinationals and, therefore, are not against the activities they carry
out in the exploitation of gold, despite the detriment of the páramo ecosystem.

This study is significant in representing the voice of a mining community that goes against the ideals
of most of the peasant and indigenous communities of Latin America that have built a relationship
with the land -the pacha mama- of reciprocity. , com-plementarity, cyclicity as exposed by the Andean
philosophies. However, Alimonda (2011, p.30) argues that political ecology can not limit itself to
examining the human-nature interaction, but must try to understand the complex relationships that
are woven and the way in which it is being mediated by the power, violence and expropriation.

Despite this, in some miners the ideas of a hybrid nature prevailed, stating that, although they agree
that multinationals should continue in their territory, they must do so under responsible mining that
ensures the future of the ecosystem, as well as that of the Generations sold. In this sense, they stated:
"we must know how to exploit so as not to damage the environment", "nature is production and we
have to take care of it", "I want multinationals to arrive because they provide employment, they can
be provided there is control and surveillance and not on a large scale, but by tunnel ". But for Guerrero
(2009, p.5) although good mining practices are promoted, this will never be a sustainable activity,
given the long time it takes place with its consequent impacts.

Escobar (1999, p.308) considers that these forms of hybrid coexistence contribute to the subsistence
of the original communities and, therefore, to the conservation of their territories and identities,
becoming an option so that they do not disappear in the global world. -lizado, and thus are configured
alternative models of culture-nature.

Regarding the values that promote the ethics of Latin American life: self-determination, identity, the
principles of good living, equity and justice, local knowledge, among others, was found in the
speeches of the social actors of the conflict socio-environmental of Santurbán that self-determination
is a value in communities, which is materialized in the open alliance with multinationals, therefore, is
not based on the defense of their territories, as "the place" that gives identity and life, since most
leaders allude to the need for the páramo to be exploited as the only survival and development
strategy. In this sense they expressed: "the community sells the idea that Santurbán is rich in
ecosystem and minerals and that it can be collective benefit for all", "The only profitable activity in
California is mining, the rest does not give, in addition, the miners give all to your employees. The
community only expects the return of the multinationals. "

At the time, they considered that foreign companies do not pollute or damage the Santurbán eco-
system. Hence, principles such as justice and fairness are made visible to the community to the extent
that government policies allow the continuity of multinationals.

Thus, in the bioethics of social actors, the particular interest - survival - over the general interest
(water) prevails, without doubt these capitalist positions are the consequence of their environmental
histories, as well as the product of a government that often forgets that the territory is not only capital
cities, but also regio-nes, in whose lands live diverse cultures that make possible the life of a nation.
Thus, actions are urgently needed to ensure the most preponderant wealth in the country: water,
cultures and biodiversity, within bioethical frameworks that reaffirm life and difference as an essential
condition of true development.

2.2 THE ORGANIC AND HYBRID IDEAS OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTORS: "THE SYNTHESIS OF
EVERYTHING IS WATER". FOR A VITAL BIOETHICS

The environmentalist struggle has been characterized by organizing ideas of an organic nature of a
pristine nature in relation to the páramos, by defending the hydrological and biodiverse potential that
these represent, among its expressions: "nature can be synonymous with biodiversity, but before all
of life, but speaking of Santurban the priority is water, the synthesis of everything is water "," We do
not accept any type of mining, artisanal miners are few ".
However, they recognize that it is an ideal position, since Santurbán is a territory in which nature and
community coexist, therefore, they consider that hybrid policies are required that contemplate these
dimensions of the conflict and help native populations to seek alternatives that harmonize with the
conservation of the ecosystem. In fact, for an environmental leader, the management plan will be
decisive to conserve the ecosystem, since it will allow the development of sustainable activities other
than mining; However, he clarifies that if traditional mining is banned in a radical way, illegal mining
can be increased.

Latin American thinkers in political ecology7 emphasize the importance of environmentalist

movements as diverse and pluralist collective alternatives to state and market policies, since they
allow building a global citizenship committed to the environment and quality of life by reinventing
social relationships , production modes and consumption patterns.

Thus, the environmentalist position towards the defense of water as a priority, entails that its ethics
of life promote the care and preservation of the páramos, as unique ecosystems and suppliers of this
precious liquid; therefore, they affirmed that the mining activity on a large scale goes against the
survival of future generations.

Although these organic ideas of the environmentalist struggle are not inscribed within the cosmic and
spiritual principles posed by the Andean philosophies, principles such as correspondence,
complementarity and reciprocity are glimpsed in them, as one of its leaders manifests: " the principle
of correspondence means that, just as we use water, we also have a duty to protect it, just as I have
a right to use it, I have a duty to take care of it. So, since I have the right to drink clean water, my son
also has the right to that drinking water. " Meanwhile, the principle of justice of the Andean
philosophies that claim for a common good, is evident in the environmental discourse when
proclaiming the collective good over the particular good, that is, the right to water.

Estermann (2011, p.22) points out that the principles of correspondence, complementarity, reciprocity
and cyclicity are those that ensure the continuity of order and life and that lead to a principle of justice,
understood as a horizon towards where it must point to the productive relations, that is, the common
good, that triggers social coexistence. In this same aspect, the thinking of political ecology (see Leff,
2002) defends an economic system different from the current one, whose core value is the common
good, but in conditions of equality and equity, in the case of the environmentalist struggle, the water
as a common good, but at the same time, offering possibilities of life to the communities that have
historically inhabited this complex.

2.3 THE IDEAS OF NATURE OF THE INDIVIDUAL ACTORS: THE TECHNOLOGY AS A

GUARANTEE TO MAKE A RESPONSIBLE MINING

The individual actors of this study belong to the multinational that was the trigger for the conflict in
2011 for its famous Angosturas project. Their ideas of nature presented an open tendency to rely on
technology as a guarantor of the development of a responsible mining, in this sense they affirmed:
"we must respect the conservation areas and guarantee that the necessary investment is made in
order to bring the best technology, the best development and, of course, the best practices in all
social and environmental senses ". At the same time, they acknowledged the role of the community
of Santurbán to carry out responsible mining, which confirms their hybrid perceptions: "Mining in the
páramo must have a very high social and environmental responsibility component".

These individual actors also affirmed that the positive aspect of the environmentalists' struggle was
that they made public a region that for centuries was forgotten by the government; However, they
emphasize that the environmental movement does not really know the region, hence its protest
contains the wrong elements about pollution and the uses of water, in this sense an individual actor
expressed:
As a company we have never used mercury, nor are we going to use mercury, because mercury is
not necessary for processes. We are looking for ways to bring the use of cyanide almost to zero, in
order to make the processes more efficient [...] One of the big fears is that the water will end, the
páramo is 98 thousand hectares unless we have the deposit in a funnel and that we drill. The titles
are distributed in The whole region and the projects are very small in area and size.

In spite of the above, environmentalists considered that these multinationals continue to contaminate
after the delimitation, as one of them points out: "at present, in spite of saying the multinationals that
are decreasing the use of cyanide and not using mercury because it is illegal, these components are
still found in the samples taken by the aqueduct and in the data of the metropolitan area of 2015. " In
addition, they affirmed that the issue is not only the substances used in the large mining industry, but
also the amount of water it uses, since in the National Water Study -ENA 2014-, the municipality of
Bucaramanga is located in the red zone, this means that there is a high scarcity index, therefore, the
general interest on the subject must predominate.

Guerrero (2009, p.48) emphasizes that responsible mining begins when the State excludes this
activity from the páramo areas; However, he adds that in the event that these operations are
unavoidable, environmental and social management standards should be maximized. Finally, he
warns that there is no human development if it is at the expense of environmental degradation.

Although an ethic of life was glimpsed in the individual actors, when the interest to comply with the
environmental norm for mining exploitation was perceived, reality seems different. The constant
denunciations of environmentalists for the alleged permissiveness of the government against the
violation of standards by multinationals, as well as the little control and surveillance, calls into question
a real commitment of these companies with an ethic of life . Thus, these multinationals with high
foreign investment and minimal Colombian participation seek to maximize their interests to the
detriment of the ecosystem. In view of this, the question arises: can a supposed responsible mining
in Santurbán guarantee the right to water and the life of future generations?

2.4 THE GOVERNMENT AS A MEDIATOR ACTOR: ITS HYBRID IDEAS BETWEEN THE CARE OF
THE PARADISE AND THE SURVIVAL OF THE COMMUNITIES THAT HAVE IT

The mediating actor that in this case study is a representative of the National Government, and whose
function is to manage and manage the resources destined for the páramo after the delimitation, has
the certainty that these are insufficient and that they do not transfigure the life of a community: "Even
if there are resources, I will not be able to change their customs inherited from 500 years of history
to a mining family. They improve their traditional mining day by day. "

Regarding Sentence C-035 of the Constitutional Court, this plaintiff considered that this ruling protects
the general interest by safeguarding the wastelands of illegal mining, but unfortunately affected
Santurbán, despite the fact that things are happening there all right. In his speech referred to the
need for reciprocity with nature, because of the human activity that intervenes: "We have attempted
against nature, because there are other interests that are also valuable for humans to exist, but the
important thing is that I remove, but I must put."

This leader showed ideas of a hybrid nature by pointing out the importance of training the miners to
do their job respecting the environment:

My job is to articulate, accompany, manage resources at the national level to put them in the region,
to mitigate a little until where can all this affectation that has received the people, the families that live
in the páramo with the delimitation. Mining can be done with all due respect, but you have to know
how to do it and you have to do it by complying with all the rules that make mining clean, responsible
and serious.

He also considered that after the Court's ruling, the affected communities should be protected.
Although in this mediator's speech, concern was expressed about what can happen with the
Santurbán communities, especially those of the municipality of Vetas, it is clear in their statements
that the projects that are intended both after the delimitation and the Court's ruling, will result from
government guidelines, but not from the feelings, perceptions and practices of the communities that
have historically occupied These mountains:

When the draft of the project is ready, all the mayors of Soto norte will be invited to also present their
point of view and to look and to make an evaluation of how many people are affected, to see how ,
what systems and what mechanisms we are going to adopt [...] By 2016 we are working on a macro
project that is sustainable with the Government of Santander so that it is inserted in the development
plan.

In this sense, the communities are not the promoters of their own projects, but rather they are
receptors of the guidelines that are dictated by the government, which still does not see the
importance of the democratic and active participation of these groups in the matters that concern
them. Therefore, public policies that actually protect the sustainable future of the population are not
generated.

2.5 THE SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, A DYNAMIC THAT WAS NOT STRENGTHENED IN THE
COMMUNITIES OF SANTURBÁN

The communities of Santurbán did not conform social movements, because they pointed out that
despite the disputes they were always afraid of being linked to groups outside the law: "having been
persecuted by the guerrillas led to the association of social movements as movements of the left ","
The social movements that there are are those that have been created around the unions, they seek
to improve the quality of life of the workers, and their resistance has done anyway that the companies
and the government take into account the community ". Consequently, the most representative leader
of mining communities in the region, at the time of the interview, in 2016, is part of the directives of
the union of the company causing the litigation.

Although a representative social movement in this socio-environmental conflict in Santurbán did not
settle down, social organizations such as associations of miners or peasants were strengthened.
Among the demands of these groups is, first of all, employment, followed by mining in a responsible
way, water care, among others. In this sense, Leff (2006, pp. 399-400) points out that among the
greatest demands of socio-environmental groups is the defense of their territories, resources and
environments that goes beyond traditional forms of struggle for land. , employment and salary, as
well as new modes of production, lifestyles and consumption patterns alternative to the capitalist
model. But the Santurbán communities are not in search of alternative solutions to their ways of life,
but in consolidating mining exploitation as the only option for survival.
This thought of the mining community of Santurbán configures a case where the economic valuation
prevails over the other interests.

Meanwhile, for the environmentalists who formed the Civic Civic Awareness Movement, the right to
water and therefore to the health of more than two million inhabitants is a matter that must transcend
the marches of citizens and the support of the media. of communication, for now resolved in the big
courts, to express one of its leaders: "the permanence of multinationals depends on the ruling of the
Court, the future of water will depend on the legal strategy." They also consider that the management
plan will be decisive in the future of Santurbán.

2.6 "THE DIFFERENCE IN EQUALITY" AS A BIOETHICAL VALUE

"The difference in equality", an important element of the political ecology proposed by Arturo Escobar
(2005), was considered in this study as a bioethical value. The author defines it as the conditions for
the coexistence in the globality of cultural groups that in interaction with their natural environments
have built their territories, subsistence, lifestyles, productive models, among others, in short,
alternative local worlds that have the right to participate in an equitable way with their identities in a
fairer global world. This "difference in equality" is woven by principles such as the recognition of
cultural diversity, autonomy, equity and justice, the dialogue of knowledge, place and networks,
among others, of great importance for decision-making regarding these disputes.
In this case study, as analyzed previously, the social actors of Santurbán present ideas of a capitalist
nature with some hybrid tendencies. However, their Opponents are other social actors, in this case,
environmentalists who fight for the right to water with organic ideas of hybrid nature and trends.
Hence, the autonomy of the Santurbán populations as a bioethical principle, that is, the right to decide
on their futures, based on their ideas of nature, would violate the right to water of the vast majority
represented by the environmental struggle.

At the same time, some social actors with ideas of a hybrid nature promote that traditional mining is
articulated with the great mining, for the survival of their identities and ways of life. In this sense, there
is a demand from these communities for "cultural diversity" as a bioethical value, however, Resolution
2090 of 2014, as well as the ruling of Court C-035 of 2016 leaves small miners without their traditional
activity; consequently, these rules violate the rights of the weakest. In this way, these socio-
environmental conflicts are not examined with reference to "cultural diversity", from which territories,
lifestyles, alternative models of development, Cosmo visions, life ethics, among others, have been
configured. Today fundamental to understand the globality from the local, as well as possibilities to
solve these socio-environmental disputes.

On the other hand, these legal decisions do not guarantee the right to water, since the demarcation
made in 2014 allows continuing with large-scale mining outside the páramo line; consequently, the
basins will continue to be polluted even if responsible mining is considered, but it would eliminate
traditional mining that is within the limits. Thus, equity as a bioethical principle is also not present in
the decisions of both the government and legal rulings, when the concept of páramo is discounted
from a holistic perspective, even more so when in Colombia historically the páramos have been
territories where the human and the natural converge. In the same way, these failures do not address
the right to water of the great majority.
Historically the páramos have been territories where the human and the natural converge. In the
same way, these failures do not address the right to water of the great majority.
It is urgent to reflect that the past, present and future of the Latin American populations are based on
visions and life practices inherited from a savage colonization that pre-tended to deprive them of their
identities. This will only be a first step to recognize the realities and propose alternatives that go
beyond a supposed precautionary principle to delve into the environmental history of which Latin
America is the protagonist.

In this way, "equality in difference" as a bioethical value is not present in the alternatives of
development proposed to post-delimitation communities, since it represents an expropriation of
resources, cultures and identities at the hands of multinationals, without any consideration for the
traditional mining of the inhabitants of Santurbán.

This situation entails suggesting the construction of a bioethics with a focus on political ecology, in
which "the dialogue of knowledge" proposed by Leff (2009, p.445) calls for the encounter of culturally
opposed beings in the search for solutions to conflicts socio-environmental In this dialogue, economic
and scientific rationality are ready to listen to rationalities

Alternatives to understand their conceptions and practices, also valuable and productive. It is not
pertinent to continue making decisions from a single area, in this case, the economic rationale of the
government and the scientific rationality of the legal frameworks that prohibit mining in the páramos,
because all the rationalities that converge in it are required. These conflicts, given that Latin America,
and especially Colombia, are founded on cultural and ethnic diversity, which historically has meant
its wealth and evolution, therefore, possibilities to recreate a sustainable country.

3. CONCLUSIONS

The history of Santurbán, where the socio-environmental conflict originates, is determined by its
environmental history, marked by the conquest and the Spanish colony. Consequently, the position
of the communities of the region in this socio-environmental conflict is of alliance with the individual
actors, namely the multinationals operating in the region, which is contrary to the literature presented
here.

The right to water is not yet guaranteed, neither with Resolution 2090 of 2014 nor with the ruling C-
035 of 2016 of the Constitutional Court, since the complaints by the environmentalists about the
dumping of toxic substances of the companies continue. mining companies that continue to operate
in Santurban. In addition, you will continue to operate outside the páramo line, while the small miners
will be the most affected, as they will have to abandon the activity they have practiced for centuries.

The social actors of Santurbán present ideas of a capitalist nature, environmental actors-organic
ideas, individual actors, techno-scientific ideas, and the actor mediator ideas hybrid However, these
perceptions coexist in all the actors with hybrid notions.

In the bioethics of the social actors, the individual interests over the collective predominate, since
survival is above the conservation of the páramo and, therefore, of the water. Values such as self-
determination, equity and justice are present in the identity of these actors, but they go against the
analysis proposed by political ecology, because when the community becomes an ally of
multinationals it becomes a case study different from the struggles of social movements of peasants
and indigenous people for the denaturalization of nature in Latin America. Hence, the mining culture
of Santurbán is configured in a different reference within this approach.

In the bioethics of environmentalists, a clear sense is analyzed for the defense of water as a vital
resource for present and future generations. Although their principles of relationality with the land are
not of the idyllic type of Andean phylosophy, they proclaim correspondence and complementarity with
nature as axes for survival and the quality of human life. In this sense, collective good predominates
over the particular good, that is, the right to water.

The bioethics of the individual actors is aimed at proclaiming responsible mining as a possibility to
continue exploring and exploiting the gold of Santurbán. However, his speeches showed
contradictions.

Although the principle of equity and justice is envisioned, in the statements of the mediating actor in
proclaiming a worthy future for these Santurbán populations, bioethics is still in debt from the
government with the region, since it does not take into account the communities for making decisions
or designing their futures.
The Santurbán communities did not form social movements, given the fear that they would be related
to the armed groups outside the law that hit the region in the past. The greatest demand of social
actors in the region is employment, which they hope will be the result of responsible mining that must
be carried out in the páramo.

For environmentalists, the reappropriation strategy is the legal one, which will ultimately settle the
importance of water as a fundamental right. "The self-determination" of the towns of Santurbán
implies the violation of the right to water of the great majority.

This social conflict is not examined from "cultural diversity", since small-scale miners are the most
affected by legal decisions, which although in theory claim to favor the right to water, in practice they
do not guarantee it, since the multinationals will continue below the páramo line. Therefore, also
"inequity and injustice" are built into the decision-making, to ignore this ecosystem from a holistic
concept.

"The difference in equality" as a bioethical value is not present in the alternatives of development
proposed to the post-demarcation communities of the páramo, because these represent an
expropriation of resources, cultures and identities.

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