According to EL TIEMPO’s exclusive information, the national Government appointed the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Indalecio Dangond Baquero, as ad hoc Minister of Environment for matters related to the delimitation of the Santurbán páramo, a decision that the communities of Soto Norte, in Santander, hope will unblock a process that, according to their representatives, remains unfinished nine years after Constitutional Court ruling T-361 of 2017.
The appointment was established by Decree 1407 of 2026, issued by the President of the Republic, Abelardo de la Espriella. Dangond will be in charge of actions and administrative procedures related to the delimitation of the Jurisdicciones Santurbán-Berlín páramo complex, after the Minister of Environment, Fabio Arjona, was disqualified from making decisions regarding Santurbán.
Arjona could not decide on matters related to Santurbán after the Committee for the Defense of Water and the Santurbán Páramo challenged him, considering that his actions and statements showed “open partiality” towards Aris Mining and its Soto Norte project. The Council of Ministers accepted the challenge on September 10, which prevented Arjona from intervening in decisions about the delimitation of the Jurisdicciones Santurbán-Berlín páramo complex, the temporary natural renewable resources reserve area, and the definitive reserve of the La Baja stream micro-watershed.
Consulted by EL TIEMPO, social leaders, community members, and small and medium mining organizations of Soto Norte stated that they respect the decision adopted by the Council of Ministers and expressed their expectation that the National Government will complete the process “very soon and without delays,” in compliance with the Constitutional Court ruling.
“We ask the National Government and the newly appointed Minister for the delimitation of Santurbán that there be no impediments to continue defending legality and formal mining activity,” said Ivonne González, president of Asomineros Vetas.
The leader stated that the State must advance in the delimitation respecting the agreements reached with the communities and questioned that it could declare itself impeded to correct decisions that, according to her, were made without consultation and with technical problems.
“The State cannot declare itself impeded to fulfill the delimitation of the Páramo as ordered by the Constitutional Court respecting the agreements reached with the people; it cannot declare itself impeded to correct the unconsulted and antitechnical resolutions that violated the rights of the communities,” González said.
The president of Asomineros Vetas also linked the discussion about the delimitation with the permanence of mining communities and the presence of illegal activities in the area. According to her, the State also cannot declare itself impeded to prevent illegal groups from displacing communities and affecting the ecosystem.
One of the main requests of the organizations is the resumption of the consultation tables to complete the delimitation in the 14 municipalities that, according to the statement, are still missing within the process.
González assured that the communities expect respect for what has already been agreed between the State and different populations of Soto Norte, including Vetas, California, Suratá, and Matanza. According to her version, in these municipalities the line establishing which areas correspond to the páramo and which are outside it has already been agreed with the Ministry of Environment.
For the organizations, completing this process would allow the Ministry of Environment to comply with the order to issue a new delimitation of the Santurbán páramo. The statement holds that the procedure has accumulated nine years of delays and non-compliance, mainly attributed to judicial actions and political smear campaigns.
The controversy is also related, according to the communities, to the way the discussion about Santurbán has been used. González stated that more than 25,000 families depend on a mining vocation that, according to the organizations, has more than 450 years of history in the region.
“We cannot allow the Santurbán páramo to continue being used as a political banner to persecute, stigmatize, and point fingers at more than 25 thousand families who depend on our mining vocation of more than 450 years,” she said.
The leader added that legal uncertainty has had consequences on formal mining activity. According to the communities, more than a decade of requests to be heard has led families to abandon that activity, leaving space for illegal mining, which, according to their argument, operates without environmental controls.
Fabio Maldonado, director of the Territorial Development Council of Soto Norte, also questioned the judicial actions promoted by activists and defended the formalization of mining activity as a tool to reduce environmental impacts.
“These judicial measures by activists do not protect the Páramo at all, and are nothing but absurd. Concrete actions like mining formalization that reduce pollution and impacts on water are what truly protect the Páramo, the water, and the farmer and páramo dweller,” Maldonado said.
The director of the Territorial Development Council of Soto Norte also questioned the management carried out during the previous Government regarding the delimitation process. Maldonado stated that the then Ministers of Environment Susana Muhamad and Irene Vélez had four years to advance the process and maintained that it did not progress as the communities expected.
According to Maldonado, the previous administration would have left a delimitation he described as “rigged and convenient to their interests” a few hours before that Government ended. This is an allegation made by the leader in the statement, without including responses from the mentioned persons to that claim.
In addition to the delimitation of the Jurisdicciones Santurbán-Berlín páramo complex, the decree establishes that the ad hoc minister will be responsible for procedures related to a temporary reserve area of 75,000 hectares located outside Santurbán.
EDWIN CAICEDO
Environment and Health Journalist
@CaicedoUcros
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