{"id":496640,"date":"2026-02-24T16:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T16:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/496640\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T16:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T16:26:07","slug":"if-we-see-you-again-we-kill-you-how-a-colombian-wildlife-hotspot-turned-into-a-death-zone-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/496640\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018If we see you again, we kill you\u2019: how a Colombian wildlife hotspot turned into a death zone | Pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Standing on her wooden canoe, a machete in her hand, Yuly Vel\u00e1squez hacks away at reeds matted with blackened sludge. Close by, a burst oil pipe has released a slick of crude into the San Silvestre wetlands<\/a> in Barrancabermeja, Colombia\u2019s oil city, choking the water and its wildlife.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe destruction is immense,\u201d says Vel\u00e1squez, president of Fedepesan, a sustainable fishing organisation. \u201cFor the fish, the animals and flora, it means immediate death.\u201d<\/p>\n

With its swamps, lagoons and forests, Barrancabermeja sits in a biodiversity hotspot<\/a> \u2013 the home of endangered river turtles and manatees, and the wetlands act as a corridor for roaming jaguars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The San Silvestre wetlands have suffered more than 800 cases of \u2018major environmental damage\u2019 caused by Ecopetrol spills <\/p>\n

Yet it is also Colombia\u2019s biggest oil town. Gas flares shoot into the sky from a labyrinth of tanks, pipes and chimneys, producing up to 250,000 barrels of crude oil<\/a> a day and serving 80% of the national demand<\/a> for fuel.<\/p>\n

For decades, this refinery, which is operated by the majority state-owned company Ecopetrol, has also been accused of releasing oil and toxic waste into nearby rivers and wetlands, and of causing leaks that pollute the region\u2019s fishing grounds.<\/p>\n

double quotation markYet again, hundreds of fish, snakes, birds, turtles and caimans have died overnight. If we can\u2019t fish, we can\u2019t eatLuis Carlos Lambran\u0303o<\/p>\n

Environmental authorities and residents say the impact has been catastrophic: fish populations have crashed, water quality has deteriorated and numbers of manatees<\/a> \u2013 once regarded as a guardian spirit of the wetlands \u2013 are now thought to be on the brink of collapse.<\/p>\n

A report<\/a> published last year by the Environmental Investigation Agency, a campaign group, and Earthworks<\/a>, a US organisation that focuses on the harmful effects of the mineral and energy industries, identified more than 800 records of \u201cmajor environmental damage\u201d caused by Ecopetrol, with most occurring from the mid-1990s to the mid-2010s.<\/p>\n

The report, based on a trove of leaked files known as the Iguana Papers<\/a>, also described a \u201cweb of deceit and cover-ups\u201d allegedly used to conceal the incidents, noting that a fifth were not reported to Colombian authorities.<\/p>\n

Workers try to mop up a spill from the Ecopetrol refinery last October. The oil and gas company claims the leak did not harm water quality, though it also highlights investments to protect wildlife<\/p>\n

A BBC investigation<\/a> last year also found Ecopetrol has spilt oil hundreds of times since then.<\/p>\n

Ecopetrol rejected claims that it has polluted local water sources, insisting it fully complies with Colombian law. But by the end of last year, huge swaths of the territory were still contaminated by a pipeline fracture, with an oily sheen coating the water and the air pungent with petrol.<\/p>\n

double quotation markIt\u2019s become normal to find dead animals, dead caimans, dead fish \u2026 [fish] taste like oilRonaldo Mart\u00ednez<\/p>\n

Ecopetrol says its subsidiary is working to contain and remediate October\u2019s leak, maintains that its operations comply with environmental regulations and have not harmed water quality, and highlights investments to cut discharges and protect wildlife.<\/p>\n

The company also rejected the allegations contained in the Iguana Papers, insisting that incidents were duly reported, the data was misinterpreted and most historical contamination sites had already been restored.<\/p>\n

Yet for riverside communities, which depend almost entirely on fishing for their livelihoods, the impact is clear. \u201cYet again, hundreds of fish, snakes, birds, turtles and caimans have died overnight,\u201d says Luis Carlos Lambran\u0303o, 56, who has been fishing in these waters for 37 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can\u2019t fish, we can\u2019t eat,\u201d he says. \u201cI feel utter sadness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019ve had about 30 buffalo die,\u2019 Ronaldo Marti\u0301nez, a 68-year-old farmer, says of the pollution<\/p>\n

Ronaldo Mart\u00ednez, 68, who farms water buffalo, says the contamination has become impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe buffalo drink the water, get poisoned and die,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve had about 30 buffalo die on us this way in the last five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mart\u00ednez says that coming across a dead animal was unusual in the past. \u201cIt happened sometimes, but it wasn\u2019t very common,\u201d he says. \u201cBut lately, it\u2019s become normal to find dead animals, dead caimans, dead fish.\u201d He adds that when the fish are cut open during oil spills and suspected dumps, \u201cthey taste like oil\u201d.<\/p>\n

He says the responsibility lies with Ecopetrol. \u201c[It] is our largest company,\u201d he says. \u201cThey should have a way of managing their pools. Their oxidation ponds should be working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compounding the crisis is the expansion of illegal armed groups that seek to rule the waterways. So-called \u201cgasoline gangs\u201d have moved into the area, which is considered a strategic corridor for moving illegal goods, hacking into the oil pipelines that crisscross through the waterways to steal and sell the fuel illicitly.<\/p>\n

Fishermen cast their nets in a Barrancabermeja river. Fish populations have crashed, according to local people <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single day they steal the gasoline,\u201d says Vel\u00e1squez, who, along with her colleagues, monitors biodiversity in the area. \u201cThey collect it in these massive plastic bags \u2013 when they break, which has happened at least twice, it spills into all of the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

The presence of armed groups has also made fishing perilous. Local activists say they have faced countless threats, intimidation campaigns and assassination attempts. Drones are used by armed groups<\/a> to monitor and shadow fishing boats until they retreat.<\/p>\n

double quotation markYou don\u2019t mess with the armed groups. If you don\u2019t listen, they kill youYuly Vel\u00e1squez<\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1squez is one of the campaigners at risk. She says she has suffered repeated attacks on her home, three assassination attempts \u2013 one in which her bodyguard was shot \u2013 and many threats to her family for speaking up against the contamination and the armed groups.<\/p>\n

The threats are taken very seriously as Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries worldwide for land and environmental defenders, according to Global Witness, accounting for a third of all documented lethal attacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been devastating,\u201d Vel\u00e1squez says. After another fishing leader, Luis Arango, was assassinated in 2012, she says it \u201ctook a long time for people to raise their voices again\u201d.<\/p>\n

En\u0303i Salazar, who has fished these waters since she was seven, has been threatened many times by armed groups when fishing<\/p>\n

Lambran\u0303o describes an incident in February when he was intercepted by gang members and chased off the water. \u201cThey fired shots in the air, then followed me, shining their torch on me, until I left,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

E\u00f1i Salazar, who has fished these waters since she was seven, also has countless stories of being threatened for merely fishing. Armed men have twice intercepted her in the wetlands.<\/p>\n

In one case, they seized her boat engine and threatened to kill her. In another, they opened fire during the fishing community\u2019s \u2019s environmental monitoring activities, with bullets hitting an engine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said to me: \u2018We know who you are, we know your face, so if we ever see you here again, we\u2019ll kill you\u2019,\u201d the 66-year-old says.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International has reported<\/a> a permanent atmosphere of harassment for fishing families in Barrancabermeja, recording extortion attempts, direct threats and people repeatedly forced to leave the area.<\/p>\n

Workers repair a broken pipeline and try to clean up the environmental damage. \u2018Gasoline gangs\u2019 regularly hack into pipes to steal and sell fuel illicitly, which only adds to the leaks <\/p>\n

\u201cFishing families have felt the pressure from the armed groups for a long time, but in the last few years their presence has expanded,\u201d says Alejandro Jim\u00e9nez Ospina, a researcher on the Americas for Amnesty International.<\/p>\n

\u201cOil smugglers, armed groups \u2013 everyone wants the water,\u201d he says. \u201cWhoever controls the water controls Barrancabermeja.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such intimidation forcibly displaced 26 fishing families<\/a> in February 2025. \u201cYou don\u2019t mess with the armed groups. If you don\u2019t listen, they will kill you,\u201d says Vel\u00e1squez. She estimates that about 100 of her colleagues have stopped fishing.<\/p>\n

But for Vel\u00e1squez, waiting for action is no longer an option. \u201cEvery day we see places where wildlife used to live disappear,\u201d she says. \u201cWe can\u2019t wait for someone else to come and take care of it for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the community wants is simple, Vel\u00e1squez says. \u201cWe want to be left alone to live in peace,\u201d she says, \u201cand to truly be able to enjoy our marsh, our river, day and night, without limits or restrictions telling us what time we can enter or what time we can leave, or where we can and can\u2019t be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Standing on her wooden canoe, a machete in her hand, Yuly Vel\u00e1squez hacks away at reeds matted with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-496640","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}