Communication about Tabaco Community

To all relevant stakeholders and interested parties,

Following recent concerns raised by different actors about the status of our commitment to the Tabaco community, we would like to give an update on the progress of community initiatives.

We recognize the complexities, delays, and challenges associated with achieving community reunification after so many years. Throughout the engagement process, we have implemented recommendations from independent experts, including the findings from the 2008 Third-Party Review (TPR), and reached agreements twice with the community and local authorities. After the first agreements reached with most of the families were delivered, a significant milestone took place with the 2008 agreement, which included additional compensation and indemnity payments to affected families. These were delivered as agreed, and the responsibilities of the involved parties were clearly outlined.

The 2008 agreements complemented the already existing Supreme Court ruling from 2002 that had ordered the municipality of Hatonuevo to build the new town. This decision was reinforced in 2017 with Ruling T-329 from the Constitutional Court. We have been actively working to comply by engaging directly with the community and its leaders through established working groups. These groups have been supported by the Office of the Attorney General, the Office of the Ombudsman, and the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic. Our efforts have also included assisting the Mayor's Office of Hatonuevo in identifying the beneficiaries for the community reconstruction measures on land donated by Cerrejón, which was selected by the community itself.

As part of the 2008 agreements, Cerrejón has also committed to building infrastructure improvements, such as roads and services, and a community centre. We even reached an agreement with the community to begin the construction of this center and the designs for a center dedicated to developing income generation activities and community strengthening programs were codesigned with the community, however there there were no agreements among the community to move forward with the construction.

Today, an agreement between the community and the Hatonuevo Mayor´s Office on the number of families that would benefit from the community reconstruction measures has not been agreed. To progress this, we have supported the process to identify the beneficiaries according to the defined criteria, which has been led by the Mayor's Office, and have welcomed the community's proposal for their participation in this process. We are prepared to facilitate the hiring of community members to advance these initiatives.

We reaffirm our commitment to moving forward with the discussions at hand and maintaining an open and constructive dialogue with leaders representing the various perspectives within the community. We are hopeful that this will enable us to make progress and contribute to the well-being and sustainable development of the Tabaco community.