The suit, which was to have been brought in London’s High Court, alleged that the laying of the Ocensa pipeline, Colombia’s largest, in the 1990s through part of Antioquia state ruined the local residents’ livelihoods, which included farming, working in gold mines and fish farms, and raising livestock. One community leader was killed in an act blamed on the paramilitaries, and a lawyer who represented the farmers fled Colombia after she discovered she was on a paramilitary hit list. She was granted political asylum in the UK in 2002. Lawyers for the farmers emphasized that they never accused BP of working with the paramilitaries. The farmers’ opposition to the pipeline, however, put them in the paramilitaries’ sights, the lawyers said.
“Paramilitaries tend to support big business,” said Martyn Day, the British lawyer representing the farmers. “They see such opposition (to the pipeline) as related to the guerrilla movement…so these farmers got caught up in this very unpleasant war.” BP and lawyers for the farmers said in a statement that the “amicable settlement” was “based on the establishment of an environmental and social improvement trust fund by BP Colombia for the benefit of the farmers.” It said the fund would help farmers deal “with issues such as environmental management, business development and other topics.”
Antioquia is home both to far-right paramilitaries and to Colombia’s leftist insurgency. Lawyers for the farmers say BP decided to negotiate a deal after the publication of two reports commissioned by environmental experts from Colombia’s National University detailing the extent of the damage to the zone. Mr Day said that recent rulings meant British companies could be sued in British courts for what they do in the rest of the world. “All British companies have to be clear if they act abroad and do damage, they can find a case brought against them in the High Court in London,” said Day.
The Ocensa pipeline runs from BP’s oilfields at Cusiana and Cupiagua in the eastern plains up to the Caribbean coast, carrying over 100,000brl/d. As an operator in Colombia’s largest oilfields, BP is the country’s largest foreign investor.