Oil and water: unlikely alliances in the opposition to extractive industries during popular consultations in Colombia

Abstract

In 2017, 97,61% of the people of Cumaral, Colombia, voted in a popular consultation against having the oil industry in their municipality. However, this historical result was challenged by the government in court and ultimately overturned in 2018. By looking into the origins and strategies employed by Cumaral's environmental movement, we argue that their success involved turning a diverse, and even contradictory, collective into a singular voice that could reject the state’s development agenda. We thus highlight the combination of factors that led to the consultation result showing that an effective way of resistance can be achieved through the state.