The Carnival March in Tolima

Over the years, the Carnival March in Defense of Life, Water and Land has turned into a paradigmatic movement which gives strength to artistic expression, playfulness and culture, and which rejects the extractivist policies which are imposed by the national government, under the name of promotion of the mining and energy sectors. It is a pacifist movement, and its aim is to generate environmental awareness of the damages to nature caused by the extractivism in the regions.

The movement is led by the Comité Ambiental en Defensa de la Vida (Environmental Committee in Defense of Life), and is celebrated annually on the World Environment Day. It’s a process of collective action, which applies the principle of non-violence and building of people power.

It’s a space where art, music and the aesthetic dimension is manifesting primarily in the defense of water, life and land – opposing the culture of death, contamination, pillage and waste created by extractivism. The Carnival March shows how the community can defend their lands with creativity and an unbreakable determination of those who know that life is sacred.

Although it started as a protest opposing the mining megaproject of AngloGold Ashanti – AGA – (a large-scale threat to the heart of Tolima), its practices of mobilization and generation of environmental conscience expanded to other areas of Tolima and Colombia. These other areas were also affected by similar socio-environmental conflicts, and the movement changed into a space for expression of culture, learning and articulation for different social sectors in favor of sustainable life.

The reach of these mobilizations have been remarkable in terms of participation and their political and territorial impact. During this trajectory, the marches show an exponential growth, overcoming geographical and social barriers. This expansion shows the capacity environmental organizations have to generate an attractive proposal for mobilization, concentrating on the defense of water and life, and has become a reference for resistance against the model of extraction in Colombia.

One of the most significant aspects of these movements is the participation of different social groups. The Carnival March has managed to bring together a broad range of social sectors: farmers, syndicates, college and university students, indigenous people, professors, sports fans and even actors or political parties, all joined in the rejection of the contaminating mining industry and the environmental damages it causes.

This diversity of actors, with different ideological affinities, have reinforced the process of social articulation, underlining that defense of the land is not uniquely based in technical or environmental arguments, but is rooted in the concepts of ecological politics, the care of water, life and the collective rights to a safe environment.

Thus, the defense of the land becomes a central banner, allowing us to generate communal proposals in favor of the defense and promotion of human rights, local autonomy and food autosufficiency. By focusing the struggle on sectors like water and the defense of life, we have managed to establish a common goal which unites the community, above and beyond our differences.

The pacific, festive and cultural character that the Carnival March has generated have permitted us to strengthen the legitimacy and rallying power of regional environmental movements. By employing creative, artistic expressions, we have managed to transmit a message about territorial defense in an attractive and accessible manner, which allows us to impact and integrate many different social groups. In a world used to solve conflicts with violence, the Environmental Committee for the Defense of Life has managed to navigate a process that can solve disputes in a peaceful manner.

The Carnival March shows us that dialogue and public organization, complemented by environmental education, are powerful tools to generate social changes. This is a movement which strives for ethical, intellectual and awareness growth, together with the union of communities, as tools for executing the processes of territorial defense.

Mobilization of environmental awareness

The Carnival March is complemented by a process of academic education called “Diplomados de Formación Ambiental” (Certificate in Environmental Education), which is developed jointly by the Environmental Committee for the Defense of Life, the University of Tolima, the Corporación SOS Ambiental, amongst other social organizations.

This program of public education encompasses subjects such as the negative effects of extractivism, the “triple” environmental crisis, the socio-ecological transition, agroecology and political ecology. The program has elevated the level of environmental awareness in nearly 20,000 persons between the years of 2013 and 2025, for free.

The first level of the certificate is called:“Environmental and territorial management”; the second level of the certificate, which started in 2014, is called “Territorial analysis, environmental conflicts and social movements”; and the third level is called “Nature and culture, social challenges for the construction of territorial leadership”.

The educational offering is aiming to incentivize a transformative leadership, through institutional advocacy and, through that, strengthen mobilization, well-argued dialogue and participation in decision-making spaces, as well as institutionalized political responsibility.  This has allowed us to strengthen the legitimacy of the movement, which secures an informed and aware mobilization.

It is remarkable that the Environmental Committee for the Defense of Life, together with the various socio-environmental organizations participating in the Carnival March, have made great progress in the construction of a culture of permanent mobilization, which has lasted for 15 years.

This exercise in permanence has managed to promote a cultural progression in the defense of water, life and land as a natural common good. These are in danger due to the imposition of an extractivist and centralized model which ignores the rights of our communities and nature. The organizations are aware that it’s thanks to the capacity for mobilization, education and public organization that they make solid progress in terms of claiming their rights. This perspective is consequent with the task of promoting mechanisms for social power, in order to advance towards more fair and democratic societal models.

The Carnival March and citizens’ participation

The Carnival March for the Defense of Water, Life and Land is a testimony of the direct democracy of the street. It represents a peaceful, aware and determined mobilization of various sectors of society, united by the conviction that the future has to be constructed with dignity, respect for nature and socio-environmental justice. The march shows that true peace isn’t only the absence of conflict, but also harmony between human beings and the land that sustains them. It is, in essence, peace with nature.

This commitment materialized through numerous public consultations all over the country. These mechanisms of direct participation, propelled by citizens, turned into essential tools to enable communities to make decisions regarding their future.

The Environmental Committee for the Defense of Life followed each step of these processes, contributing to the necessary awareness and arguments so that local voices would be heard and respected. The success of these consultations, carried out in various counties in the country, is a testimony as to the power of organized communities. Each vote was an act of sovereignty, reaffirming the right of communities to protect their lands against the pressure of extractive projects.

The work of the Environmental Committee, together with the Carnival March and the public consultations, have shown that a strengthening of citizens’ participationis at the heart of territorial defense in Colombia. Through mobilization and democratic mechanisms, communities are creating a future which is more sustainable and more in harmony with the environment.

It’s in this way, participating in all the public consultations carried out in Colombia, against extractive projects. In the country, the following was achieved:

In each of these consultations, the rejection of the mining-energy extractive projects was resounding. Although the communities implemented different and complementary actions allowing them to advance in their processes of territorial defense, it needs to be underscored that the public consultations were one of the most important strategies of these processes.

However, we also want to highlight that the Carnival Marches were one of the most educational processes, with live participation and a creation of environmental awareness, to strengthen public participation and rejection of extractive projects in Colombia.

The Carnival March, the Certificates of Environmental Education, the organized political work, the academic discussions and the public consultations are, as a whole, measures that allowed the progression of the defense of water, life, land, as well as the collective rights to a healthy environment, which was forged in the department of Tolima.

The Carnival March and the construction of public power

The Carnival March aims primarily to create a public force, focusing on consolidating territorial autonomy, participatory democracy, and defense of territories facing extractivism. This mobilization is not only an expression of discontent, but a deliberate action to reclaim control over communal natural resources and the future of the communities in this environment.

Together, different sections of society – farmers, workers, students, journalists, fishermen, refugees, street vendors, contract workers, syndicalists, public functionaries, indigenous communities, artists, environmentalists, social activists, public communicators, football fans, entrepreneurs with a regional identity, human rights defenders, community leaders, leaders of women’ s rights movements, faith and spirituality based communities and the general public – have shown a capacity for organization and discourse that transcends individual differences.

This common front has even been recognized by institutions such as the University of Tolima, the Departmental Assembly and the Municipal Council of Ibagué. It is a palpable manifestation of conscious indignation, of transformation based on a collective, through clear objectives, defying official narratives and proposing a model for an alternative development.

The march, calling for protection of water, life and independence, does not only try to put the brakes on the waste of natural communal resources and the privatization of essential services, but also provide a basis for a more participative and autonomous local government.

The struggle on the streets is an eloquent testimony that true peace and profound social change stems from an organized community facing up to the elites holding on to power. Faced with the threat of mining-energy megaprojects, and the lack of participative democracy, the Carnival March has emerged as a space where the voice of the people is heard and amplified, overcoming the media discussions and the hegemony which often dismisses social struggles in the regions.

In a context where social protest is often criminalized, the persistence, survival and scale of these mobilizations are essential to put pressure on structural transformations – something that no discussion panel can achieve on its own.

The demonstrators do not only defend the land, but they are also reaffirming their right to make decisions about their future, and thus consolidating a road map towards a more inclusive democracy and a real territorial autonomy, where the environment and the quality of life of its inhabitants are put first.

Brief synopsis of the sixteen versions of the Carnival March

The Carnival March for the Defense of Water, Life and Land started on the 5th of June 2011, on a morning filled with expectation and public dignity. Our country was in the middle of a massive expansion of the extractivist model, with the mining-energy locomotive of the national government in full force, under the banner of progress. 

In Cajamarca, the multinational AngloGold Ashanti had already made progress in exploring the project La Colosa, with the promise of converting it into one of the largest open-pit gold mines in the world. Faced with this threat, thousands of farmers, students, syndicalists, indigenous communities, artists and citizens of Ibagué, decided to take to the streets to tell our country that gold is not worth more than life.

On that day, there was no confrontation with riot police. The goal and the spirit of the Carnival March was not to fall down the spirals of violence, and instead use art and culture as a method of resistance and territorial defense. There were costumes, masks, parades, batucadas and many placards. It was a different demonstration, it wasn’t only against the mining industry and the presence of Anglogold Ashanti in Cajamarca and Tolima, but also about collective creativity. 

The streets turned into a stage for social interaction, which turned the protest into a festival. On the day of the first Carnival March, more than twelve thousand people turned up, walking with water as a flag and life as a horizon. This seed was germinated, and every year, around the World Environment Day, the people reunite to reaffirm the public mandate to defend water and land.  Although this first edition did not have a written political declaration, it did leave a message which later turned into a permanent slogan: water is sacred and life is not negotiable.

In October 2011, the experience was repeated. Again, the streets of Ibagué filled with people and voices denouncing the risks of large-scale mining. The second Carnival March consolidated the idea that this was not an isolated issue. The collective grew, the press started to register more interest in the protest, and the farming communities strengthened its dialogue with syndicates, students and urban artists. There were still no annual declarations, but the need to leave written testimonies was widely felt. In this mobilization, the central message was the rejection of a deceitful discourse: the mining industry does not bring progress or development, but only contamination, illness, pillage and waste.

The third Carnival March (20212) represented a qualitative leap. For the first time, the movement wrote and read a public declaration, which turned into a tradition. The text denounced, in no uncertain words, the devastating effect of large-scale open-air mining, and proclaimed that water is a collective resource, and not for sale. This declaration highlighted the power of the people, that the people have the rights and that their decisions should be respected by the state and by the multinationals. It also underlined the risks of criminalizing social protests and insisted that the mobilization would be within the framework of active non-violence. The central idea was clear: that the people have the right to decide their future.

In October 2012, there was a fourth Carnival March, which expanded all frontiers. It was no longer just Ibagué in the spotlight, but also communities like Líbano, El Espinal and Natagaima. Other cities in the country also started to replicate similar actions. This year’s declaration put the focus on a pedagogic message: “Water is worth more than gold”. The message conveyed that the argument of development that the mining industry spreads is false, and the true riches of Tolima rests on its agriculture and its biodiversity. The main task was to take apart the industry propaganda and reinforce environmental awareness through intellectual, ethical and spiritual growth. 

The fifth festival, in 2013, gathered tens of thousands of people, in an ever more diverse carnival. This year, over fifty thousand fliers were distributed, explaining in cold numbers the environmental impact of mining: one gram of extracted gold requires destruction of a tonne of rock and a thousand liters of water, mixed with cyanide. The declaration of 2015 was much more political than the previous ones. Not only were the environmental impacts denounced, the president of the country and the residing attorney general were accused of being in the pockets of the multinationals and the mining industry, putting food independence and the public’s rights to a safe environment in danger.  

Evidence of corporate capture was discovered, putting national sovereignty, the basis of a social state of civil rights, and public participation at risk, as well as evidence of how these irregular actions by the mining corporations generate corruption and co-opting of the communities. The central idea was to fight against corporate capture. 

The moment coincided with a historical event: the public consultation in the county of Piedras. There, the citizens were being called to decide if they accepted, or not, the installation of a plant for processing of minerals. On the 28th of July 2013, 96% of the voters said “No”. It was the first public consultation of its kind in Colombia, and its success gave echo on both a national and international level. Piedras became an example of hope for the whole country. 

2014 was a year of expansion of the environmental struggles. The sixth Carnival March didn’t only take Ibagué as the stage for resistance, there were also mobilizations in places like Líbano, El Espinal, Armero-Guayabal, Bogotá D.C and the departments of Nariño, Boyacá and Santander. 

On an international level, rallies were held in Ireland and Great Britain. There was a united voice: stop implementation of mining projects that contaminate land, water and air; reject the imposition of mining activities by river heads, moorlands, cloud forests and areas of agricultural production; demand the unrestricted respect for the rights of communities to implement public consultations, allowing territorial autonomy and the exercise of democracy. 

In the declaration it was affirmed that between gold and water, we prefer water; faced with economic growth only benefiting the few, we prefer the collective right to a safe environment which is of benefit to all.

At the seventh Carnival March in 2015, it was denounced that 53% of land in Ibagué was owned by mining companies, an alarming number equal to eighteen times the area of the urban center. Repression against social protests was rejected and it was declared that the true meaning of peace, in a country making advances in the dialogues with the FARC-EP, must include peace with nature. 

The text insisted that we cannot talk about reconciliation while we allow the multinationals to destroy moorlands, rivers and mountains. The central idea was clear: peace will not be complete without environmental justice. In the same manner, we promoted the message of rejection of the foreign companies who, through corrupt and backhanded actions, take advantage of vulnerable communities in order to create a favorable environment for their extractive activities.

The Carnival March of 2016 marked a point of inflection in the history of mobilizations for the defense of water, life and land. The streets of Ibagué were full: over 120,000 people participated in the eighth edition, and made it one of the largest environmental mobilizations in Colombia. 

It was not just a regional action; the Carnival March had achieved national resonance. Farmers in Cajamarca, students at public and private universities, syndicates, indigenous communities, artists’ collectives, football fans and entire families mixed together in a human river led by “batucadas” and drums.

This same year, the digital campaign #CarnavalPorElAgua received national recognition for its impact on social networks. The Carnival March was no longer only on the streets, we had also learned to argue for common sense in the digital scenario. The viral videos, “memes” and photographs showed the country that in Tolima, resistance dressed for carnival.

In 2017, history reached a new height with the public consultation in Cajamarca. For months, farmers in the area had had to deal with pressure, threats and expensive campaigning by the mining company Anglogold Ashanti (AGA). However, on voting day, the results were astonishing: over 97% of the voters said NO to the project La Colosa. The news spread around the world: it was the first time a community defeated a multinational mining company of this size at the ballot box.

The declaration of the ninth Carnival March, celebrated this year, highlighted this historic victory. The text presented Cajamarca as an international symbol of dignity and resistance. It confirmed that no extractive project could impose itself over the people’s will, and the consultation was hailed as an example of direct democracy. In a loud and clear voice, it showed that the public has the power and the people’s will is not negotiable.

2018 was referenced by the expansion of public consultations. In Fusagasugá (Cundinamarca), the citizens voted massively against mining. However, the political and commercial elites began to maneuver to rid these tools of their power.

The Constitutional Court emitted the unification judgment SU095/18, which limited the possibility of continuing with public consultations against mining and petroleum projects. The corporate capture of the Court ignored the constitutional character of these mechanisms for public participation and annihilated the possibility of solving socio-environmental conflicts through democratic paths. 

The tenth declaration of the Carnival March denounced this step backwards. It stated that ignoring the people’s mandates was a coup against participative democracy, and that it was not about simple bureaucracy, but about sovereign mandates expressing the will of an organized community. The text announced that the State could not keep ignoring the primary constituents.

In 2019, the country was led by the government of Iván Duque, whose National Plan for Development deepened the extractivist logic and opened up fracking as a governmental policy. The eleventh declaration of the Carnival March was a full frontal response. In this declaration, we denounced that the economic model was sacrificing territories and communities in the name of economic growth, and that communal resources, such as water, were privatized and contaminated. We also denounced the criminalization of environmental and social leaders. The central idea manifested that development cannot be measured by privileges that destroy life.

This year, the streets once again were filled with thousands of people. The carnival kept on being a space for encounters and public education. Each performance carried messages against fracking, against megamining and against institutional corruption. Children painted placards with phrases like “water, yes, gold, no”, and farmers reiterated that without water there will be no food. The Carnival March kept being a mosaic of cultural expressions, united by one common objective.

2020 was a different year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The country struggled through prolonged pandemics and it was impossible to organize large gatherings. However, the Carnival March was not suspended. It adapted to this new scenario and transferred its force to social networks and virtual spaces. 

There were live broadcasts, digital round tables and graphic campaigns, keeping the flame of social and environmental mobilization alive. It was said that this sanitary crisis had roots in the same predatory model that ruins forests, displaces communities and destroys ecosystems. We have to remember that many emerging illnesses are related to the loss of biodiversity and with indiscriminate exploitation of nature. The central idea was: “Defending nature is also defending life, in the face of global pandemics”.

Although people could not take to the streets, the collective memory of nine years of marches let our communities keep feeling part of a communal process. The carnival kept its identity as a symbol of resistance, although during these years, the drums and the performances emerged from windows, balconies and screens.

In 2021, the tenth Carnival March found the country in one of the largest social eruptions in recent history: the National Strike. In the streets of Bogotá, Cali, Medellín and many other communities, millions of Colombians mobilized against the tax reform, the political violence and the social inequality. 

In this context, the Carnival March played a part, reaffirming that the environmental struggle was inseparable from the struggle for social justice. The declaration was read amongst green banners and placards saying “Oppression stops now!”. We denounced the systematic killings of environmental and social leaders, as well as police brutality, and acted as a reminder that defense of life includes both nature and the ones who try to protect it. The message was clear: “There is no possibility of peace or democracy while those who defend the water and the rights to land keep being assassinated”.

This year, the carnival performances gave homage to the people who had died during the protests, and the drums sounded stronger and louder, an act of sorrow and hope. The art of the people was firmly embedded in the public conscience and the Carnival March merged with the National Strike, which amplified the horizon of the struggle.

In 2022, the country kept shaking with the echoes of this social eruption. The thirteenth Carnival March kept its character of festival-resistance, but with a more somber tone: the complaints against governmental violence were constant. The declaration reiterated that we cannot talk about energy transition, nor of the fight against climate change, if at the same time environmental campaigners keep being criminalized. The declaration stated that democracy was in question and that the public cannot be silenced. The central message was: “Environmental justice is inseparable from social justice; there will be no peace if these two do not advance together”.

This year, we also highlighted the need to put the brake on fracking and protect the moorlands as sources of water. The carnival returned to being educational, walking masks of moorlands, costumes of drops of water and performance with ecological messages filled the streets of Ibagué. Creativity kept being the preferred way to express our indignation.

In 2023, there was the fourteenth Carnival March. The country was undergoing new debates with a national government, regarding the energy transition and the care of the planet. In the north of Tolima, companies like Miranda Gold intensified their projects, making the risks to the river Saldaña and other hydrographic sources evident. 

The declaration denounced the presence of these companies and reiterated the rejection of fracking and the extensive monocultures of Hass avocados, which are deteriorating the soil and water sources in the Cajamarca region and also other regions in the country. The text underscored that food and agro-cultural independence is key, because without farmers and fertile lands, there is no future. The central message of the mobilization highlighted the importance of farming and sustainable agriculture as an alternative to extractivism.

This year, the Carnival March expanded into other cities, and on social networks, Tolima became a shining light for environmental resistance all over the country. The carnival atmosphere, more elaborate every year, made Ibagué a stage for popular art that transcended borders.

2024 was the year of the fifteenth Carnival March, and the declaration of this march introduced an important change: international solidarity. In a global context marred by wars, genocides and displacements, the Carnival March expressed its support for the Palestinian people and all communities, all over the world, who resist this destruction. The text mentioned that the defense of water does not know borders, and all the struggles for life are connected. The point was loud and clear: “Defending our Tolima land is the same as defending the dignity of communities anywhere on the planet”.

The performers, this year, did not only carry the banners of environmentalism, but there were flags for Palestine, the Amazon and indigenous people of other regions. The Carnival March turned into a space for public internationalism, where the idea that environmental justice is also global justice was strengthened.

On the 6th of July 2025, under relentless rain, thousands of people marched in Ibagué, for the sixteenth time. The rain was not a problem, it transformed into a symbol: the water falls and gives life, as the community keeps going in spite of all the setbacks. 

The demonstrators cried: “Rain or thunder, we are going to march”. The declaration was extensive, poetic and precise: we urged the national government to immediately implement the public consultation of Cajamarca and Piedras, to decree a mining moratorium and create an Intersectional Technical Advisory linked with Tolima, with decision-making participation of the communities. We denounced the corruption of the environmental authorities in Cortolima and their inability to protect the ecosystems; we demanded protection for the river Saldaña, already recognized as subject of rights; and we demanded the authorities to put a brake to extensive monoculture and make progress in the creation of Áreas de Protección y Producción Agroalimentaria (Areas of Protection and Agroalimentary Production) (APPA). We also asked the authorities to implement programs of environmental education and to prepare an Environmental Summit for Peace with Nature for June of 2026, in Ibagué.

The declaration highlights the idea of the people as a primary constituent. We ask that the public sovereignty declared in the third article of the Constitución Política de Colombia (the Constitutional Policy of Colombia) is applied, and that the State respects our rights. At the end of the Carnival, amongst, drums, umbrellas and placards, the declaration was resounding: “Water is not sold, it is cherished and defended!”

This year of 2025, the Carnival March did not only reaffirm its validity, but showed that fifteen years of resistance had created a cultural, educational and political tradition, which does not bend faced with repression, or institutional indifference. The rain “cleaned” the streets, but it also seemed to clean any doubts. The citizens of Tolima have, once again, showed that the defense of water is a cause that will not die down, which is very much alive, with dignity and joy.

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