When tourism and coal clash: A brewing battle in Colombia

摘要

Coalcorp's plan to construct a 70 -million US dollars coal port in Cartagena is drawing fire from Colombia's tourism industry and is quickly becoming a hot political issue. At a recent meeting in Santa Marta, the political lines were drawn when Colombia's Ministry of Mines and Energy, Hernan Martinez and the Minister of Transportation Andres Uriel Gallego voiced strong support for the port project. However, Colombia's Minister of Environment Juan Lozano is strongly opposed to the project and said he could not envision issuing the environmental permits needed to begin construction.