SINCE entering office in August 2022, Colombia’s progressive government of Gustavo Petro has acted swiftly to implement its own version of “levelling up” – no small feat in a country where chronic underdevelopment and violence have produced one of the planet’s most unequal societies.

In Colombia’s northernmost region of La Guajira, Wayuu indigenous communities experience some of the most deprived social conditions on the South American continent, due in large part to the devastating social-environmental impact of El Cerrejon, the massive coal mine owned by London-based multinational Glencore.

Last September, the government instigated an emergency relief plan to provide significant state investment in education, healthcare and environmental protection in La Guajira, a region where 55 children died during January-September 2023 owing to food insecurity, preventable disease and lack of clean water.