Extractivism, social explosion and territorial processes: effects of coal mining in Cesar and La Guajira, Colombia

The social uprising in Colombia since 2019 and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated tensions re-vealing unusual territorial disputes. This article presents socio-spatial processes derived from the transformations induced by extractivism in the departments of Cesar and La Guajira, emphasizing the role of social mobilization. The ob-jective is to expose dynamics that reflect the territorialization of production relations. The intention that directed the in-vestigation was to capture guidelines that allow interpreting emerging conditions in regional environments impacted by extractivism. For this, official indicators were used, press monitoring and cartographic analysis of satellite images were carried out. It was concluded that there is a diverse ar-ticulation of social actors that arise from the existing territo-rial dynamics and challenge the bases of the extractivist mo -del. With this perspective, we reflect on the role of territorial planning in the face of the urgency of new alternatives that imply overcoming the current socio-environmental crisis derived from transnational mining.