Colombia’s state-led oil company Ecopetrol caused more than 600 instances of major environmental damage between 2010 and 2016, according to internal data leaked by one of their former employees. Mongabay contributor Mie Hoejris Dahl reports that the leaked information suggests the company kept track of spills internally but did not adequately report them to the government.
According to data shared by whistleblower Andrés Olarte Peña with the Environmental Investigation Agency, an international environmental NGO, Ecopetrol failed to report about a fifth of these sites, and none have been fully cleaned up. The investigation also reveals that Ecopetrol had a database to map and monitor 1,200 individuals in areas where the company operates.