Panel Discusses Corporate Misdeeds in Latin America

Peter Finnerty ’25 Staff Writer

“Society may subsist, though not in the most comfortable state, without beneficence, but the prevalence of injustice must utterly destroy it,” University of Denver Professor of Business and International Studies

Tricia D. Olsen said, quoting Adam Smith. More than two centuries after he wrote those words, the question of reconciling the free market and social justice remains hotly contested.

The political science and economics departments hosted the annual Vogel Lecture on April 19 in the Lipton Lecture Hall. This year’s event, titled “Corporate Wrongdoing — The Possibilities for Accountability and Redress in Latin America,” featured a conversation about the harms caused by transnational corporations in the region, including human rights abuses, and the future of economic regulation.

Speakers at the lecture included Daniel Marín López and Tricia D. Olsen, with political science professors Javier Corrales and Kerry Ratigan moderating the panel. After the speakers presented their research, the audience was invited to participate in a short Q&A.

López, who presented the first half of the lecture, is a fellow at Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, as well as a lecturer on human rights and business at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. He has also served as an expert advisor on corporate complicity in human rights abuses to Colombia’s truth commission, which was created in 2016 to heal divisions after years of civil conflict.

López began by discussing issues associated with coal mines in Colombia, which are owned by transnational corporations. Because the mining districts are labeled as ‘public utility projects,’ the central government has purview over mining in the region.

“At the end, these are actually negotiations between the central government, the executive branch, and the companies. And why is this important? It’s because you don’t have any kind of participation by communities or municipalities in these issues,” López said.

López highlighted the takeover of chunks of land in coal mining areas and showed how displacement and rates of violence against the peasant population rose significantly with the arrival of companies. Violence against union leaders, teachers, and workers appeared especially stark.

López recalled an interview with a food supplier for Drummond, a coal company, who became an intermediary between the company and paramilitaries.

“I knew that they were going to attack these people, like the union le- aders, but I did not have the capacity to determine these homicides,” the supplier told López.

“He was explicitly saying, ‘It’s in the capacity of the company to do that,’” Lopez said.

While several cases against Drummond filed in the U.S. were dismissed on procedural grounds, there are several suits in Colombia still pending. However, there are limits to restitution, due to the longterm effects of mining on the land.

“The problem is that [the former peasant land] is a hole. So they cannot restitute the land to the peasant population,” López said.

On the lessons from these events, López noted the importance of state involvement in holding corpora- tions accountable and taking domestic action against transnational corporations.

Olsen, who spoke next, is an associate professor and associate dean at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business and Josef Korbel School of International Studies. Her research and fieldwork on business ethics and economic development examines under what circumstances victims take measures to seek redress for corporate human rights abuses, including her compiling of over 13,000 corporate human rights abuses across Latin America.

Olsen’s segment of the lecture took a broad view of corporate wrongdoing, examining how institutional strength, the characteristics of the corporation, and organizations elevating voices contribute to redress in cases of corporate wrongdoing.

Olsen cautioned against emphasizing state weakness in the face of corporate power, commenting on the ability of states today to influence corporate policy.

“Corporate strength is the result of state policy, and this is particularly true in Latin America, where neoliberal policies and the Washington Consensus were specifically designed to create large, powerful companies and relatively weak states,” Olsen said.

The tension between private and

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