Objective/context:

This article reconstructs the history of popular consultations against extractive activities in Colombia. It aims to illustrate how constitutional law affects the repertoires of democratic participation available to social movements and resistances.

Methodology:

The article describes and critical ly analyzes how Colombian constitutional law has approached the use of popular consultations against extractive activities. This analysis focuses on three moments: citizen empowerment, institutional reaction, and informal resistance.

Conclusions:

The history of popular consultations in Colombia shows three types of relationship between constitutional law and the democratic participation of social movements and resistances: it can function as an instrument for the political empowerment of the citizenry, as an obstacle that contains democratic participation and contributes to political and social exclusion, or as a referent that guides informal resistance practices in the face of the closure of formal participation mechanisms by state institutions.

Originality:

This article contributes to a more comprehensive description of the uses of popular consultations in Colombia and how constitutional law affects the participation repertoires of social movements and resistances opposed to extractive activities.