(2025), companies implement job retraining programs, training, and support for small businesses, but these actions operate in a fragmented and small-scale manner, without being articulated in long-term territorial strategies. Once formal obligations have been fulfilled, responsibility for the future of the territory is implicitly transferred to the state, without addressing the institutional dependencies built up over decades of operation (Ramírez Farías, 2025). This practice is reinforced by a regulatory framework that prioritizes technical and environmental compliance but does not require territorial economic transition strategies or the planned transfer of functions. Overall, the analysis identifies three structural gaps. First, a gap in approach, conceiving closure as an orderly exit rather than a process of territorial reconfiguration. Second, an institutional gap, associated with the absence of instruments that compel the management of built dependencies and strengthen subnational state capacities. Third, a territorial gap, expressed in the lack of post-mining projects capable of articulating productive capacities, infrastructure, and governance beyond mining. These gaps explain why, despite formally adequate closures, mining enclaves continue to face stagnation, conflict, and loss of institutional legitimacy, highlighting the persistent distance between regulatory compliance and the construction of fair and sustainable social and economic transitions. 3.2. Colombia Over the last decade, Colombia has joined the global debate on the progressive reduction of fossil fuel use, in a context marked by international climate commitments and the government's energy transition agenda promoted since 2022. In this context, coal—the country's main mining export—has become a central topic of discussion due to its historical weight in the national economy and its fiscal and labor relevance. Evidence shows that this activity came to represent around 65% of mining GDP and a significant proportion of the sector's royalties, making Colombia highly exposed to the economic and territorial impacts of its decline (Mohr et al., 2023). However, the decision to reduce and eventually close coal mining has not been accompanied by a comprehensive mine closure framework or advance planning for socioeconomic transitions in dependent territories. Several studies agree that the process has been largely reactive, conditioned by the volatility of the international market, the pressure of the global energy transition, and unilateral business decisions, rather than by a coherent public policy for phasing out coal (C 2024). This form of closure has shifted the social, economic, and institutional costs to the territories, exacerbating pre-existing vulnerabilities. In this national context, the department of Cesar is particularly relevant for analyzing the impacts of coal closure. The territory has established itself as one of the country's main coal enclaves, linked to the global economy through large open-pit operations, dedicated rail and port infrastructure, and a strong fiscal and labor dependence on mining (Mohr et al., 2023). Municipalities such as La Jagua de Ibirico, El Paso, Becerril, and Agustín Codazzi developed highly specialized local economies with little productive diversification and typical enclave characteristics (Vega-Araújo, 2024). The early return of mining titles by the Prodeco Group and the closure of its operations marked a turning point, giving rise to a scenario characterized as an 118
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