A term coined by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), the Iguana Papers include a variety of crucial documents, such as emails, presentations, internal briefs, third-party reports, and databases, that were collected by Andrés Olarte Peña during his tenure at Ecopetrol from January 2017 and January 2019.

Contained within the Iguana Papers are files that were shrouded in secrecy, accessible only to a select few, primarily the highest level executives at Ecopetrol. This exclusive group former chief executive officers (CEOs) Juan Carlos Echeverry Garzón and Felipe Bayón Pardo, and the former vice-president of sustainability, Eduardo Uribe Botero.

The Iguana Papers contain a confidential database documenting over 300,000 instances of socio-environmental non-compliance across Colombia. These instances were precisely documented by the company and involved more than 30 Colombian governmental institutions.

Another database kept track of the 800+ instances of environmental liability caused by Ecopetrol operations and specifically 170 instances (~20% of the total instances) hidden from authorities.

Lastly, the Iguana Papers expose a sophisticated surveillance system created by Ecopetrol. This system was designed to monitor individuals deemed as “risks,” including environmental activists, union reps, and other community leaders.