Objective/context: This article reconstructs the history of popular consultations against extractive activities in Colombia. It aims to illustrate the forms in which constitutional law shapes the repertories of democratic participation available to social movements and resistances. Methodology: The article develops a descriptive analysis of the ways in which Colombian constitutional law has approached the use of popular consultations against extractive activities. This analysis focuses on three moments: citizens’ empowerment; institutional reaction; and informal resistance. Conclusions: The history of popular consultations in Colombia displays three types of relationships between constitutional law and the democratic participation of social movements and resistances: it can function as an instrument for the political empowerment of citizens; as an obstacle that restrains democratic participation and contributes to political and social exclusion; or as a referent that guides the practices of informal resistance against the closure of the formal mechanisms of participation by state institutions. Originality: This article contributes to a more comprehensive description of the uses of popular consultations in Colombia and of the ways in which constitutional law shapes the repertories of participation of the social movements and resistances opposed to extractive activities.