[IPSM] MINING IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD: Guatemala

Tue Nov 2 15:50:58 PST 2004

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE RESISTANCE TO MINING IN THEIR TERRITORIES:

Request for sign-on to letter supporting Guatemalan communities in fight 
against gold mine

The "Frente por la vida," a Guatemalan coalition of indigenous communities 
and other grass-roots organizations, asks international groups to support 
their struggle by signing on to a letter to the President of Guatemala. The 
letter outlines their struggle for prior and informed consent to an open 
pit gold mine in their lands.

The letter will be presented at a press conference in San Marcos, Guatemala 
with the presence of prominent human rights leaders, on November 8.

The Social Justice Committee (Montreal, Canada)is organizing this campaign. 
We need your signatures by November 5. We apologize for the short notice. 
Please send your organization's name and country to
americas at s-j-c.net

The people of the mining area are concerned with the negative consequences 
that this open pit gold mine will have for their environment, for their 
health, and for their livelihood. Open pit gold mines are known to 
contaminate the environment, cause health hazards, and leave the land 
unusable for human habitation and for agricultural purposes after the life 
cycle of the mine has finished.

The US-Canadian corporation operating the mine is Glamis Gold Ltd, with 
financial support from the World Bank's International Finance Corporation. 
Please see the letter below for more information about this project.

Thank you for your solidarity.

Gloria Pereira-Papenburg
The Social Justice Committee (Canada)
gloria at s-j-c.net

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

November 2004

Lic. Oscar Berger, President of the Republic of Guatemala

Dear Mr President,

We write to you as friends of the Guatemalan people. We wish to express our 
support for the members of the "Frente por la Vida" Coalition, who have 
informed us about the arrival of a mining company, Montana Exploradora, a 
subsidiary of Glamis Gold and the start of the Marlin gold and silver 
mining project in the Department of San Marcos (municipalities of San 
Miguel Ixtahuacán and Sipacapa). We understand that the Government of 
Guatemala issued a permit for this open pit mine, without the prior and 
informed consent of the Mam and Sipacapense indigenous people who live in 
those municipalities.

The Frente has asked the international community for support in their 
demand that the Government of Guatemala fulfill its obligations according 
to Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization (ILO), which it 
has signed and ratified. Convention 169 states that Indigenous Peoples 
"have the right to decide their own priorities for the process of 
development as it affects the lands they occupy or otherwise use". It also 
says that "they shall participate in the formulation, implementation and 
evaluation of plans and programmes for national and regional development 
which may affect them directly."

Based on the rights accorded to them by Convention 169, the Frente por la 
Vida coalition asks that your government:
1. Halt further work on the Marlin mine pending the full and informed 
participation of local communities in the formulation, implementation and 
evaluation of the plans and programmes for this open pit gold mine.
2. Change the Mining Law to include a prior and informed consent from the 
affected indigenous communities for any mining exploration and exploitation 
permit. The Mining Law should also ban the use of cyanide, which has been 
prohibited in the state of Montana in the USA. In addition, the royalties 
should be increased to at least 12% and designated for investments in the 
affected communities.
3. Declare a moratorium on new mining permits until the Mining Law has been 
made congruent with all Guatemalan international commitments, especially 
Convention 169 of the ILO.

We believe that the Frente has legitimate reason to be concerned about open 
pit mining given the experience of people in other countries around the world.
* The process will use as much as 250,000 litres of water per hour 
(according to the company's estimates) in a zone with limited water resources.
* Open pit mining is highly destructive of the environment, with 
contamination of the water with heavy metals, which has negative 
repercussions for the health of the people and animals, and contamination 
of the fruits and vegetables being irrigated, both in the immediate area 
and in communities downstream.
* It is almost inevitable that the cyanide used to leach the gold from the 
ore will leak into the environment.
* Metal mining in developing countries can create conflict, encourage 
corruption, and often, lead to violence.
* The number of jobs directly related to mining do not compensate for the 
loss of agricultural jobs and the environmental, cultural and, especially, 
social deterioration that affect communities where there are mining projects.

A recent study has shown the presence of arsenic above the accepted limits 
in a similar mine in Honduras. Moreover, mining companies rarely budget 
enough for clean up and restoration after the mine is finished. This has 
been observed in developing countries as well as industrialized ones like 
Canada.

We understand that the Government of Guatemala's intention to attract 
mining companies is, among other things, to improve the economic situation 
of the poor. Unfortunately, this does not happen. According to the UN 
Conference on Trade and Development, poverty has deepened in 
mining-dependant countries in the last couple of decades. Not many jobs are 
created and they are short term, as in the case of the San Marcos' project, 
where the company forecasts only a 10-year long activity, after which the 
indigenous communities will be left with the destruction and contamination 
of their environment.

Mr. President, we respect your commitment to "work, in a decisive and 
transparent way, for the benefit of all Guatemalans". We therefore request 
your immediate intervention. We, members of the international community, 
support the demands of the "Frente por la Vida" and will continue to 
monitor the developments of this case of a flagrant violation of indigenous 
rights.

At 11:49 AM 02/11/2004, Devin Butler wrote:
>**please forward widely**
>The PHILIPPINE SOLIDARITY GROUP and the ASIAN SOLIDARITY NETWORK
>of TORONTO invite you to:
>
>MINING IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD:
>Women and Indigenous Peoples
>Resist Canadian Corporate Incursions
>
>6 November 2004
>
>2:00-4:30 PM
>
>Toronto Public Library (Basement)
>
>Palmerston Avenue Branch
>
>(north off Bloor St. West, 2 blocks west of Bathurst)
>
>
>With presentations from
>
>· Subanon leader from Zamboanga province in Mindanao, Philippines on
>the Subanon people’s struggle against Toronto Ventures, Inc.
>
>· Catherine Coumans of Mining Watch Canada reporting back from a
>consultation in India on women and mining
>
>· Lee Maracle of the Sto:lo First Nations, renowned First Nations
>writer and activist on Indigenous Peoples’ resistance to the corporate
>agenda in Canada
>
>
>Co-sponsored by the Philippine Network for Justice and Peace (PNJP), the
>South Asia Left Democratic Allliance (SALDA) and the Grassroots
>Anti-Imperialist Network (GRAIN)
>
>
>For information: psgto at hotmail.com or asians4solidarity at yahoo.ca
>
>Donations welcome
>_______________________________________________
>IPSM-l mailing list
>IPSM-l at lists.resist.ca
>https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ipsm-l

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gloria Pereira-Papenburg
The Social Justice Committee (Canada)
1857 Maisonneuve West, Montreal, Canada - H3H 1J9
phone: (514) 933 9517 or (514) 933 6797
toll free: 1 877 933 6797
fax: (514) 933 9517
general SJC e-mail address: <sjc at web.ca>
personal e-mail address: <gloria at s-j-c.net>
web-site: <www.s-j-c.net>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~