[IPSM] Fwd: GUATEMALA-Mayan territory: Bogus community consultations about open pit mining

Mon Aug 1 00:44:39 PDT 2005

July 21, 2005
> 
> GUATEMALA: San Miguel Ixtahuacán announces community
> consultations
> concerning open pit mining and the global mining
> industry
> 
> ***
> 
> Dear friends, Rights Action has not been sending
> emails recently, as we are
> all in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, carrying on
> with various aspects of
> our work: funding community based development,
> environment and human rights
> projects; providing human rights accompaniment to
> 'at risk' community
> leaders; being involved in education and activism
> work related to the
> negative impacts of policies and actions of northern
> governments, global
> mining companies, and northern 'development'
> institutions such as the World
> Bank, etc.
> 
> MINING versus COMMUNITY DESIGNED & CONTROLLED
> DEVELOPMENT
> 
> Below, Sandra Cuffe (Rights Action) writes of
> upcoming community based
> consultations in the very municipality where the
> Canadian-US Glamis Gold
> company is already building a large mining
> operation. There never were open
> and proper consultations with the local Mayan
> communities (Sipakapense and
> Mam) concerning whether or not they wanted mining in
> their communities and
> municipalities.
> 
> Over the next months, Rights Action, along with
> partner groups, will be
> involved with, supporting and reporting on the San
> Miguel region´s right and
> need to participate openly in their own consultation
> process.
> 
> SUPPORT NEEDED: Contact Rights Action for more
> information, to make
> tax-charitable donations in Canada and the US for
> this community development
> work, to host education and activism events in your
> community, etc:
> info at rightsaction.org / 416-654-2074.
> 
> ***
> 
> If you want on off this elist:
> info at rightsaction.org. Please re-distribute
> and re-publish this info far and wide.
> 
> ***
> 
> July 20, 2005
> 
> CONSULT THIS!:
> 
> SAN MIGUEL IXTAHUACÁN ANNOUNCES COMMUNITY
> CONSULTATIONS & SIPACAPA COMMUNITY
> LEADERS FACE ONGOING REPRESSION
> 
> On Monday, July 18, the Community Mayors (Alcaldes
> Auxiliares), Community
> Development Council (COCODE) members,
> representatives of local organizations
> and the Municipal Mayor of San Miguel Ixtahuacán
> unanimously decided to
> carry out community consultations regarding mining
> activities in their
> municipality, located in the department of San
> Marcos, Guatemala.
> 
> The decision was made exactly one month after the
> people of the neighbouring
> municipality of Sipacapa overwhelmingly rejected
> open pit mining activities
> in their territory, in an open and democratic
> process of community
> consultations.
> 
> These legitimate community consultations - in San
> Miguel Ixtahuacán,
> Sipacapa, along with other communities in the
> departments of San Marcos,
> Sololá, Totonicapán, etc - are supported by
> International Labour
> Organization (ILO) Covenant 169, the Municipal Code,
> and the Law of
> Development Councils. Thus, they should be found to
> be legally binding.
> 
> There could be significant ramifications to the
> consultations in San Miguel
> Ixtahuacán and Sipacapa, as both municipalities are
> directly affected by
> Canadian transnational mining company Glamis Gold's
> Marlin Project, a gold
> and silver project under construction. As well, the
> same company, by way of
> its wholly owned subsidiaries Montana Exploradora
> and Entre Mares, has been
> granted further mining licenses for prospecting and
> exploration in the
> region.
> 
> The communities of San Miguel Ixtahuacán and
> Sipacapa, the vast majority of
> which are indigenous Maya (Mam and Sipakapense,
> respectively), have repeated
> denounced the fact that no consultations by Glamis
> Gold nor by the
> Guatemalan government have taken place concerning
> the project, despite the
> fact that the licenses were granted long after ILO
> Covenant 169 was ratified
> by Guatemala. Regardless, the Marlin Project has
> enjoyed the full support of
> the World Bank, through a 45 million dollar loan
> from the International
> Finance Corporation to Glamis Gold, as well as that
> of the Canadian Embassy
> in Guatemala.
> 
> In a recent release announcing the community
> consultations in San Miguel
> Ixtahuacán, the organization 'Instancia Maya MAM
> AJPOP' explains that the
> population of the municipality gradually found out
> about the mining licenses
> through "the construction of the mining company's
> installations, the total
> destruction of the mountainside, the massive
> deforestation, and the drilling
> of a well," which will allow the company to draw
> over 250 Liters of water
> per hour directly from the aquifer.
> 
> REPRESSION
> Aside from the human rights and environmental abuses
> inherent in the open
> pit metallic mining process, there have also been
> several incidents of grave
> human rights violations associated with the mining
> project, including the
> murders of Alvaro Benigno Sánchez on March 13 by a
> private security agent of
> the Golan Group, contracted by Glamis Gold to
> provide 'security,' and of
> Raúl Castro Bocel by State 'security' forces on
> January 11. In both
> cases there has been total impunity for those
> responsible.
> 
> In Sipacapa, where communities are still waiting for
> a response concerning
> the consultation results from the Ministry of Energy
> and Mines, community
> leaders are facing ongoing repression. Many,
> including those working with
> Sipa Estereo, a community radio station that was
> instrumental in promoting
> and accompanying the consultation process, have been
> receiving death threats
> over the phone ever since the beginning of the
> consultation process.
> 
> On July 5th, Sipakapense community leader and former
> municipal mayor Mario
> Tema was on his way to Huehuetenango with his wife
> when they were followed
> by a green pickup truck with no license plates.
> Several community members
> have informed Tema of conversations they have
> overheard in which unknown
> individuals proclaim their intention to get rid of
> him in the same way as
> his father, who was killed in 1987.
> 
> There are also concerted efforts to criminalize and
> delegitimize the
> community leaders who have been at the forefront of
> the struggle in Sipacapa
> for consultations and who have maintained a clear
> position against mining
> activities in the municipality. There are at least
> three false accusations,
> mainly of threats and possession of weapons, against
> community leaders Mario
> Perfecto Tema Bautista, Horacio Bamaca Mejía, Santos
> Arnulfo
> López, Sergio Carrillo Tojil, and Eliseo Bamaca.
> 
> As in many other cases in which communities are
> struggling against powerful
> economic interests, the frequent manipulation of the
> legal system, threats
> and other acts of repression strive to intimidate
> community leaders,
> organizations and communities and to deter them from
> continued action.
> 
> As is made clear by the decision of San Miguel
> Ixtahuacán to carry out
> community consultations - despite the heavy presence
> of private and public
> repressive apparatus in the municipality - the
> communities' need for a
> locally controlled process to determine what
> activities are carried out in
> their own territory is more powerful than the
> attempts to derail the
> process.
> 
> [Stay tuned ... ]
> 
> (The author, Sandra Cuffe, works with Rights Action
> in Honduras, but
> sometimes wanders a little north. Feel free to
> circulate and redistribute
> this message.)
> 
> For more information, to get involved in issues
> related to the global mining
> industry and global impunity, or to make tax
> deductible donations in support
> of community-based organizations struggling for
> community-controlled
> development, the environment, indigenous rights and
> territory and justice in
> the face of repression, contact Rights Action:
> info at rightsaction.org,
> www.rightsaction.org, 416-654-2074
> 
> ===
> 
> 
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"Our system is one of detachment: to keep silenced people from asking questions, to keep the judged from judging, to keep solitary people from joining together, and the soul from putting together its pieces." (Eduardo Galeano)
"Sigan ustedes sabiendo que, mucho más temprano que tarde, se abrirán las grandes alamedas por donde pase el hombre libre, para construir una sociedad mejor." (Salvador Allende, 11 de sept. 1973)

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