[IPSM] Fwd: [CANO] "We Have Inherited Our Lands": Community Resistance to Mining

[mandeep]

RightsAction <info at rightsaction.org> 

June 8, 2005

"We Have Inherited Our Lands": Community Resistance to
Mining, by 
Sandra Cuffe, Rights Action

Rights Action commentary:  Often lost in the debate
about the global 
mining industry are the historic issues of an
exploitative and unjust 
global economic model.  The underlying debate should
not be so much about 
how to encourage or pressure global mining companies
(and their North 
American government, private investors and World Bank
supporters) to do 
mining in a nice way, but rather it should be about
how to do work for 
global justice, equality and environmental well-being
in a way that 
empowers and enables peoples and communities across
the world to be in 
complete control over their lives, homes, communities
and resources ... 
and all this in harmony and balance with the
environment.

This article is based on work that Sandra is involved
with in the 
region.  Rights Action supports and works with the
groups and networks 
mentioned below.  Please redistribute and republish
this article.  If you 
want on/ off this elist: info at rightsaction.org

===

"We Have Inherited Our Lands": Community Resistance to
Mining

On May 25, 2005, 51 indigenous community leaders and
the mayor from the 
municipality of Comitancillo, San Marcos, descended on
the city of 
Guatemala to present the results of community
consultations in the 
municipality.  In response to new mining concessions
in the area granted by the 
government to Entre Mares, a subsidiary of Glamis Gold
(a Canadian/ US 
company), the communities of Comitancillo immediately
began organizing, 
raising awareness and coordinating the consultations.

The results of the consultation process - total
opposition to mining 
exploration and exploitation - were presented to the
Vice Minister of 
Energy and Mines Jorge García, of the Environment and
Natural Resources 
Juan de Dios Calle, and a few representatives from
Congress.  The 
response was that the people of Comitancillo should
not worry, since this was 
only a license for 'reconocimiento,' the first stage
of several in 
Guatemala; however, what good is prospecting unless
you have the option to 
continue exploration and exploitation? The community
leaders of 
Comitancillo were also told that they had been
misinformed about the impacts 
of mining in Honduras.  According to the Guatemalan
government officials 
referring to the mining-affected Siria Valley region,
nothing was wrong 
in Honduras, people are doing great, and one should
not turn away from 
the possibility that mining can reduce poverty.

The leadership and dignity of Comitancillo was
reflected in the 
response of one indigenous community leader: 

    "Why would we accept prospecting when we're here
to reject mining 
activities?  This would only create more problems in
the future.  I came 
back from Honduras last night, so I know the situation
of the people 
there and the problems mining is causing them. 
Insinuating that we are 
being manipulated is to underestimate us.  We are
poor, but money is not 
what most interests us; we have inherited our lands
and we want to 
leave them in good conditions for our descendants."

Just the night before he had returned from the "First
Community 
Gathering of Resistance to Mining Exploration and
Exploitation", which took 
place in El Porvenir, department of Francisco Morazan,
Honduras, May 21 
and 22, 2005.  Dozens of community leaders and
community-based 
organization representatives from communities affected
and/or threatened by 
metallic mining in Guatemala and Honduras
participated, sharing their 
experiences, seeing first-hand Glamis Gold's San
Martin open pit gold mine 
and its disastrous impacts, and coordinating how
together communities 
can face this situation.

'It's a horrible role,' Siria Valley Regional
Environmental Committee 
members often comment, 'but our greatest contribution
is being a mirror 
to show what can happen to other communities, so that
they don't end up 
in our situation.'  Every time I go out to the mine
site, it's a 
profound shock to see the advancing devastation of the
mountain-devourer 
(tragamontañas), as some refer to the mining company. 
One of the 
conclusions of medical brigades led by Doctor Juan
Almendares in the Siria 
Valley - that aside from the proven contamination of
water and land, mental 
health problems in the area may also be caused by the
psychological 
impact of the environmental destruction - is easy to
understand.

'The impact of the mining industry is accumulative in
nature,' explains 
Juan Almendares in an article written for the event in
the Siria 
Valley.  The colonial and neocolonial history of
Honduras is the history of 
export-oriented exploitation.  Mining figures among
bananas and other 
foreign-owned enclaves and industries that have
controlled the land and 
people from the arrival of the Spanish to the present.
 'The misfortune 
is that a century later it is not possible to make
demands against a 
company that no longer exists with the same name,'
writes Almendares in 
reference to the infamous New York and Rosario Mining
Company that 
operated in different parts of the country for
decades.  'Meanwhile, the 
contamination continues.'

'The promoters of neoliberalism,' write the Mártires
de Guaymas, one of 
the participating organizations in the Gathering,
'have reached the 
extreme of proclaiming themselves the owners of our
natural resources, 
with the right to sell them as if it were all part of
their private 
estate.'  Participants discussed the actors and ideas
behind the mining 
legislation and policies in Central America - very
much part of a global 
system of domination and exploitation. 

'They will take away our gold and silver and will
leave us the misery 
caused by the poisoning of the water, air and land;
thus, what belongs 
to us will produce many riches for them but for us
many illnesses, 
displacement of our population, destruction of our
forests, and ongoing 
private and public repression.'  In exchange for
mirrors, comments another 
participant from Huehuetenango.  It's an old story. 
"Three hundred 
years later our eyes are still closed," remarked
teacher and Siria Valley 
Environmental Committee member Roger Escober. 
"Puppies open their eyes 
after five days and we've taken 300 years!"

The strategies used by Glamis Gold to install itself
in San Marcos 
(Guatemala), described by Javier de León of the local
indigenous 
development organization Ajchmol, was almost a carbon
copy of the company's 
tactics in the Siria Valley.  Rodolfo Artiaga
describes how the community of 
Palo Ralo was part tricked and part forced into
selling their land.  
One of the only ones to resist, he was eventually
persuaded to leave the 
community when it became clear that one person could
not withstand the 
pressure of the company.  The community - so much more
than the mere 
houses and land - has been destroyed.  What is more,
some five years 
later they still have not received proper
documentation for the land and 
houses, which are located well within the mining
concession, close to the 
mine.  He showed the event participants the 'diplomas'
for their lands 
and homes, signed by a Glamis Gold representative -
documents with no 
legal validity whatsoever.

Although Glamis Gold was able to install itself in
both the Siria 
Valley and in San Marcos, eyes have opened and
resistance is growing.  
People from communities all over Guatemala and
Honduras have learned from 
others' experiences and their eyes are definitely
peeled.  "It's not 
easy," says Roger Escober.  "We know that the
companies have the entire 
government apparatus working in their favour." 
Indeed, the event 
statement and press coverage had only begun to
circulate when the Guatemalan 
government was already promising to work at all costs
against the Central 
American movement against open pit metallic mining,
which the 
government claims 'shields' itself behind ILO Covenant
169.

Far from being a shield, the obligation to consult
indigenous peoples 
prior to any projects affecting their lands or
communities, as laid out 
in ILO Covenant 169 is law, although the right to
consultations for all 
communities in order to decide the path of their own
development is a 
demand heard all over Guatemala and Honduras.  While
the government 
apparatus may be working in favour of the
transnational mining companies, 
communities are not standing around wringing their
hands. 

Shortly after the "First Community Gathering of
Resistance to Mining 
Exploration and Exploitation", an open municipal hall
meeting in El 
Progreso, Yoro decided to ban open pit mining in the
municipality.  Although 
the municipal authorities tried to shut out any room
for public 
participation, over a hundred organizations of all
sorts, led by the Mártires 
de Guaymas, fought to raise a motion proposing the
resolution.  
Cornered, the authorities were forced to address the
issue, and the resolution 
was passed unanimously. 

The community-driven consultations in Comitancillo and
the municipal 
ban in El Progreso are but two examples of the growing
community-based 
resistance, with more actions soon to follow with
similar dignity, 
clarity and initiative.

[The author, Sandra Cuffe, works with Rights Action in
Honduras.]

*****************************************

For more information about these issues, to
participate in upcoming 
Rights Action delegations (July 5-13; July 9-16, 2005)
dealing with these 
and other issues, or to make tax-deductible donations
to Rights Action 
for the community-based organizations struggling for
community 
development, environmental protection and rights in
Honduras and Guatemala, 
contact Rights Action: info at rightsaction.org,
416-654-2074, 
www.rightsaction.org

"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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