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Guatemalans Resist Invasion of North American MinesBy Helen Jaccard and Gerry Condon In November we traveled to Guatemala to study Spanish and learn about the lives of the indigenous Maya people. Guatemala is an amazingly beautiful country, with countless mountains and valleys, and 22 volcanoes, the most in Central America. The people are very friendly and good humored. Traditional Mayan culture, mostly observed in the colorful dress of the Mayan women, lives side by side with modernity. Picture a traditionally dressed indigenous peasant woman tending her cattle and sheep on a hillside pasture. Now watch her pull a cell phone out of her skirt to call her children. We are not just Spanish students and certainly not “tourists” in the usual sense. We are active members of Veterans For Peace, and we are very concerned about the U.S. role in Central America. The legacy of the 36-year war waged by the Guatemalan military against its indigenous people is everywhere. A peace agreement was signed in 1996, but many people we met, especially in the mountainous Mayan communities, told us the war continues – through discrimination, poverty, lack of voice in government, and now the systematic destruction of their communities in favor of gold and silver mining, hydroelectric dams, cement plants and oil exploration. We learned again about the CIA engineered coup that overthrew the progressive, democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954. Sponsored by the Eisenhower administration at the behest of the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita), the coup led to a 36-year long war of “scorched earth” genocide. More than 440 Mayan villages were destroyed and over 200,000 people died in massacres by the Guatemalan military, with aid and encouragement from the United States government. An unjust order prevails to this day. Most of the land and wealth is in the hands of only eight families. To make matters worse, between 2000 and 2004 the Guatemalan government granted over 400 mining and extraction licenses to U.S. and Canadian mining companies who seek gold, silver and other precious metals that are right under the feet of the poor Mayan communities in the mountains. With massive profits to take away from Guatemala, the mining operations are carrying out a “scorched earth” policy of their own. HuehuetenangoAfter studying Spanish for two weeks at San Pedro Laguna on Lake Atitlan (highly recommended), we stayed with a family in Huehuetenango, close to Chiapas, Mexico, which used to be part of Guatemala. We visited the small mountain town of Jacaltenango, where we met Bernardo Masariegos, a community leader who told us of the struggles in the department (state) of Huehuetenango against mines, hydroelectric dams, and petroleum extraction. The people of Huehuetenango, the most indigenous and rural department of Guatemala, adamantly oppose such exploitation. In successful opposition to a hydroelectric dam on the Mesté River, a grassroots movement of 9,000 to 14,000 people maintained a three year long nonviolent occupation (rotating about 100 people at a time) at the main square of Jacaltenango, swelling to more than 6,000 for every protest event. “All of the people who protest have no education,” Bernardo told us, “Only ten to twelve people in the movement were teachers and two to three were university teachers. They were the real people, the poor people.” Indigenous peoples have an international and national constitutional right not to have their natural resources used without their knowledge and informed consent. This is called theconsulta comunitaria de buena fe, or good faith community referendum. Twenty six of the 32 municipios (counties) in Huehuetenango voted against the mines in local referendums. Our visit to the Marlin mine and affected communitiesThe huge Marlin Gold Mine is near the town of San Miguel Ixtahuacán, high in the rugged mountains of the department of San Marcos. It is operated by Montana Exploradora , a wholly owned subsidiary of the Canadian company Goldcorp. It is both an open pit and tunneling mine. This region is already damaged by decades of war. The massive destruction of Goldcorp's Marlin Gold Mine can be seen in this immense open pit. On December 6, 2012, accompanied by community organizer Aniseto López, we visited people affected by the Marlin Mine, adjacent to several indigenous communities in the department of San Marcos. According to Amnesty International, in February 2011, protesters in north-western Guatemala’s San Marcos region were attacked after speaking out against the Marlin Mine. Aniseto López was taken to the local mayor’s office, where officials beat him and threatened to kill him if he continued to speak out against the mine. In San Marcos, we visited:
Women of FREDEMI meet with Helen Jaccard and Gerry Condon of Veterans For Peace.
Our visit to the Community Occupation at La PuyaOn December 10 - 12 we visited a proposed mining project, El Tambor, about an hour's bus ride from Guatemala City. Kappes, Cassiday & Associates of Reno, Nevada owns the license. Between the towns of San Jose del Golfo and San PedroAyampuc is an area called La Puya, and the entrance to the mining area. Hundreds of residents of local communities have maintained a successful nonviolent occupation here since March 2, 2012. Helen Jaccard interviewed some of the community leaders at the La Puya occupation. We arrived late and spent the first night sleeping on a wooden platform in the middle of the occupation. This and having Spanish language flyers handy to explain who we are helped us to be welcome here.<More> Bruce Gagnon, Veteran member of VFP Chapter 001 in Auburn ME and Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space recent insights on Bringing War Dollars Home was featured on OpEdNews website. |
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