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Last month, Father Erik Gruloos, parrish of San Miguel Itahuacán, sent a letter to the Goldcorp company, for the first time in the five years that the company has been operating. He is tired of the accusations against him and is very worried by what is happening in the town. “Here people always talk about ‘asking permission’ to enter a house or to start a job.”
Read the letter
Equally, Monsignor Alvaro Ramazzini sent a letter to the communities of San Marcos, confirming that the Water Analysis conducted by COPAE is completely valid. In his letter, sent on 12 September, the Bishop expressed his sadness that the Montana Exploradora company had dedicated itself to distributing a personal letter written by the company’s manager, to all of the communities surrounding the mine, without consulting him. “This situation appears to be neither correct nor professional on behalf of the company, while divulging the letter presumes to pretend to make it appear that the bishop of San Marcos denies that there was water contamination.”
SAN MARCOS, 7 September 2009 – In the morning hours, from the communities of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, hundreds of representatives traveled to the department head of San Marcos to participate in a peaceful march. They supported their fellow Miguelenses who have been falsely accused by the Montana Company.
GUATEMALA, 22 September 2009 – Community members of Tajumulco and San Pablo presented a Declaration of Opposition to the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources. They oppose the potential construction of the hydroelectric dam Río Salá in their territory because of the damages to the environment it may cause and because they were not consulted about the dam. COPAE and Colectivo Madreselva accompanied the community members.
The Hidrosala S.A. Company seeks to construct a hydroelectric dam on the Argentina Farm, municipality of San Pablo, in the San Marcos department. Community members of the municipalities of San Pablo and the village Santa Lucia Talux de Tajumulco found out about the company’s plans and began organizing to create the Declaration of Opposition.
COPAE informs communities about mining contamination
Spanish
¿Cuál será el futuro de nuestros nietos?
Declaración Grito de los Excluidos/as Continental
Estamos vivos, presentes y seguimos avanzando
Agua y Energía, ¿para qué? y ¿para quién?
Cambiarlo todo para que todo siga igual
Los movimientos sociales y populares tienen la palabra
Los ojos del imperio sobre los enormes recursos naturales
READ IN GUATEMALAN NEWSPAPER:
Minera Montana no cumple ley de acceso a la información
Diputados efectúan audiencia sobre actividad minera
Funcionarios reconocen falta de controles a Mina Montana
Vecinos señalan daños por explotación minera
Photographer Steven Heyvaert was in Guatemala and Honduras this summer to shoot photos and make a film about the communities affected by mining activites. He's participating now with some of his beautiful pictures in the Viewbook PhotoStory 2009 competition. His photo story 'No tengo oro' is about gold mining in Guatemala (San Marcos) and Honduras (Santa Rosa de Copan and San Miguel).
You can vote here on Steven's pics. (under the photos you'll find a voting button)
It has been proved in other countries that there´s a relation between cyanide and contamination of water. That´s why people from communities nearby the Marlin Mine are extremely worried.
Hector Nuila, deputy from Maiz, stated that in Guatemala this chemical is used with total impunity and therefore the rights of people and communities are violated; that´s why deputies from Maiz will visit the mine to learn how they manage the waste water.
Through a series of aggressive mergers, Goldcorp has transformed itself into one of the world’s largest gold miners. Its operations are all in the Western Hemisphere, including northern Ontario, parts of the western United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Argentina. Like other big mining companies, Goldcorp has been criticized by human rights groups for mistreatment of indigenous communities. It has also faced labor and environmental controversies in numerous countries.
In May 2009, Crocodyl.org published a critical company profile of Goldcorp.
The last news on open pit metal mining and the resistance of the communities in Guatemala: first on Twitter, later on this pages. We invite you to follow us on Twitter.
COPAE presents 2nd Report on Monitoring and Analysis of Water Quality
The 30th of july, COPAE presented the 2nd Report on Monitoring and Analysis of Water Quality in the area of influence of the Marlin Mine. A lot of press assisted the conference. The message of the report is clear: the water in the surroundings of the mine is still polluted. Download the report (spanish, 2,2 MB, pdf) or watch the pictures of the event.
The main subject in this number is the criminalization of the resistance by the State. This is one of the most serious problems that communities and organizations that work for the respect of human rights and life, are suffering. Generally violence has come before dialogue, provoking the conditions needed to create a dialogue between the parties that is carried out under a context that is extremely divided and partial, but achieves, in the eyes of the rest of the population, and with the collaboration of means of mass communication, a justification for such violence.
For the State is something like: “we are ready to dialogue, but the communities do not want to participate.” What they don’t say is that before they were prepared to dialogue, they had already incarcerated the leaders and repressed the population.
Chronicle of an announced conflict Or David vs. Goliath
Goldcorp, through Montana, threatened to start new mineral explorations in Saqmuj the third week in May, members of the community protested in opposition, fearing that mining activity would endanger their valuable water resources and would cause additional environmental damage and the health of the people. The conflict in the area culminated with the burning of two drilling machines and a pick-up, which were property of the mine, on June 13. There were unfulfilled promises as well as the mine’s staff, as they stated they would withdraw their team from the area.
COPAE invites you to sign the declaration. The declaration is a result of the International Conference on Mining, held by COPAE and other organisations in Antigua Guatemala (03-05/08/09).
We, the different institutions, community-based organizations and social leaders of Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, Honduras, Belgium, the United States, Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, the Netherlands, Italy, Canada, Sweden, El Salvador, Argentina and France, participants in the INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MINING, within the context of the EL DORADO II International Seminar, have gathered from 3rd to 5th August in Antigua, Guatemala, to exchange experiences and information on the mining issue in Latin America.
Spanish
Mineros engañan
http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2009/agosto/23/335780.html
Denuncian perdidas ecológicas, económicas y sociales a causa de la minería en Latinoamérica
http://cerigua.info/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12717&Itemid=2
Funcionario del MARN hace declaraciones irresponsables sobre minería
http://cerigua.info/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12763&Itemid=2
Población Xinca se moviliza contra minería en Jalapa
http://cerigua.info/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12406&Itemid=2
¡Sequia!
Canada's Goldcorp agrees to negotiate; police, military arrive instead
july 5th, by Valerie Croft,
The Dominion
Goldcorp's Marlin mine borders the village of Agel, where the company has been trying to convince locals to sell their land for nearly eight years. Photo: Valerie Croft
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