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On the 8th of May 2007, the Judges of Guatemala’s Constitutional Court (CC) issued a resolution regarding the Act of Unconstitutionality of the “Community Consultation on mineral exploration and exploitation” in the municipality of Sipacapa, San Marcos, held on the 18th of June 2005 and organised by the Sipacapa Municipal Council. This Act of Unconstitutionality was presented by Rosa María Montenegro de Garoz, lawyer of a private consultant firm advising the mining company Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, operating the Marlin mine in San Miguel Ixtahuacán and Sipacapa.
After taking into account all nine points of unconstitutionality presented by Montenegro de Garoz, the CC confirmed the following:
The community consultation remains the favourite method for the indigenous communities to pronounce themselves about the central government’s promotion of mega-projects, like the mining and oil exploitation and the construction of hydroelectric plants. It is more than obvious that the wave of consultas, which was initiated in 2005 with Sipacapa and subsequently with six municipalities in Huehuetenango, has not lost any strength at all. To the contrary, after the consultation in the village of Concepción Tutuapa in February of this year (see the Robust Oak #7), San Pedro Necta was the next to pronounce itself publicly at the end of March about the possible initiation of mining activities within its territory. A total of 17.741 persons participated at the consultation, almost doubling the amount of people that participated at the presidential elections four years ago, and the result was the total rejection (100%) of mining exploration and exploitation. Regarding this result, the Board of Promotion the Community Consultation in San Pedro Necta commented the following:
At the end of March, mining company Montana Exploradora, property of the transnacional company Goldcorp Inc., announced its interest to construct another goldmine in Guatemala, in Asunción Mita, Jutiapa, in the east of the country on the border with Honduras. According to sources within the company, the latest examinations indicated the existence of approximately one million ounces of gold.
Goldcorp’s Executive Director for Central America, Eduardo Villacorta, announced that Montana invested a total of $15 million since initiating the feasibility studies in 2001. This latest information gives the green light for the elaboration of an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) in order to obtain the necessary permits to start the construction of the mine. The tentative name of the project is Cerro Blanco and the mine will be a little bit smaller than the Marlin mine, the other mine operated by Goldcorp in Guatemala.
PRESS RELEASE AND DECLARATION BY THE COMMUNITIES IN RESISTANCE
IN SAN MIGUAL IXTAHUACAN, SAN MARCOS, GUATEMALA
TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC OPINION
We, members of the indigenous communities that live around the Marlin mine, owned by Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, a subsidiary of the Canadian multinational corporation GOLDCORP, declare as follows:
When the company arrived in our communities, they tricked us, taking advantage of our illiteracy and poverty. They promised us a variety of things: construction of health clinics in the communities, animal farms, small irrigation projects, houses, compensation for the crops destroyed by mining activities and other projects of all sorts. However, they never told us about the negative impacts and effects of mining exploitation. They told us that everything is marvelous and the operations will be carried out as you wish and with top-notch technology.
On the 13th of February the population of Concepción Tutuapa unanimously rejected the mining projects that the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) seeks to put into operation within the territory of this village in the San Marcos highlands. This opposition adds up to the different manifestations against open-pit metal mining activities throughout the last few years, and it once again illustrates the tradition of the indigenous peoples in Guatemala to express themselves in a peaceful way about issues that directly concern them.
Independent journalist Dawn Paley made a visit to Guatemala and wrote this interesting article about the current situation regarding the Marlin mine in the the highland of San Marcos:
Turning Down a Gold Mine
James Rodríguez visited the evictions of communities around El Estor, Izabal, and wrote about this on his weblog:
MiMundo.org
We are honoured to announce that the leaders of all 64 communities of Concepción Tutuapa, San Marcos, decided to organise a community consultation regarding the mining activities within their territory. The consultation will take place on Tuesday 13th of February 2007 in all 64 communities. During the consultation the inhabitants of Concepción Tutuapa will be asked whether or not they agree with open-pit metal mining exploration and exploitation within their municipal borders.
The consultation will be organised by the Environmental Committee of Concepcion Tutuapa assisted by the Campesino Workers Movement (MTC), Ajchmol and the Pastoral Commission Peace and Ecology (COPAE).
Between the 10th and 22nd of January residents of various communities of San Miguel Ixtahuacán blocked access routes to the Marlin mine operated by “Montana Exploradora de Guatemala”, property of the transnational mining company Goldcorp. According to the protesters, these blockades were the product of immoral conduct by the mining company, as well as the environmental concerns of the local people, and their aim was, among others, to renegotiate the price of the land. However Montana refused to negotiate until the blockade would be removed. Through mediation by the Diocese of San Marcos and the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDH) the residents agreed to take the blockade away, but until now Montana has not showed it willingness to enter into a dialogue with them.
According to a technical study presented by Flaviano Bianchini of the Madre Selva Collective, areas close to the Marlin mine, within the municipalities of San Miguel Ixtahuacán and Sipacapa, department of San Marcos, have started to suffer the consequences of acid drainage. The engineer’s study mentions the presence of four heavy metals in the Tzalá River, which runs parallel to the Marlin mine, all with values that are above the limits of various laws (“World Bank guidelines for open pit mining”, “the World Health Organization’s guidelines for drinking water” and the “Canadian limits for drinking water”). These metals are copper, aluminium, manganese and iron. Upon entering in contact with human beings, they metals can produce cancer, congenital disorders as well as skin problems. Consequently Madre Selva filed a complaint for industrial contamination by Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, the owners of the Marlin mine.
Guatemalan newspaper Siglo XXI announced on the 23rd of November that Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, the company exploiting the Marlin mine in the San Marcos department, produced 140.000 ounces of gold during its first year in operation, as well as one million ounces of silver. The sale of both minerals led to an overall income by mid-November of 91 million dollars. Eduardo Villacorta, the Central American director for Goldcorp which owns Montana Exploradora, revealed that these figures mark a record in the history of Guatemala. In comparison, the San Martin mine in the Siria Valley in Honduras, which is also owned by Goldcorp, managed to extract 118 thousand ounces of gold throughout the same period. (Siglo XXI, November 23rd 2006: Montana obtiene producción record)
The lengthy conflict between residents of the village of El Estor, Izabal, and the mining company Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN, property of Skye Resources from Canada) once again heated up on the 12th of November when around 60 policemen evicted some 30 families that were occupying the finca Esmeralda, allegedly belonging to CGN. The occupation of this terrain started a day earlier and complemented the various occupations carried out last September in five adjacent areas that all contain mining concessions.
The relatively calm eviction of the finca took place on the afternoon of the 12th. Directly after these events, police officers went to the Barrio Revolution, one of the areas occupied since September, where they violently evicted 200 families. These incidents increased the tensions in El Estor and a day later, on the 13th of November, groups of evicted persons stood up to the authorities and during the confrontations stones were thrown and shots were fired. That night villagers made its way to the CGN headquarters, where they destroyed various offices and the mining company’s hospital. Furthermore one the residences of Roberto Chub Chucul, El Estor’s mayor, was set on fire, clearly because of his open support to the mining company.
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