Category Archives: Radio Mundo Real

Extractive industries | Radio Mundo Real | January 19, 2013

Clear consequences

Beginning of Mesoamerican event against mining in Oaxaca, Mexico; interview with Kendy Hernández

Radio Mundo Real

January 17, 2013

“Yes to Capulálpam, no to the mine,” said Kendy Hernández, referring to the meeting to take place from Thursday, January 17 to Sunday, January 20 in her community of Capulálpan de Méndez, in Oaxaca State, Mexico.

Kendy was interviewed for Real World Radio by Mónica Montalvo, who is participating in and covering the event.

The community activist pointed out that the goal is to promote joint experiences of resistance, based on some of the victories reached, for instance that of Capulálpan.

“Historically, this is a mining region, however there are plans to promote open-pit mining, which due to the demands of the organized community we managed to suspend because it threatens life in the community,” said Kendy.

The Mesoamerican Peoples Meeting “Yes to life, no to mining” beginning today aims to analyze the consequences of mining in the Mesoamerican territories and generate defense and organization alternatives from the peoples, the authorities and organizations.

This event will address the mining situation in Mesoamerica; indigenous rights and mining; strategies of defense and peoples’ alternatives for well-living.

This is a moment of reflection for organizations from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Canada and Mexico, that have joined different resistance processes to defend indigenous and peasant territories against mining.

The event is called by municipal and community authorities of Capulálpam de Méndez, the Coordinator of Peoples United of Valle de Ocotlán (CPUVO), the Oaxaca Group in Defense of Territories, University Services and Networks of Knowledge of Oaxaca (SURCO), the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining (REMA), the Mesoamerican Movement against the Mining Extractivist Model (M4), the National Indigenous Missions Support Center (CENAMI AC).

In Mexico there have been a series of problems directly related to the arrival of mining companies, such as in Baja California, San Luís Potosí, Nayarit, Puebla, Veracruz, Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca. In Oaxaca social problems have especially deepened due to the mining projects, such as the cases of Capulálpam de Méndez in Sierra Juarez and San Jose del Progreso in Valle de Ocatlan.

According to Banco de México, in just a decade the income of the sector went from fifth to third place, only exceeded by oil and automobile incomes.

According to the president of the Mexican Mining Chamber, 60 per cent of the national territory remains unexplored. But what Banco de México or the mining industry are not saying is that this growth is based on the destruction of the environment, overlooking the rights of the landowners, peasants and indigenous people.

At the end of the interview with Real World Radio, Kendy said that the community is in charge of the logistics of the event and is also broadcasting it live through local community radios and online live streaming.

Kendy invited everyone to learn about the resistance in her community through photos and texts available from its Facebook page.

Original article published by Radio Mundo Real in English | Español

Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license

Not one step back

Guatemala: Resistance to mining in San José del Golfo continues despite repression

Radio Mundo Real

December 11, 2012

In the early morning of Thursday, December 6, the Guatemalan riot police repressed, beat up and kidnapped members of the community of San José del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc near Guatemala City, who have been on a vigil for ten months to block the mining equipment of the company Exmingua.

Even though there were no formal accusations against them, the police officers ordered the community members to leave the place or they would destroy the precarious shelters placed on the side of the road where every day they produce food for nearly 200 people while they take turns to protest.

Milton Carrera, one of the community members who was arrested at the place, told Real World Radio that the police operation was illegal. They had no chance to defend themselves and said they were incommunicado for six hours, which is equivalent to kidnapping in his opinion.

“This was all based on false accusations,” said Milton. “They almost strangled me.” During the eviction, the police threw tear gas at the people, and they beat up elderly people and even children, said Milton. He added that “We are living under a repressive government, nothing is respected: there was no eviction warrant from a judge nor from President Otto Pérez Molina or from the Minister of Interior.”

He also said that the Minister of Interior of Guatemala, Mauricio López Bonilla publicly threatened to expel the foreigners who are fighting against mining with the communities because of the lack of water in the area and the large demand for the resource by the extractive industry. “We need more international human rights observers to confront the military government,” said Milton.

A month ago, an international delegation of the environmental federation Friends of the Earth visited the resistance camp and expressed its solidarity and commitment to raise international awareness about their struggle and objectives.

Carrera said that on Sunday, December 9, the community decided in an assembly to continue the protest until the very end. “The struggle continues, we will stay here and the people are willing to die for this cause. If (the government) wants to talk, they should come to Puya. We shall not move from there, not one step back.”

Original article published by Radio Mundo Real in English | Español

Extractive industries | Radio Mundo Real | Water | November 20, 2012

Golden lie

Interview with Milton Carrera from the resistance in San José del Golfo, near Guatemala City

Radio Mundo Real

November 20, 2012

Just 28 kilometres from Guatemala City, between the towns of San José del Golfo and San Pedro de Ayanpuc the peasant communities are resisting the actions of Canadian company Radius Gold Inc., which has operated a silver and gold mine in the area since 2000. Until now, the company has developed the exploration process. It decided to start the drilling this year, after the government approved the exploitation license, which allows activities in an area of 20 km² for 25 years.

Milton Carrera, a community leader, said the communities realized that the company was planning to come to their territories and started to demand clear answers. “They lied to us, the gold man and the ministry of energy and mines lied to us about the project. They said we were crazy, that nothing was going to happen but we just found out about one year and a half ago that they would come here, but also we found out that there are 14 projects around.”

The community has blocked and prevented the entry of the company for the last 9 months since March of this year. They organized to defend water, land and life against the mining project. “If we don’t produce agriculture since the water is going to be contaminated, what are we going to do? We are going to die,” said the leader.

After 9 months of resistance, he said that they never know how long the struggle is going to last. They continue resisting and demanding the company to leave. To confront and intimidate them, the company is misinforming people and causing divide among them. It pays people to pretend to be mining workers and confront their own families to allow the entrance of the company. At the same time, the government has supported the company not only by providing the license, but also through military presence to protect the corporation and secure its profits.

On Tuesday, November 12, “they started to send workers from the mine, we’ve been fighting here for almost four days now, sleeping almost here. The people haven’t worked for four days, but that’s all what we can do now to survive, they are bringing their own homes here to the resistance.”

The solidarity mission was in San José del Golfo to bring the message of support and solidarity with this struggle in defense of life, the same struggle that communities and organizations are fighting around the world. “We have dignity and we have shown our kids what it is to fight with dignity, that’s what we can show, if we want to gain something, we can do it.”

By Lyda Forero, Transnational Institute (TNI)

Original article published by Radio Mundo Real in English

Extractive industries | Radio Mundo Real | Water | November 19, 2012

Months of resistance

Protesters block entrance to Canadian mine in Guatemala City

Radio Mundo Real

November 19, 2012

San José del Golfo and San Pedro de Ayampuc are two towns near Guatemala City that have been affected by gold and silver mining. Mining activities began in the area in 2000 but the community only found out in 2010.

Radius Gold Corporation is operating in the area as a counterpart for Explotaciones Mineras de Guatemala (Exmingua). Servicios Mineros de Centroamérica is a subsidiary that exerts pressure among the population and does the so called social corporate responsibility work.

Antonio Reyes, leader in defense of the territory, says “they are just taking advantage of people’s misery and of people’s knowledge to persuade them and gain their support.”

The license for the exploitation of the mine is for 25 years in a 20 km² area, where they plan to have 14 mining projects. This area includes the municipality of San José del Golfo and the largest village, Choleña. It also includes communities of the neighbouring municipality San Pedro de Ayampuc. Mining exploitation threatens 5,000 families that depend on agriculture for their livelihood and who would be automatically left out of work, without resources to produce food and no possibility of satisfying their basic needs.

“The mining corporation offers economic development to the families and communities and has the nerve to hand out flyers saying that they bring economic development and that they will create 70 jobs over five or seven years. Then they leave and leave people unemployed while 5,000 families who live on agriculture are left out of work for life,” Reyes told Real World Radio.

There is plenty of water in the area where the exploitation Project is located. This situation alerts the organized communities against mining, because they find the project incompatible with water availability and the fertile soil. Also, the infrastructure projects, such as paving the road, will not be beneficial for the communities, they would just serve the exploitation and benefit of the transnational corporation, while water runs out.

“On March 2, 2012 several people of the community began the resistance. A woman saw one of the bulldozers coming and she was so outraged to see how they were entering our territories without prior consultation, how they were moving lands and logging the forest, that she told the vehicle she could not go through. So people started to join her,” said Reyes. The community leader said people’s outrage has contributed to join several social groups around a common objective: defending life, regardless of their political affiliation, religion, ethnic group or social sector, they all want to live and they are defending water preservation.

As months go by and the organized community continues to block the entrance to the mine, the situation is becoming more tense, since the company is paying groups of people from the region to confront the demonstrators, a strategy to divide the community.

However, Reyes said that they will continue fighting and demonstrating peacefully. We are convinced that this is the only way for the government and the mining corporations to stop doing whatever they want and we are convinced that we are legally entitled to do this. We don’t mind dying, we hope it will not happen but if we die it does not matter because that would strengthen the resistance.”

Original article by Radio Mundo Real in English | Español

Extractive industries | Radio Mundo Real | Water | November 16, 2012

Goldcorp: Environmental crimes

Canadian mining corporation and its criminal record in Guatemala

Radio Mundo Real

November 16, 2012

As part of the International Solidarity Mission organized by Friends of the Earth and the Transnational Institute in Guatemala and El Salvador, there follows an analysis of the Canadian corporation Goldcorp and its record of exploitation and divide of communities where it operates.

Goldcorp is the owner of the Marlin mine, which has been in San Miguel de Ixtahuacán municipality since 2005. In 2011 the mine produced over 380,000 ounces of gold with a profit of over $600 million.

The Guatemalan government authorized the exploitation of an area of 20 km² for 25 years, of which it has so far exploited nearly 2 km² with serious effects on the population of the region.

As a result of the installation of the company, the communities of San Miguel Ixtahuacán have suffered serious health damage, the pollution of water caused by sediments and the use of cyanide, the destruction of the territories and their homes as a result of the use of explosives to extract gold, the payment of low salaries to local workers and the need to migrate because of the danger they are exposed to.

The communities of the region have opposed the action of the mine for years. At first through community consultations, which were neither recognized by the government nor by the mine, and later by exposing the economic and ecological crimes before the local authorities, as well as national and international opinion tribunals by demanding the respect of ILO’s Convention 169.

However, the strong resistance and defense for life and nature, both for this and for future generations, has been criminalized and persecuted, with the complicity of the government of Guatemala, which signs laws in favour of transnational corporations and against the peoples’ rights.

The mining company “Montana Exploradora” (Goldcorp) has developed a series of programs of Corporate Social Responsibility that imply a minimum investment. They ignore the community process and have managed to divide the communities that used to reject them by even causing violence among the members of the community. The Guatemalan government has been complicit in these crimes by protecting the company and ignoring the communities’ demands.

The Canadian government is also responsible for human rights violations by allowing its corporations to act above the law and to seek to operate through Bilateral Investment Treaties or Free Trade Agreements.

Original article by Radio Mundo Real in English | Español

Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license

Extractive industries | Radio Mundo Real | Water | November 16, 2012

Defending the territory

First day of Friends of the Earth solidarity tour in Central America

Radio Mundo Real

November 16, 2012

At the beginning of the Friends of the Earth International tour of solidarity with the communities affected by mining, dams and megaprojects in El Salvador and Guatemala, the delegation visited the Marlin mine, operated by Canadian corporation Goldcorp.

In order to learn more about the first impressions of the Friends of the Earth International delegation, Real World Radio spoke in Guatemala with Lucia Ortiz, coordinator of the Economic Justice and Resisting Neoliberalism program of Friends of the Earth.

Marlin mine is in San Miguel Itxahuacán municipality. It occupies a surface of nearly 20 km.² The concession was granted to the company to operate the mine for 25 years. “The pollution of both soil and water can be seen and it is affecting several areas. This is an example of what could happen if gold mining expands in the region,” said the geologist.

Water pollution is one of the issues that called the attention of the activists because “the rocks that have gone through this processing go back to the mountains and are once again exposed to rain and through the lixiviation process the water ends up polluting the rivers. Later that waste ends up on the lake and the polluting liquids go through other rivers. That river (Cuilco) even brings this pollution to Mexico.”

Popular consultations were organized in Guatemala where almost all the population said NO to mining concessions and exploitations. They have become a world example of resistance to transnational corporations. For this reason, said Ortiz, FoEI is there to support the communities that resist the mining process.

“It is unbelievable that these polluting corporations still have the nerve to call themselves green or environment-friendly through corporate social responsibility projects,” she said, considering the pollution they cause as well as the loss of biodiversity near the mine, but also in terms of the cultural conflicts that arise as a result of the privatization of a public space.

“Building a diner for a primary school or privatizing the area of a cemetery is not what people need, people need to live in a healthy environment,” said the member of FoE Brazil.

Original article by Radio Mundo Real in English | Español | Português

Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license

Extractive industries | Radio Mundo Real | Water | November 16, 2012

Poisoned rights

Crisanta Pérez: Testimony of the criminalization of resistance to Goldcorp in San Miguel Ixtahuacán (Guatemala)

Radio Mundo Real

November 16, 2012

On the first day of the Solidarity Mission organized by Friends of the Earth International and the Transnational Institute (TNI) of the Netherlands, which aims to reclaim the rights of communities affected and resisting open pit metal mining in Guatemala and El Salvador, the delegation visited Marlin gold mine, owned by Canadian corporation Goldcorp.

Even though it started operating only five years ago, the effects can already be seen, including: deaths, water privatization, poisoning of the river, eviction of peasant and indigenous population and criminalization of those who defend their territory.

The delegation, which include newly elected Friends of the Earth chair, Jagoda Munić, the 2011 Goldman Prize laureate Francisco Pineda, TNI member Lyda Ferrero, together with activists from Colombia, Honduras, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Guatemala, Spain and Philippines arrived in the Parrish of San Miguel Ixtahuacán to meet with a dozen activists that provided their testimonies about the resistance and its consequences.

One of them was Crisanta Perez, member of the Frente de Defensa Miguelense, against whom Montana corporation filed several accusations. Montana is a subsidiary of Canadian corporation Goldcorp.

Crisanta together with seven other women of Mam communities organized around the municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacán, were prosecuted for damage against the company when the corporation threw high voltage power lines to the industrial plant through their lands, by placing high voltage power lines and electricity posts above their houses.

The persecution led to her exile to Mexico, far from her children and community and her later detention when she was going back to her community to give birth.

“After all that process we were released but we are not really free because the judge told us that we should spend two years with disciplinary measures, so we cannot enforce our rights,” said Crisanta.

She also described the recent confrontation with the corporation as a result of the drillings to find water amid the community water wells that could lead to new accusations.

“Those water springs give us life. Our grandparents lived there, they would wash their clothes there, and this is our concern,” she said.

Men and women from Mam communities provided clear testimonies of environmental and human rights violations, including the right to proper food, access to water and education. They also claim that the mining corporation has hired people from the communities to defend the company’s interests, which has led to division and conflict.

“They want us out of the communities and we cannot live anywhere else,” said Crisanta. Resistance to mining has had the fundamental support of the parish of San Miguel, as well as of several other organizations.

However, Crisanta criticized that the support it sporadic because of the worsening of the situation under the current government of military Otto Pérez Molina. Marlin-Montana has a relatively small area for exploitation (20 km²), but its environmental and social effects are felt for many miles around and they even reach Mexico.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the international delegation will visit seven political prisoners who were arrested after the uprising of Santa Cruz Barillas against the installation of a hydroelectric plant by Hidralia. The group will provide its first impressions of the tour in a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

Original article published by Radio Mundo Real in English | Español

Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license