Guatemala

Joint news release with CIEL, the Center for International Environmental Law: A coalition of community groups from San Miguel Ixtahuacán, Guatemala, has filed an OECD complaint with the Canadian government requesting an investigation into human rights violations allegedly committed by Goldcorp Inc. at the company's Marlin gold mine. “The Marlin mine has divided our town, harassed protesters, and made us afraid for the health of our families,” said Sister Maudilia López Cardona with the San Miguel Ixtahuacán Catholic parish and coordinator of the FREDEMI coalition (the Front in Defence of San Miguel Ixtahuacán). “Is this economic development? Could Goldcorp do this in Canada?”

Today in Guatemala City, COPAE and UUSC present the results of an investigation, after two years of monitoring by a team of engineers: 'Cracked Houses Around the Marlin Mine: Preliminary Investigation and Analysis of Building Damage in the Villages of Agel, El Salitre, San José Ixcaniche and San José Nueva Esperanza, San Miguel Ixtahuacán y Sipacapa Municipalities, San Marcos Departament, Guatemala.'

This letter from MiningWatch Research Coordinator Catherine Coumans details serious concerns with the Human Rights Impact Assessment for Goldcorp's Marlin mine in Guatemala, announced April 24, 2008 as a response to pressure from shareholder groups (see announcement, below). Shareholder initiatives should be carefully constructed so as not to harm the groups and communities they are supposed to be supporting.

The World Conservation Union (IUCN), voted in its international assembly in Barcelona, October 5-14, 2008, that current mineral exploration and open pit metal mining permits be cancelled throughout Central America, and that strategic environmental assessments and other relevant instruments for environmental management be implemented and conducted in a rigorous manner, particularly in the Meso-American Biological Corridor. The measure would affect several proposed mines including the Petaquilla project in Panama and the Crucitas project in Costa Rica.

This summary review by Dawn Paley is based on Skye Resources Inc.’s Technical Report on an Update to the Fenix Project, Izabal Guatemala of September 15, 2007, posted online at www.sedar.com.

"State of Mine, An Investigation of Canada's Extractive Industries", a special edition of The Dominion Newspaper, was published in November 2008 and is now available online.

A report by Rights Action: The nexus of mining companies, the mainstream media, the Canadian government, International Finance Institutions and bought off NGOs work hard to keep the reality of large-scale, open pit mines out of picture, keep community resistance marginalized, and no matter what, to keep talking about “development.” This report is about bringing hard facts and community perspectives together to help North Americans become more informed about the nature of the mining industry.

By: Shin Imai, Ladan Mehranvar, and Jennifer Sander. Reproduced from the Indigenous Law Journal, Volume 6, Issue 1, 2007 with permission from the authors. This is a case study of a small Indigenous community in Guatemala that defied a powerful Canadian mining company by holding a community vote on whether to allow mining on its territory. The result of the vote—to stop mining activity on its territory—has not been honoured by the Canadian mining company.

A report on the activities of Goldcorp around the world: “Given the rapid pace of mergers and acquisitions that Goldcorp has made over the last few years, it is too early to see how the new expanded company will behave in the real world, and what kind of social and environmental responsibility it will assume.”

El Estor, Guatemala - by Sandra Cuffe, Rights Action. "Why are we gathered here tonight?," asked community elder Roberto Caal, looking around at the dozens of women, men and children gathering under the palm-thatched roof of the open-air community hall in Barrio Revolucion, in the municipality of El Estor, in eastern Guatemala.