MAYAN RESISTENCE TO THE GLOBAL MINING INDUSTRY:

In Las Nubes (The Clouds) Guatemala, impoverished Mayan-Q'eqchi people resist advances of the Canadian Skye Resources nickel mining company.

-- By Grahame Russell, August 2005

From the dirt road leading west out of El Estor (department of Izabal, Guatemala), we travel in the back of a four-wheel drive pick-up, past the African palm tree and cattle plantations of the Guatemalan oligarchy that control the country's best lands for export production, even as Guatemala is characterized by high levels of poverty and landlessness.

"Private Property" signs indicate that we are now crossing the land of the CGN (Guatemalan Nickel Company), a subsidiary of the Canadian Skye Resources Inc. nickel company. Skye just purchased these lands and mining interests from INCO. For the past 40 years, INCO (Canadian International Nickel Company) has owned vast tracks of land - mostly unused - in this impoverished region of Guatemala. INCO initially developed the nickel industry during the life of a 40-year concession beginning in 1965.

A BIT OF HISTORY

The story of the Mayan Q'eqchi people of the community of Las Nubes - who we are going to visit - is an old story, one that has yet to have a happy ending.

In the late 1950s, INCO bought their land from the Guatemalan government 'for a song' after the U.S. government orchestrated the overthrow of Guatemala's only democratic government in 1954.

During World War II, the Guatemalan government had expropriated the vast land holdings from wealthy Guatemalans of German ancestry.

In the late 1800s, vast tracts of these lands had been granted to the Germans by the racist, exploitative and repressive "liberal" government of Justino Rufino Barrios. The government of Rufino Barrios had illegally expropriated these lands from the local Mayan Q'eqchi population.

The powerful and wealthy come and go, exploiting land, resources and labour, while the original Mayan peoples of these lands are still here - poor, exploited and resisting.

GLOBAL MINING INDUSTRY: GOOD FOR BUSINESS, BAD FOR DEVELOPMENT

INCO's 40 years of mining involvement in Guatemala, including almost three years of open pit mining, left a series of harms on local development and environmental issues, mostly on the well-being of Mayan Q'eqchi communities.

The 1999 United Nations Truth Commission concluded that INCO participated directly in killings and other violations of human rights. Family members of the victims and eye-witnesses to the crimes and violations are alive today, needing and wanting to testify in legal processes to have justice done. But there have been no trials, no justice. Impunity is the norm.

Now, Skye is picking up where INCO left off. I hope that either Skye will have the honesty and humility to figure out that it should not be mining in Guatemala, or - failing that - that local, national and global resistance is strong enough to pressure Skye to pull out.

Mining - as historically done in Guatemala and most countries of Latin America - is not "development" that is good for the local, mainly Mayan populations here; it is not good for the poor majority of Guatemalans. Mining is not good for la Madre Tierra (Mother Earth). Mining is a business that is profitable for a minority of Guatemalans and for North American investors, shareholders and consumers of nickel products.

THE PRIVATE, PROTECTED COMPANY TOWN

The gravel road we are on passes through the company town. Not operating for 20 years, the town had been waiting for a Skye Resources to bring the enclave again to life. We see the boarded up homes for the nickel ore plant operators; nicer homes for the managers; nicest homes for visiting directors and CEOs from Canada and the U.S.

The nine-hole golf course - currently occupied by grazing cattle - waits for the greens to shine again, using, like the nickel ore plant, vast quantities of water in a region where most rural communities have little access to potable water. We pass 'el club', with the standard swimming pool, sports facilities, restaurants and the like.

Local residences from El Estor, and particularly the poor Mayan Q'eqchi people, can use the road through Skye's vast land holdings, but cannot enter the company town; guarded gates everywhere.

PRIVITIZED SIERRA

We pass the mothballed nickel ore plant. Operations were stopped in 1981 due to high oil costs, but INCO was waiting for the right moment. Above the plant, we turn onto a smaller dirt road and stop at a guarded gate. Freshly painted "private property" signs in Spanish and Q'eqchi. As we had asked for permission from Skye to drive up the steep gravel and dirt road to get to the Las Nubes community on the other side of the sierra (mountain range), they let us through after taking our names.

Signs state in Spanish and Q'eqchi that while people can pass along this road, they acquire no right to do so; a reminder that Canadians own the sierra and are doing the locals a favor to let them pass through to their remote and impoverished communities.

We drive up, up, up - switchbacks and increasingly extraordinary views over Lake Izabal. The sierra rises 3000 feet from the lake at sea level … all "owned" by foreigners; all for the benefit of foreigners. We pass by heavy road construction machinery. After 24 years, Skye Resources is repairing and widening the road up the sierra and into cloud forests above.

We look down over where INCO began its open pit mining operations in 1979-1981. A scar on the south side of the sierra, exposed by the explosives and bulldozers that opened the earth to the sky 24 years ago, is still leaching natural sulfides causing the extremely damaging acid rock drainage into the local water systems that feed Lake Izabal.

No environmental impact study was ever done of INCO's operation. Local organizations suspect Lake Izabal is contaminated by the sulfide saturated spill-off from the abandoned open pit, let alone from the 3 years of actual operations of the nickel ore smeltering plant below. We look down on 24 year-old slag piles full of natural and chemical toxins, not contained in any way, presumably leaching into the ground and aquifers.

The road winds further up until we enter a virtually untouched cloud forest on the top of the sierra. The only sign of humanity, besides our truck bouncing along, are the newly constructed exploration roads that Skye is building off in all directions, sending its geological experts and drilling equipment to look for concentrated nickel ore deposits. Skye has opened 300 new holes, totaling over 8000 metres of drilling into the earth; they plan to drill up to 45,000 meters. (www.skyeresources.com)

"Just exploring" Skye says. Yet any casual observer can see they are spending millions of dollars on road rehab and expansion, new signs, and exploration. From INCO's earlier studies, they know there is lots of nickel ore here; the investors, shareholders and company directors want it.

We drive north along the top of the sierra - those of us standing in the back of the truck ducking regularly under branches and vines - and finally come out looking north over a beautiful range of mountains, over the tiny community of Las Nubes.

LAS NUBES

From the dirt road, we file down a dirt path to the community center - four corner posts and a thatched roof. This is a community of thatched roof huts - no water, electricity, transportation, health clinics, schools … a life of subsistence.

Sitting on rudimentary benches, we look across distant valleys. Slowly, the local population - 20 families - gathers, men and women, young and old; barefoot, plastic flip-flops or worn out rubber boots.

In a semi-circle we talk, from Q'eqchi, spoken by the Las Nubes community, to Spanish, as translated by Cesar, from AEPDI (El Estor Association for Integral Development), and from Spanish to English by me. A slow and respectful dialogue.

I have come here with 11 North Americans who joined Rights Action's annual "Environment, Human Rights and Development Seminar and Fact-finding Delegation." We went first to the San Marcos region, where the Canadian-US company Glamis Gold is pushing ahead with an open pit gold mining operation, despite widespread opposition from local Mayan Sipakapense and Mam communities. (Information about that local-to-global struggle available: info@rightsaction.org)

We went to Baja Verapaz to visit with survivors of the genocide (1978-1983) committed by the US- and western-backed Guatemalan military regime, and particularly with surviving family members of the 450 Mayan Achi men, women, elderly and infants massacred by the military as part of a plan to forcibly relocate the Rio Negro community so as to make way for the Chixoy hydro-electric dam, a "development" project of the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Now, we have come to Q'eqchi regions of Izabal to learn more of the negative impacts that nickel ore mining has on the development, environment and human rights of local populations.

Las Nubes is one of dozens of Q'eqchi communities facing forced removal due to Skye's mining operation. They may lose their only water source and land where they cultivate beans, corn, cardomon, yucca and some fruit trees. If they lose their land, they may die. This is not only a cosmological truth about Mayan people and spirituality; it is a practical fact - they have nowhere to go.

MIGRANT SURVIVORS

We ask how they came to live here. Various older men and women tell Cesar their stories. When he turns to translate this to Spanish, Cesar says theirs is the story of his family as well.

As far back as they can remember, all these families survived on small plots in the highlands near Coban, one of Guatemala's major cities, working on the fincas (large plantations) owned by people of German ancestry who were 'granted' vast tracks of Q'eqchi lands going back to the 1800s.

Some 30 years ago, many landless Q'eqchi migrated down the mountains towards Panzos, and survived there for a time, working on the fincas. Later, they migrated further down towards El Estor, looking for a piece of land, working on the fincas, producing coffee, cattle, African palm tree oil and bananas for export to northern consumers goods, always being paid a misery, always needing to move on.

The Las Nubes community was settled 5 years ago when 45 poor Q'eqchi families in El Estor came here, with government approval, to start again.

THE PATTERNS THAT REPEAT

Beyond hanging on to their communal lands here, the men still go to the fincas. Santiago tells us a typical story. He first went to work on the fincas as an 11-year old, and stayed for 12 years. 7 days a week, a few days off here and there. 5q/day, starting in 1992 ($1/ day), through to 20q/ day in 2004 ($2.50/day). If you're sick, you work or you're fired. If you're injured and can't work, you're fired. No medical leave, no social or unemployment insurance; etc.

He began his family there. They built a hut and planted a few survival crops. 12 years of subsistence, finally to leave the finca, impoverished, to try and build a life in Las Nubes … now under siege by the global mining industry.

SKYE AND SURVIVAL

The Las Nubes families have been in the El Estor municipality long enough to know that INCO had a large operation in the 1970s and early 1980s. They know of the forced re-locations, killings, enviro-damage and social problems associated with INCO's project.

They just learned, after the fact, that INCO sold its interest to Skye in late 2004 (INCO remains a major shareholder in Skye) and that Skye is prioritizing this particular region of the sierra for re-exploration, where Las Nubes and 16 other isolated poor communities are located.

As in the past with INCO, as with Glamis Gold in San Marcos, there was no consultation with Las Nubes, or any other community. For the record, governments, investors and companies are required by law to fully consult with potentially affected communities before a decision is taken to initiate "development" projects such as mining!

As the drilling teams were getting ever closer to their community, the Las Nubes leaders went to the El Estor mayor to ask for a moratorium on the exploration until there could be an official clarification of their community boundary lines; they went to FONTIERRA - a government land titling office - to ask for the same.

IMPUNITY: THE LAW IS FOR THE POWERFUL

Wherever they turned for official support, nothing. The mayor of El Estor is in favour of Skye Resources, and in Skye's favour. Together, they sing the song of bringing "development" to the poor of El Estor. The same song that Glamis Gold sings, that the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank sang in Baja Verapaz and Rio Negro 25 years ago, that was sung by INCO 30 years ago.

The song is wrong. Global mining companies do not bring "development". They bring short-term jobs for a lucky few; they sometimes bring pay-offs for a corrupt few; mainly, they take profits for investors, shareholders and company directors. And they undermine the possibility of real development and environmental well-being for local populations and people --- like the Q'eqchi community of Las Nubes.

THE STANDOFF

As evening comes and shadows fall long across the valley below, community members continue with their story. The legal and political processes had not worked for people of Las Nubes; Skye was "legally" moving up the sierra, deeper into the rain forest. So the people of Las Nubes did what the poor and oppressed have done for centuries, and will do again and again - at great risk to themselves, but at lesser risk than doing nothing and being kicked off their tiny piece of survival land. They marched through the forest they know so well, and blocked the feeder roads that Skye was slashing through the forest to take drilling samples.

The only good news is that Skye backed off. Instead of calling in the police and army to clear out "protesters" and "anti-development", "anti-mining" activists (as the media will report), they pulled back, for now. The bad news is they are building feeder roads and taking their drilling equipment further along the sierra, above the neighboring Q'eqchi community of Cahaboncito that we visited this morning, that had told us - in a community gathering - a similar story.

GO HOME

In both poor and long exploited communities, the gathered campesinos asked us, directly and politely, 'Why have your companies come here to take our resources, to harm the madre tierra and undermine our communities and survival?' 'Why don't these companies just go home?' 'Go mine in Canada if you want!' 'What would Canadians say if we came and took your resources, harmed your environment, undermined your lives and communities?'

They are threatened, frightened and angry. Their questions are on the mark. They do not understand why people come from afar and do them harm.

The recent onslaught of North American mining companies in Honduras and Guatemala (see extensive Rights Action report: www.rightsaction.org) is clearly not about "development" for local populations or the countries as a whole.

I suspect a majority of shareholders, investors and directors know little about Guatemala or Honduras … and don't ask. They trust the company, the pro-mining Canadian government, the pro-mining World Bank and IDB - that sing songs of bringing "development" to the poor. It is not that the shareholders, investors and directors - or the Canadian government and World Bank - would not want to help the poor of Guatemala. It is simply the nature of the beast. It is a business operation pure and simple.

The shareholders, investors and directors are fundamentally waiting to see the price of their stock rises, and pay little attention to what is actually happening in 'far away' places, like Las Nubes.

WAITING FOR BULLETS AND TEAR-GAS

For the moment, Skye has backed off direct confrontation. Yet, they are pouring millions of dollars into this operation and their intentions are clear. There is lots of nickel ore in this sierra and the "owners" want it.

The local communities wait, worry and prepare. They worry for their survival and that of their children and grandchildren. They will always try the legal and political avenues - including national and international law - but impunity is the norm and the political and legal systems work mainly for the rich and powerful. They prepare to resist.

A GLOBAL PROBLEM

In Las Nubes, the local population thanks us for coming. They apologize for not having offered us a refreshment or to pay for our transportation into their community ... but they have no money.

The environmental, human rights and survival needs of the people of Las Nubes are, for the most part, off the radar. There is no consistent international media attention on the pending harms of this, or many thousands of big business "development" projects across the planet.

If and when local populations resist forced relocation and the destruction of their water sources and lands, and their resistance is met by bullets and tear gas, the media may provide a day or two of coverage. Spokespersons for the company, the Canadian government and the World Bank may express sadness at the detentions, injuries or loss of life sustained in the protests and then say something about how the "rule of law must be respected".

THE NATURE OF THE BEAST - UNJUST ENRICHMENT

But neither the media nor the companies, governments or "development" banks will address how it is the very nature of the unjust global economic order that is at fault here. The people of places like Las Nubes have been and will continue to be victims of detentions, bullets and beatings, until such time as the investors in and profiteers of these unjust global economic endeavours assume full responsibility for the negative impacts of our actions.

After saying good-bye, we drive back across the sierra, enjoying again the spectacular view over Lake Izabal. There is much work to do. Firstly, we need to channel as much financial and technical assistance as we can to communities like Las Nubes and organizations like AEPDI, that are on the frontlines of resisting unjust and harmful "development" endeavours, that are on the front lines of working for locally controlled and environmentally sound development.

Equally important, we have much work to do in Canada and the U.S., to transform the reigning global economic order. In the short-term, we need to convince shareholders, investors, our governments, Skye Resources, the World Bank, etc, to suspend all work on projects such as this one. In the medium and long terms, we must demand serious changes to how the global economic order works.

We need to take the lead on the "development" debate. What we are seeing in Las Nubes is not "development". It is harmful economic exploitation, in benefit of very wealthy and relatively wealthy people from far away. We cannot continue to unjustly enrich ourselves, on the backs of, at the expense of the environment and of other people . like the Mayan Q'eqchi people of Las Nubes, Guatemala.

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Grahame wrote this article after leading Rights Action's July 9-16 "Environment, Human Rights and Development Seminar and Fact-finding Delegation". Feel free to re-distribute, publish, etc. Feel free to re-distribute and publish this article, properly citing author and Rights Action.

To get involved in education and activism work related to this and similar global development issues: info@rightsaction.org, 416-654-2074, www.rightsaction.org.

To contribute tax-deductible funds for the community development, enviro and human rights work of rural Indigenous communities in Guatemala, make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to: UNITED STATES: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887; CANADA: 509 St. Clair Ave W, box73527, Toronto ON, M6C-1C0. On-line donations: USA and Canada: www.rightsaction.org. Wire funds to Rights Action: contact info@rightsaction.org, 416-654-2074.

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