December 10, 2009
INTERNATIONAL MINING & IMPUNITY DAY:
CANADIAN MINING COMPANIES MAKING A KILLING IN EL SALVADOR, GUATEMALA, CHIAPAS, …
By Grahame Russell
Across the world, December 10th is celebrated as “international human rights day”. For the global mining industry, we commemorate “international impunity day”.
Below, summaries of three recent assassinations related to community-based struggles in resistance to Canadian mining companies.
Just three stories, of many stories of repression that occur, worldwide, against community and indigenous leaders working in defense of community-controlled development and in protection of their community health and environment; local men and women who are educating and organizing their communities to resist the harms and violations caused by global resource extraction companies.
PACIFIC RIM & THE KILLING OF MARCELO RIVERA MORENO (EL SALVADOR)
In early July 2009, the body of Marcelo Rivera, a teacher and community leader, was found dumped in a well. He was “disappeared” on June 18. Torture signs were found on his body, including burn marks and missing toe and finger nails. Before and after Marcelo’s disappearance, torture and murder, he and other community leaders have been receiving death threats. For years, the Rivera brothers and many Salvadorans have been working hard, at risk of obvious repression, to prevent Pacific Rim, a Canadian gold mining company, from operating an open-pit, cyanide-laced gold mine in the Cabanas state, near the Honduran border.
No justice has been done for the death of Marcelo Rivera. Pacific Rim denies any responsibility, or that this death squad assassination is linked to their now aborted mining plans. The previous ARENA Party government of El Salvador blamed the murder on gang violence.
Meanwhile, Pacific Rim is trying to use a World Bank “mediation” procedure (the World Bank is a major investor in global mining companies) to sue the government of El Salvador for millions of dollars in “lost profits”. (No, the family members of Marcelo Rivera cannot use this World Bank procedure to seek justice or remedy – it is only for corporations and investors.)
HUDBAY MINERALS & THE KILLING OF ADOLFO ICH (GUATEMALA)
On September 27, 2009, Adolfo Ich, a Mayan Qeqchi teacher and community leader in El Estor (eastern department of Izabal), was shot and captured by security guards in the hire of HudBay Minerals. Hours later, family members found him abandoned in the company building where the HudBay guards had detained him. He died soon after of his gunshot wounds and beating.
Adolfo Ich, and local Mayan-Qeqchi villagers, have long been resisting the harms and forced evictions caused by Canadian nickel mining companies. The first wave of evictions, killings and repression occurred in the 1970s, early 1980s. Evictions and repression began again in 2006 (by Skye Resources), through to today. No justice has been done for any of the earlier killings and abuses, nor in Adolfo’s case. HudBay Minerals denies any responsibility and continues with efforts to “relocate” potentially thousands of Mayan-Qeqchi villagers, living on these lands since long before the first nickel miners (INCO) arrived in the 1960s.
BLACKFIRE EXPLORATION & THE KILLING OF MARIANO ABARCA ROBLEDO (MEXICO)
Mariano Abarca Robeldo, a community leader from the state of Chiapas, was known in Mexico for his work in promotion of community development and the environmental, in opposition to health and environmental harms and human rights violations caused by mining.
On November 27, 2009, he was assassinated in the town of Chicomuselo, state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala. The alleged assassins are employees of and/or linked to Blackfire Exploration Inc, a Canadian mining company, … that denies any responsibility for the crimes.
IMPUNITY – LOCAL TO GLOBAL
These are not exceptional cases. They are stark snap-shots of repression, let alone environmental and health harms that are common in communities (usually poor, often indigenous) where many mines operate.
Neither is the impunity exceptional. Companies operate with effective impunity from prosecution or accountability in many countries where they operate mines. They operate with impunity in the sphere of international law. And, above all, they operate with impunity in Canada where they are headquartered, where all the major corporate and investor decisions are taken. There are basically no criminal or civil laws to hold Canadian companies accountable for environmental and health harms or human rights violations (including killings) that occur related to their business operations elsewhere.
There are efforts in Canada to pass legislation - Bill C-300 – that would provide an administrative framework for government oversight and possible economic sanction (withdrawal of public funds a particular company might be receiving) in the case of mining company wrong-doing. If passed, Bill C-300 would not provide for criminal law punishment, in cases where crimes were committed; it would not provide for financial or other remedies to the victims of mining company harms and wrongs, if proven.
Even at that, Bill C-300 is being strongly opposed by the mining industry and supporters in the Conservative and Liberal parties.
Their opposition to enforceable laws, remedies and punishment is hypocritical and cynical. I wager that all the mining company executives and politicians opposed to the enactment of binding and enforceable legislation swear by the values and accountability mechanisms of democracy and the rule of law – just not when they would and should apply to their corporate activities abroad.
I wager that were these company executives and politicians themselves (and their families and home communities) victims of environmental and health harms, or human rights violations, they would expect and demand nothing less that full political and legal accountability for the harmful actions, and full remedy for the harms and losses.
Happy international impunity day to the global mining industry.
(Grahame is co-director of Rights Action, info@rightsaction.org, www.rightsaction.org, that funds and supports community development, environmental defense, disaster response and human rights projects in Guatemala and Honduras, as well as Chiapas, El Salvador and Peru.)
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