RESISTANCE TO GOLD MINING – GOLDCORP Inc (in Guatemala) to BARRICK GOLD (in Tanzania)
Rights Action recently reported on the “Goldcorp 8” – eight Mayan-Mam woman who have criminal charges against them, because they are protesting the illegal activities of and harms being caused by Goldcorp’s open pit, cyanide heap-leach mine in San Marcos, western Guatemala. For more information:
View a 7-minute YouTube film about the “Goldcorp 8” – Mayan-Mam women in resistance to Goldcorp: http://www.rightsaction.org/articles/Eight_Women_112608.html
View "All That Glitters Isn't Gold", an hour-long film that tells the stories of community members residing near Goldcorp's gold mine in Honduras' Siria Valley: http://www.rightsaction.org/video/gold
View a photo-essay, by James Rodriguez (www.MiMundo.org), about “Mining in San Miguel Ixtahuacan: Conflict and Criminalization”: http://mimundo-jamesrodriguez.blogspot.com/
THOUSANDS RAID BARRICK'S “NORTH MARA” MINE, DESTROY $15 MILLION IN EQUIPMENT
In what appears to be a spontaneous militant movement against Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold miner, thousands of people invaded Barrick`s North Mara Gold Mine this week in Tarime District and destroyed equipment worth 15 million. According to a Barrick Public Relations officer (as reported by the Tanzanian Guardian newspaper), "the intruders stoned the security personnel relentlessly until they overpowered them. The guards abandoned their posts and retreated to safety."
While Barrick implies that "high levels of crime" are the cause of this recent outbreak, recent reports suggest a different picture. Allan Cedillos Lissner, a photojournalist who recently documented mine life near the North Mara mine, explains:
"Ongoing conflict between the mine and local communities have created a climate of fear for those who live nearby. Since the mine opened in 2002, the Mwita family say that they live in a state of constant anxiety because they have been repeatedly harassed and intimidated by the mine's private security forces and by government police. There have been several deadly confrontations in the area and every time there are problems at the mine, the Mwita family say their compound is the first place the police come looking. During police operations the family scatters in fear to hide in the bush, "like fugitives," for weeks at a time waiting for the situation to calm down. They used to farm and raise livestock, "but now there are no pastures because the mine has almost taken the whole land ... we have no sources of income and we are living only through God's wishes. ... We had never experienced poverty before the mine came here." They say they would like to be relocated, but the application process has been complicated, and they feel the amount of compensation they have been offered is "candy."
Evans Rubara, an investigative journalist from Tanzania, blames this action on angry locals from the North Mara area who are opposed to Barrick's presence there. "This comes one week after Barrick threatened to leave the country based on claims that they weren't making profit," comments Evans after explaining that Barrick does not report profit to avoid taxes in the country. "This is a sign to both the government of Tanzania and the International community (especially Canada) that Poor and Marginalised people also get tired of oppression, and that they would like Barrick to leave."
These reports of hundreds attacking mine infrastructure reflects a resentment that goes beyond mere criminal action. And this surge in violence should be examined in the context of the on-going exploitation and repressive environment surrounding the mine.
MORE INFORMATION: Sakura Saunders, sakura.saunders@gmail.com, www.protestbarrick.net,
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WHAT TO DO
TO MAKE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS for Indigenous and community-based organizations resisting the harms caused by large-scale “development” projects (mining, tourism, hydro-electric dams) and implementing their own community development projects (schools and scholarships, health clinics, solidarity economy productive projects, etc), human rights and environment projects, make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to:
* UNITED STATES: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
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EDUCATIONAL DELEGATION-SEMINARS: Form your own group and come on an educational seminar trip to learn more about community and Indigenous development, human rights and environmental issues in Central America and southern Mexico.
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DAILY NEWS: Watch & listen to www.democracynow.org; Read www.upsidedownworld.org, www.dominionpaper.ca
BOOKS TO READ: Eduardo Galeano’s “Open Veins of Latin America”; Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States”; Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine”; Paolo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”;
www.rightsaction.org - Based in Guatemala, Rights Action (with tax-deductible legal status in Canada and USA) funds and works with community-based Indigenous, development, environment and human rights organizations in Guatemala and Honduras, and also in El Salvador, Haiti, Oaxaca and Chiapas; and educates about and is involved in activism related to global development, environmental and Indigenous and human rights struggles.