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| The vote (Photo: C.P.R.Urbana) |
Four indigenous Xinca leaders, including the President of
the Xinca Indigenous Parliament, were abducted by a group of heavily armed men shortly after 8 pm on the night of Sunday, March 17. Two of the kidnapped men escaped, and
Roberto González Ucelo, President of the Xinca Parliament, was freed a day
later.
However, the lifeless body of the fourth man, Exaltación
Marcos Ucelo, who acted as Secretary of the Xinca Parliament, was discovered the morning after the kidnapping in a ravine in Mataquescuintla. According to Guatemala’s deputy minister of
state, Edy Juárez, the community activist had been severely beaten before being
killed.
The community consultation is the third in a series of 26
planned in the area. These referenda are regulated by the Guatemalan Municipal
Code. Authorities in the larger community of San Rafael Las Flores have refused
requests for a referendum at the municipal level.
The four indigenous leaders were allegedly abducted by ten
to 12 masked men travelling in a pickup truck in the town of Pino Dulce,
Mataquescuintla, in the Jalapa
department. The indigenous leaders were returning home after observing the
ongoing consultation process.
“At the end of the day we had the civic consultation, then a
religious observation and dinner,” Yuri Melini of the NGO CALAS (Centro de
Acción Legal Ambiental y Social), told the local Guatemalan press. “Then at 8
pm everyone left to go home.”
At about 9:30 news of the attack broke. One of the kidnapped
men, Rigoberto Aguilar, who is the mayor of Santa María Xalapán, managed to
untie his hands and eject himself from the moving truck. Later another man, Roberto
López, was also able to escape.
The third man, Roberto González, who is not only the
President of the Xinca Parliament but also the leader of the Xinca indigenous
community of Santa María Xalapán, was liberated Monday evening as a result of an operation by
a police anti-kidnapping squad. He was brought to a hotel in Chimaltenango in shock
and showing signs of disorientation, according to interior minister Mauricio
López Bonilla.
When Exaltación Marcos Ucelo’s body was discovered in the
ravine, the pickup truck believed to have been used in the kidnapping was found
abandoned only 500 meters away. The indigenous leader had been the Secretary of
the Xinca Parliament for almost two years, and had been actively involved in
research to establish the historical land rights of indigenous peoples, many of
whom were displaced during Guatemala’s Civil War, which ended in 1996.
He was an integral member of a team that had established land agreements last year. The Xinca themselves are a non-Maya indigenous group, sometimes called the Xinka, which has a core population of about 16,000 people. The Xinca Parliament, however, represents over 14 communities and an estimated 200,000 people.
He was an integral member of a team that had established land agreements last year. The Xinca themselves are a non-Maya indigenous group, sometimes called the Xinka, which has a core population of about 16,000 people. The Xinca Parliament, however, represents over 14 communities and an estimated 200,000 people.
In response to the attack, a group of residents briefly
blocked the entrance to the departmental capital of Jalapa in protest.
Tahoe Resources acquired the Escobal project from Canadian
mining giant Goldcorp in 2010, and operates the project via a subsidiary called
Minería San Rafael S.A. So far the company does not have a license for mineral
exploitation. However, it has been pouring money into the infrastructure
required to support the project. In fact, the company is making public
statements to the effect that full commercial production is expected to
commence in early 2014. That news cheered
investors on March 7, when the stock jumped 6%. The company has a market capitalization
of $2.3 billion.
The project has seen violence before. In January of this
year two guards from the mining company’s private security firm were killed,
with Guatemala’s Minister of the Interior Mauricio López Bonilla escalating the
rhetoric by conflating mining resistance with overall crime, a daily worry for
many Guatemalans.
However, at the time Tahoe Resources and the government did
not specifically link the attack to community resistance, with the company
stating that authorities believed it was “not a local protest but an organized,
nighttime incursion by a well-armed group from outside the area.” The attackers
left behind numerous automatic weapons and incendiary devices.
Tahoe Resources has made no public comments on the most
recent murder. On its website the company states that:
“Through responsible mining practices and close cooperation
with community leaders, local governments and business leaders, Tahoe actively
contributes to the economic and social development of the communities in which
it operates.”
And that:
“Through communications and partnerships with locals to
implement community projects, we will continue to demonstrate our commitment to
environmental stewardship, employee safety and economic and social development
in the communities near the project.”
(For Tahoe Resources' response to La politica, see: March 22, 2013: CEO Kevin McArthur says suggestions of possible Tahoe Resources complicity in murder of Guatemalan indigenous leader “a complete fabrication”).
(For Tahoe Resources' response to La politica, see: March 22, 2013: CEO Kevin McArthur says suggestions of possible Tahoe Resources complicity in murder of Guatemalan indigenous leader “a complete fabrication”).
The violence came as no surprise to many observers of the
situation. Last September there was a major conflict when hundreds of
demonstrators tried to stop the company from putting in power lines. After that
encounter, in which three protestors were shot and wounded by security forces,
the mayor of San Rafael Las Flores, Lionel Morales, stated that the
demonstrators were not from local communities.
The company then said that “A small group of local opponents
has refused to engage in meaningful discussions on the project’s effects in the
communities, and has resorted to soliciting outsiders who have used violent
tactics on several occasions to intimidate employees, contractors and local
supporters of the project.”
In fact, Tahoe Resources and the Guatemalan government have
been more specific in naming the enemy. In a press release, the company stated
that Guatemalan authorities “identified them as individuals transported into
the area from outside regions, organized and funded by local and international
NGOs.”
Nowhere was there mention of the
refusal of authorities in San Rafael Las Flores to hold a referendum to gauge
support. That, it would seem, would be a sure way to prove that all the
resistance is from outsiders, and that local support for the mine is strong, as
the company suggests. But, strangely, there is no movement in this area.
After the murder of Exaltación Marcos Ucelo, Alberto Brunori,
a representative with the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, said
"We knew something was going to happen...We had warned of this.”
Even the U.S. Embassy made a statement, saying that the
events “once again tested Guatemalan institutions and communities to sustain
effective and continuous dialogue, and to ensure the investigation and clarification
of these events."
The Canadian government, bizarrely, has been silent on the
matter. For years now Canada’s conservative government has tied in development
initiatives with extractive projects, particularly in Latin America and Africa.
Most recently it announced that it was
establishing the Canadian International Institute for Extractive Industries and
Development under the Canadian International Development Agency’s (CIDA's) Partnerships with Canadians
Programs.
The groundwork began when Canada’s Ministry of
External Affairs became the Department of Foreign Affairs Investment and Trade
(DFAIT). By meshing foreign policy and development with the interests of
investors, the country has effectively muted any effective diplomatic response
on the behalf of the Canadian people to possible bad actors in the private
sector.
The Canadian government does, however, pour money into PR
for government-funded initiatives that benefit private interests and groom
pre-approved citizens’ groups who want to go along for the ride. There was, for
example, the “Mining
Sector - Indigenous Capacity Building” grant to enable “two-way learning
between Canadian Indigenous peoples and Indigenous partners in Latin American
and the Caribbean regarding interactions with mining companies and governments.”
This is part of the five million dollar Indigenous
Peoples Partnership Program (IPPP), which is operational until 2015.
For those with tough stomachs, see CIDA’s page “Natural
Resources Management - Creating jobs and opportunities in developing countries”,
as well as DFAIT’s “Corporate
Social Responsibility: Building the Canadian Advantage: A Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) Strategy for the Canadian International Extractive Sector.”
And for proof of why Canada can no longer respond in an
ethical manner to the complicity of Canadian companies in human rights abuses
around the world, and how things have been turned on their heads, read
a speech from Julian Fantino, Canada’s Minister of International
Cooperation, in which he lays out the clear view that CIDA’s primary role is to
expand private sector investment specifically to benefit Canadians, and that
the agency is “committed to contributing to Canada's long-term prosperity and
security”.
In another
speech to the United Nations, Minister Fantino emphasized the “importance
of transparency in the extractive sector”, stating that it was “an increasingly
important driver of sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction in
developing countries.”
The depth of the Canadian government’s complicity with
mining concerns is hard to underestimate. It compromises the ability of Canadian
citizens to determine what is in their best interests. The mandate now is to
further corporate engagement through channels that, in the past, were in the
hands of the people. The public agenda has been hijacked by those in first
class, with the passengers sloshed from an open bar in coach: Canadian
retirement and pension funds are heavily larded with resource sector holdings.
No amount of turbulence, it seems, will wake up the good
people of Canada. That is, unless and until enough somnambulists with the maple leaf on their backpacks learn that Canada’s national emblem is now receiving,
and deserving, more scorn even than the much-maligned stars and stripes.
The bad actors include Hudbay
Minerals. La politica was present
during a land eviction on January 8 and 9, 2007, when the Guatemalan government
brought in hundreds of soldiers to support police evictions of indigenous
people so that Canada’s Skye Resources – now Hudbay – could extract nickel from
its Fenix property. Canada’s ambassador to Guatemala at the time, Kenneth Cook,
claimed that the grief stricken people that appeared in press photographs were
“actors.” (They weren’t; he was lying; we were there). Since then, Hudbay has
been fighting a lawsuit related to its Guatemalan subsidiary and the murder
of one man, maiming of another, and the gang rape of 11 women.
And it includes the Marlin Mine, exploited by Montana
Exploradora, a Guatemalan subsidiary of the Canadian-owned mining company Goldcorp.
What happens if you want to stay on your land and say no to the mine? You get shot
in the face.
The United States may have been complicit in supporting genocide
during Guatemala’s civil war; but Canada, it seems, is determined to cash-out
on the aftermath.
For related stories see:
March 23, 2013: CEO Kevin McArthur says suggestions of possible Tahoe Resources complicity in murder of Guatemalan indigenous leader “a complete fabrication”
March 23, 2013: CEO Kevin McArthur says suggestions of possible Tahoe Resources complicity in murder of Guatemalan indigenous leader “a complete fabrication”
January 18, 2012: Ugly Canadians?
The strange culture of First Majestic
January 20, 2012: Guatemala,
Mexico, US authorities debate drug war strategies
Twitter: @TimothyEWilson
Email: lapoliticaeslapolitica [at] gmail [dot] com
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