Yet another Canadian mining company –Bluestone Resources– defies expressed will of Guatemalan population, trying to push ahead with open-pit, cyanide-leaching gold mine →

Ever more silence from Canadian embassy in Guatemala

By Grahame Russell

On September 18, 2022, the people of the municipality of Asunción Mita (near El Salvador and Honduras borders) held a legally-binding municipal consultation. The local population voted overwhelmingly ‘no’ to the Cerro Blanco gold mining project owned by Bluestone Resources.

In response, Bluestone and the military-backed regime of President Alejandro Giammattei – long-time “democratic ally” of the US, Canada and European Community nations – responded with a public campaign to malign the municipal consultation organizers. Legal proceedings have been initiated in the corrupted legal system to attack the legality of the consultation process and results.

I am alarmed at the prospect of yet another Canadian mining venture being pushed ahead against the will of the local, agricultural-based population in Guatemala.

This community defense / mining resistance struggle is playing itself out similarly to four other protracted mining resistance struggles that my organization Rights Action has been involved with since 2004, that Professor Catherine Nolin (UNBC) and I –and others- wrote about in “TESTIMONIO: Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala” (Between The Lines, 2021).

TESTIMONIO documents four land and territory, environmental and human rights defense struggles led by indigenous and non-indigenous people whose lives, livelihood and well-being are negatively and violently impacted by the mining operations of mainly Canadian companies: Glamis Gold and Goldcorp Inc. in Maya Mam and Sipakapan territories; INCO, Skye Resources, Hudbay Minerals and now Solway Investment Group (Switzerland) in Maya Q’eqchi’ territories; Radius Gold and now KCA (USA) near Guatemala City; Tahoe Resources and now Pan American Silver in Xinka territories.

TESTIMONIO documents the harms and violences caused by and related to mining that are occurring, in varying degrees, in each of these regions: the acquisition of questionable, if not illegal mining licenses through corrupted political and legal processes; the ignoring or undermining of legally-binding local consultation processes that have resulted in rejections of mineral extractive operations in the territories in questions; the ensuing, oftentimes violent initiation of mining operations on the lands in question; the ensuing environmental harms, including water contamination and depletion, de-forestation and air pollution, resulting in serious health harms to human and animal life; and – inevitably - human rights violations and political repression against community members who oppose the mining operations, including ‘criminalizations’ and jailings, killings, shootings and rapes.

TESTIMONIO documents the legal/political context in which mining companies choose to do business with the Guatemalan government, military and economic elites: historic, on-going racism towards the majority indigenous Maya population; government and private sector violence and repression against people ‘in the way of development’; the corruption of the legal system and democratic processes such that there is little possibility that legal accountability or political oversight will be brought to bear on the actions of the mining companies and their Guatemalan business and political partners.

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As with the community defense struggles documented in TESTIMONIO, the Asunción Mita people have democratically rejected this imposed model of ‘economic development’. They are organizing, rallying and working to defend their water sources, forests and land, homes and community well-being, and agricultural-based economy.

Asunción Mita community members and organizations, and their partner groups must be ready for a protracted struggle. The government and mining company may use ‘every trick in the book’ to ignore the will of the people and support Bluestone’s mining operation.

Things may go from bad to worse. The government and company may initiate malicious criminal investigations against Asunción Mita community defenders and their supporters, to ‘criminalize’ and jail them. The government may invent a reason to declare a ‘state of emergency’ and then militarize the region, to quash all opposition. Violence may be carried out against community defenders and their supporters.

Will Bluestone Resources respect the democratic will of the local population in Asuncion Mita, Guatemala, and not proceed with its mountain-top removal, cyanide-leaching gold mine?

Will the Canadian government (global affairs in Ottawa, the embassy in Guatemala) voice support for the democratically expressed will of the people of Asuncion Mita, and take all legal and political measures possible to ensure that Bluestone Resources not proceed with its mining plans?

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(Since 1995, Grahame Russell has been director of the Canadian/U.S. not-for-profit organization Rights Action, www.rightsaction.org.)

Recent information

More information

TESTIMONIO-Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala
Edited by Professor Catherine Nolin (UNBC) & Grahame Russell (Rights Action)
Between The Lines, 2021
https://btlbooks.com/book/testimonio
https://www.testioniothebook.org