Guatemala's Indigenous People Fighting Back Against Exploitation by Multinational Mining Companies

[Judi Lynn]

Guatemala's Indigenous People Fighting Back Against Exploitation by Multinational Mining Companies

In violation of international law, the Guatemalan government is seeking to issue mining permits without the consent of indigenous people.

By Jeff Abbott / Waging Nonviolence
January 7, 2015

Conflicts over mining are expanding across Guatemala. According to a recent report by Amnesty International, the Canadian government and Canada-based multinational mining companies have played a major role in the conflicts and abuses of human rights in indigenous communities.

“Canada — like many other states — has shown itself willing to take action with extraterritorial effect to promote and protect corporate interests,” state the authors of the Amnesty International report. “The failure to take action — in line with the requirements and recommendations of U.N. human rights treaty bodies — to effectively regulate Canadian companies operating abroad is enabling these companies to benefit from human rights abuses occurring outside of Canada.”

The report, which was published in September 2014, states that Canada, which is headquarters for three-quarters of global mining companies, and the government of Guatemala have failed to provide space for community involvement and voices in the expansion of mining. The inadequate protection and unwillingness of the Guatemalan government of President Otto Pérez Molina to guarantee the rights of indigenous communities has exacerbated the situation.

“In promoting the involvement of Canadian corporations in global resource extraction activities, the government of Canada continues to rely almost exclusively on the national laws, regulations and enforcement mechanisms of the host countries to ensure that Canadian investment abroad does not contribute to human rights abuses,” states the Amnesty International report, “even when there is reason to believe that those laws are inadequate or are not enforced.”

More:
http://www.alternet.org/guatemalas-indigenous-people-fighting-back-against-exploitation-multinational-mining-companies

[polly7]

1. I feel sick when I see what we've done, and are doing to these people.

Thanks for the news, I'm very glad to see more fighting back. This sick exploitation has got to end.

[Judi Lynn]

2. It IS hideous. Canada has stepped in to continue the bloody abuse of Guatemalans

even though the world knows Guatemala has suffered mightily at the hands of US action since 1954, when it simply overthrew the popular reform President, Jacobo Arbenz, and the behest of United Fruit (now known as the Chiquita Company), embarking on a campaign which cost Guatemalan citizens well over 200,000 lives.

Why Canada would decide to move in as the next murderous predator to feast on Guatemalan laborers and resources is a filthy mystery.

[polly7]

3. No, it's not really a mystery.

We have greedy psychopathic corporations here too who believe anyone who gets in their way is expendable. But yes, they are filthy, and that's putting it mildly. I hate what they're doing. This should be brought up by the Guatemalan gov't before some world body that can do something, I just don't know who that would be.