Maritimes - Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network

Rios Mont will be tried for genocide

2012-01-28T12:10:00.001-08:00

Doña Teresa

I met her in 2003 when she was giving her testimony to a social anthropologist, a psychologist and an Ixil-Spanish translator. Well under five - feet tall, she told the story of how she was gang-raped by soldiers of the Guatemalan army in her village just outside of the town of the Nebaj, El Quiche - the department where over two thirds of the massacres took place and the chosen region to demonstrate that yes, a systematic genocidal attack on un-armed populations took place.

I would see Doña Teresa (name changed) for the next several years through my time participating in the human rights accompaniment project, ACOGUATE, of which BTS is a long-standing and pivotal member. ACOGUATE has been accompanying the witnesses of the genocide cases since 2000 during their countless trips to give their testimony to the Attorney General's office in their local municipalities and their monthly and sometimes weekly trips to the capital to move forward with the endless administration of the genocide case. At every bi-annual gathering Doña Teresa was present. Even when there was no translation at the events she participated in, she listened intently and asked others to fill her in. Siempre presente en la lucha - always present in the struggle.

"You didn't kill the seed. We are rebellion" - slogan from the Sons and Daughters for Identity and Justice, against Forgetting and Silence (H.I.J.O.S.)

In 2007, her eldest son became a member of the board of directors of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), the group of witnesses that Doña Teresa is a member of. The AJR is taking the 1982-1983 military high command to trial for the destruction of entire communities, the murder of families, the torture - including rape - of children and women and other crimes against humanity that they witnessed, lived through and survived.

Many sons and daughters of the community members who lived through the height of the Lucas Garcia, Rios Montt and Mejia Victores regimes often do not believe the stories of the violence. They are taught the ‘official history’ in public schools that states that violence did not occur against civil populations and that the army was merely protecting the Guatemalan nation from the threat of communist insurgents.

I remember being amazed that Doña Teresa, who was always so quiet, was indeed educating her children about the past, refusing to remain silent. She did this in ways that I had not yet learned and no doubt cannot fully understand because of language, cultural and geographical barriers and because we have lived different pasts. The important and courageous work of women such as Doña Teresa, which often goes undocumented and unrecognized, has played an important part in what happened yesterday, on January 26th, 2012.

Rios Montt will be tried for genocide

Some people said this day would never come. That justice for the crimes of the past - crimes against humanity - would never be served. That impunity, corruption and lack of political will would prevent the national genocide case against Efrain Rios Montt and his high military command from moving forward. Political analysts and experts would often tell us in their presentations on the socio-political context that the probability of Rios Montt sitting across a court room from the members of the AJR was next to nil. I always felt conflicted and confused when these 'experts' would tell us this because I would think of the ongoing commitment of the AJR members who continue to struggle daily despite the tremendous obstacles they face. I would think about how the first members of the board of directors of the AJR had aged and grown tired but yet never failed to speak out, to come to meetings, unless they were too sick to travel or were already overcommitted with family and community responsibilities. I would wonder how someone could say that justice was not possible when countless AJR members from some of the most marginalized families would continue to take great risks in their lives to travel to the capital, far from their communities and families, to hear the latest information on the progress of the genocide cases.

Following these conversations with experts, I would often ask various people from the AJR what their take on the situation was. And their response was always - ALWAYS the same: they would talk about the importance of talking about the past. They would highlight the necessity of continuing the struggle for justice. And they would say some variation of the following: "Pues si, vamos a seguir luchando hasta que haya justicia. O vamos a morir intentando." – “Well, yes. We are going to continue to struggle until justice is served. Or we will die trying."

So yesterday, when I arrived at the steps leading up to the Guatemalan court house and saw the crowd of mostly indigenous community members from the AJR waiting for the historic declaration of Rios Montt, I was reminded of the importance of holding on to hope and the possibility for change.

Rios Montt chose to remain silent instead of giving his formal declaration. But this did not matter. In her concluding remarks, Patricia Flores, the presiding judge, outlined the “horrendous” atrocities that took place under the clear knowledge and chain of command of Efrain Rios Montt. She made it clear that as official head of the army, it was highly probable that he knew that these massacres, rapes and forced disappearances were taking place and indeed, may have ordered them. She argued that he must have known about and authorized the military plans designed to partially destroy the Ixil population. And in that tiny court room, with the AJR on the other side awaiting his formal declaration, Rios Montt had nothing to say. He chose to evoke his right to silence. But the silence had already been broken.

At 8pm, the courageous judge concluded that there was enough convincing evidence to link Efrain Rios Montt to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity and that he would be placed under house arrest until the first hearings. She stated that he will not be allowed to communicate with the other high military officials linked to his case and will have to sign in with the court every day to confirm that he has not tried to flee. He will have police surveillance around his home 24 hours a day.

The crowd outside the courtroom, which had dwindled as community members had to return in buses to their distant communities, began to fill up again as members of various human rights and social justice groups flooded in, after hearing the news on the radio and television. The air was jubilant and warm as AJR members who have been in this struggle for 30 years called their families in five different regions of the country and their supporters who have worked along-side them embraced and cried and cheered. People have been working so hard these past twelve years so tears of exhaustion, happiness and residual sadness for their memory of what they lost and what they have survived, flooded the area.

I didn't believe the judge’s decision until I looked over at Doña Teresa. She was smiling the biggest smile I had ever seen - without covering her mouth with her hand or her shawl. I watched her talk with her fellow community members and share in the joy and triumph of the historic moment. Don Jose (name changed) hugged me and said "thank you for all the accompaniment these past years" while Don Miguel (name changed) said, "Ya estuvo. Lo logramos! Ahora, le toca Otto Perez Molina – There you have it. We did it! Now, it’s Otto Perez Molina’s turn." Perez Molina is the new president of Guatemala with a well-known and documented military track record, including his time in the Ixil region and his alleged participation in forced disappearances and massacres.

So the struggle does not end with this victory. Rios Montt's lawyers will no doubt continue with the same tactics that they have used over the past twelve years to stall future hearings. They will no doubt file several court injunctions that will keep him out of the courts and in the confines of his private home-turned jail cell. As complicated as the concept of 'justice' is, it is a necessary step for countless communities to continue to heal and to work toward peace.

Within just under two weeks of taking power, the new Perez Molina government has already increased military presence throughout the country and rejoined police and military personnel in combined patrols that roam the streets. In his inaugural speech, he made it clear that his administration was more interested in moving forward into the global economy than confronting the past.

These next four years will be important for us, as BTS members, to keep our eyes on Guatemala. The long-term relationships that we have built and that we continue to develop are essential to garnering a better understanding of what it means to struggle and to be in solidarity. No expert can teach us that. We have to learn through believing and through hoping. Through daring to be close to the pain, the anger, the hope and the love.

In solidarity,

Caren Weisbart

Photos: All photos taken by Caren Weisbart on Jan. 26, 2012 in front of the Corte de Justicia in Guatemala City, Guatemala

Guatemala: Reconciliation or retrenchment?

2012-01-19T10:29:00.000-08:00

Springfield, Massachusetts - Fifteen years after ending its brutal internal conflict, Guatemala is beset by gang violence, drug trafficking, an intolerable crime rate and near complete impunity for the atrocities committed during the war. Retired army general Otto Perez Molina, elected on an "iron fist" platform by Guatemalans weary of unrelenting violence, will take office on January 14. Despite his victory, questions remain unanswered both about his past and about the methods he will use to suppress the country's escalating disorder.

The 1999 United Nations Truth Commission report condemned the US role in Guatemala's dirty war. Bill Clinton subsequently expressed regret for the US government's unconditional support for successive military regimes in Guatemala, which contributed to the brutal slaughter of more than 200,000 unarmed civilians, the vast majority of whom were indigenous Mayans. Clinton declared that US support for "forces or intelligence units which engaged in violent and widespread repression … was wrong", and further vowed that "the United States must not repeat that mistake. We must, and we will, instead continue to support the peace and reconciliation process in Guatemala".

President Obama made a congratulatory call to Perez Molina. According to the White House, the men discussed "the shared responsibility for enhancing citizen security in Guatemala and underscored the importance of institutional reforms, respect for human rights, and inclusive economic growth in advancing the well-being of all Guatemalans". Given the sordid US history of meddling in Guatemala, the US must be vigilant in ensuring that these commitments are honoured.

In deciding how closely to embrace the new president of Guatemala, the US should be mindful of credible allegations that Perez Molina committed war crimes. Evidence demonstrates that Perez Molina was a military commander in the Ixil Triangle during the period in which the UN found that the army had committed genocide, and 70-90 per cent of the villages in that region were razed.

A particularly damning piece of evidence is a videotape of Allan Nairn interviewing General Tito, said to be Perez Molina's nom de guerre, in which he stands over the battered bodies of four insurgents. Perez Molina had ascended to the head of the military intelligence division when Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, husband of US lawyer Jennifer Harbury, disappeared in 1992. Harbury's tenacious and gutsy campaign for truth and justice later revealed that Bamaca was captured, detained and tortured by military intelligence for more than two years, after which he was extra-judicially assassinated. (cont'd...)

Read full article on Aljazeera.com

International Civil Society Organizations Call for Justice for the Murder of Adolfo Ich Chaman

2011-12-20T10:42:00.000-08:00

Guatemala City, Guatemala – Tuesday, December 13, 2011 – 27 organizations and networks from Europe and North America have signed on to a letter calling on the Guatemalan government to fully investigate the murder of Adolfo Ich Chaman in El Estor, Guatemala. He was reportedly killed on September 27, 2009 by private security employed by Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN).

The organizations, based in numerous countries including Canada, USA, Austria and France, also specifically ask that the Guatemalan government carry out the arrest warrant for Mynor Padilla Gonzales, who reportedly shot Adolfo Ich Chaman in the neck. The warrant was issued shortly after the murder but no action has been taken. Earlier this year, company officials confirmed that Mr. Padilla Gonzales continued to be on paid leave from his work as head of security for CGN. At the time of the incident, CGN was a subsidiary of the Canadian company HudBay Minerals Inc., which sold its interest in the Fenix Project in September 2011 to Russian-owned Solway Investment Group.

Adolfo Ich Chaman was a respected Maya Q'eqchi' community leader and an open critic of human rights violations and environmental damage caused by corporate mining activities in his community particularly in relation to the Fenix mining project. Jackie McVicar, of the Canadian-based Breaking the Silence Network, noted, "We are very concerned with the lack of advancement in this case. It’s been two years since Adolfo Ich was killed, and there has been no justice for his murder."

The open letter asking for a criminal investigation in Guatemala follows a lawsuit that was launched last year in Canadian courts by Mr. Ich Chaman’s widow, Angelica Choc, against HudBay Minerals for the murder of her husband. In December 2010, Ms. Choc announced that she is suing Hudbay Minerals and its subsidiaries in Canadian courts to seek reparations for the death of her husband.

The organizations who have signed on to this letter express solidarity and concern for the safety of the family of Mr. Adolfo Ich Chaman. They also express solidarity with the Maya Q'eqchi' community of El Estor and all those human rights defenders who defend their land, land rights, and the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

BLOG UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

2011-12-17T05:34:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends! We are working to update and beautify our blog which we hope will be more user friendly and full of information about our work in Guatemala and the Maritimes. We are also looking for original pieces - articles, reflections, photos, photo-essays, etc. If you are interested in posting something, please be in touch! btsguatemala@gmail.com

Happy Holidays to you all! May the struggle for justice and peace guide you in 2012!

Breaking the Silence

A SPECIAL REQUEST TO BREAKING THE SILENCE MEMBERS AND FRIENDS

2011-11-11T06:38:00.000-08:00

Dear Breaking the Silence Friends,

We thank you for your support and once again seek your aid in order to nurture and deepen Breaking the Silence’s solidarity work with Guatemala. As you know, BTS has been working with Guatemalan partners and friends for 20 years. In this time of economic imbalance and poverty, more than ever before we want to ensure that our critical support is maintained. In this, the work of the BTS Coordinators in the Maritimes and Guatemala is critical! We are seeking to raise $200,000 over the next three years to support the work of Jackie McVicar in Guatemala and Wyanne Sandler in the Maritimes.

Over the past 20 years, BTS has:

Developed lasting relationships with our Guatemalan grassroots partners.
Participated in human rights accompaniment. BTS continues to strongly support human rights accompaniment in Guatemala. Accompaniment training will be held in June 2011. We are pleased to have three accompaniers in Guatemala at the present time, with more departing soon.
Hosted more than 60 Guatemalan visitors/speaking tours in Canada.
Held numerous public education events throughout the Maritime.
Sent 18 BTS delegations and 60 interns to Guatemala.
Acted on and responded to numerous Urgent Actions affecting partners and related organizations in Guatemala.
Supported the development of Breaking the Silence Coffee in partnership with the CCDA and Just Us! Coffee (over 30,000 lbs. of coffee over 8 years).
Carried out advocacy and lobbying in Canada around concerns of Guatemalan communities and organizations, including mining, maquilas and free trade.

BTS members talk about why our work is important:

· As a health care worker in an emergency department, I use values I learned in Guatemala every day. Justice and injustice in Guatemala doesn't happen randomly; health inequalities in Canada don't happen randomly.—Aaron Bates

· Being involved with Breaking the Silence is losing your sense of ego. This is a generational struggle, this is hundreds of years. In BTS's work, the small things quickly fit into the big picture.—Jeff Carolin

· Being with people in a transformative journey changes us. BTS has created a space where we can be together and help each other in political action & resistance, in love & creativity, in our deepening relationships with friends in Guatemala & here.—Wyanne Sandler

BTS needs ongoing support: Our work depends on the time and energy of hundreds of BTS volunteers. Over the years, the volume and scope of BTS’s work has greatly increased. To continue this incredibly effective work, our many volunteer efforts require the support of our Coordinators in the Maritimes and in Guatemala. With such a large network of volunteer support, the organization and direction our Coordinators provide is invaluable in maintaining our strong, grounded and energetic initiatives.

How you can contribute? Over the next three years, we need to raise $200,000 to provide decent, living wages to our Coordinators and to support our ongoing work. Your charitable donation (along with grants we are seeking from organizations, churches, unions, and foundations) will help ensure the continuation of BTS solidarity work in the coming years.

We want to thank our institutional donors who have given us significant funding in 2010-11, the United Church of Canada, the Congregation of Notre Dame, the Public Service Alliance of Canada and Just Us! Coffee Roasters. We deeply appreciate this vote of confidence. We also encourage you to strongly support Breaking the Silence coffee, as well as all Just Us! products.

Whether you are a past delegation member, intern, accompanier or Breaking the Silence Network friend, we ask that you consider an ongoing pledge or a one-time donation. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We would also like to ask you to consider increasing your monthly or yearly donation. We know that you, as BTS members and friends, vary in your ability to give. We want to assure you that we greatly appreciate both large and small donations and pledges. Such a monthly pledge might, for example, be the equivalent to a few cups of coffee (Breaking the Silence coffee, of course!)

Your donation, however big or small, will help the BTS network to respond to urgent human rights and development challenges alongside our Guatemalan partners. Your gift will help to ensure that our work—firmly grounded in principles of solidarity and social justice—will continue to be effective and sustainable for years to come. Please fill out the accompanying donation form today. Your gift is eligible for a charitable tax receipt. Donations made in the name of a friend or family member also make a great gift! If you do not feel comfortable mailing the donation form, please call 1-800-218-2220 with your credit card information stating that you are pledging to the BTS Coordinators Fund.

In friendship,

BTS Fundraising Committee:

Kathryn Anderson, Marie Claire Brisbois, Sheena Cameron, Janelle Frail, Bonnie Pero, Moira Peters, Jackie Race
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Electing for Forgetting the Past - Guatemalan Elections 2011

2011-11-08T14:59:00.001-08:00

As many of you know, the final round of the elections in Guatemala took place on
November 6, 2011. Tension was high leading up to this date given that the two
contenders, Manuel Baldizon and Otto Perez Molina, represent right-wing interests the former calling for the return of the death penalty. In the case of Perez Molina, he is well-known for his leadership in the Guatemalan intelligence branch of the army during the mid 90s and was on the CIA payroll. Before this, during the height of the violence 1982-1983), he operated the military base in Nebaj, Quiche. There are several allegations against him regarding the detainment, torture and disappearance of several people, some of whom Breaking the Silence, through their work with the Coordination of International Accompaniment in Guatemala (ACOGUATE) have accompanied over the past several years as part of the genocide cases. Also, at the beginning of this year, a case was filed against him regarding the illegal detainment, torture, disappearance and murder of Efrain Bámaca, a guerilla commander whose disappearance and murder remains in impunity.

Two hours after the polls closed throughout the country, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (Tribunal Suprema Electoral – TSE) called the vote in favour of former General Otto Perez Molina with 56% of the votes. It is important to note that voter turn out was under 50%. In other words, 50% of registered voters (there are 7,000,000 registered voters in Guatemala from a total national population of 14,000,000) or just over 3,000,000 people voted. To put it in a different way, 17% of the total population of Guatemala voted. Voter turn out in the second round is often much lower given the costs of travelling to voting centres and the fact that local mayors and congress are already elected during the first round. Despite the fact that since the previous elections, efforts have been made by the TSE to decentralize voting centres so that people who live in villages do not have to travel
long distances to vote, the recent rains that once again washed out roads and caused large-scale structural damage also destroyed many schools and community centres originally slated to be used as voting centres. As a result, many people had to travel into the larger municipal centres in order to cast their vote.

The first round of votes held on September 11thwere characterized by high levels of
violence, intimidation and allegations of fraud at the local, municipal level. As a result, five municipalities had to re-initiate their vote for mayor during the second round. According to the official press, this repetition was carried out with measured calmness throughout the five regions. I spoke with people in San Lucas Toliman where our partners, the Comite Campesino del Altiplano (CCDA) are located and they said things were fairly calm. Partido Patriota, the party of Otto Perez Molina, won the mayoral vote there which was what the agitators of the previous round wanted.

Manuel Baldizon´s party, Lider, won in the majority of departments with Partido Patriota winning only 7 highly populated departments including the department of Guatemala. It will be important to watch what happens in the departments where Lider won over the next couple of months although some analysts argue that the support for Lider would have been less if the party was up against the National Unity for Hope (Unidad Nacional de Esperanza - UNE) which currently holds the presidency under Alvaro Colom, as opposed to Partido Patriota. Also, it is interesting to note that Baldizon did not give his official speech on election night. Normally, both candidates give their final speeches following the declaration of the winner of the elections. Balidzon cast his vote in the northern department of Peten and indicated that he was going to return to the capital to wait for the
results - which he never did. According to the pattern in Guatemala, the candidate who comes in second in the elections is often elected president four years later so this will not be the last we see of right-wing candidate Baldizon.

One of the municipalities where the municipal elections were repeated was Chinique,
Quiche. As a TV reporter was coming back from the town after covering the elections,
he arrived in Santa Cruz del Quiche, the site of the main military barracks of the Quiche region, an area where over two thirds of the massacres took place during the violence. At 5am, he and his camera man were attacked by body guards of Congressman Mario Rivera originally from Rios Montt´s political party, the Guatemalan Republican Front (Frente Republicano Guatemalteco – FRG and currently with UNE. The recent news coverage about this attack is more focused on his recuperation and the fact that his wounds were not serious enough to file charges against the body guards than questions about the motives behind the attack or Mario Rivera´s involvement.

In terms of the capital city, there was a notable increase in ‘security’ forces in the form of the police and army presence. The ‘combined forces’ (police and military ‘fuerzas combinadas’) were peppered throughout the capital on the days leading up to the elections and especially on election day. Reports from friends of BTS who travelled around the city, indicated that the streets were ominously quiet.

During its elections coverage, TV news reiterated that the TSE was extremely efficient taking less than two hours to count the majority of the votes. They failed to mention or even allude to the plethora of complaints that were emitted following the first round where it took an entire week to post finalized figures. It is clear that the media is painting a picture of organized, ‘democratic’ Guatemala with their new peace president who signed the peace accords in 1996. They have referred to him as ‘el presidente de la paz’ (the peace president); however, they continue to refer to him as General Perez Molina as opposed to ‘President Elect’ which is the typical way of addressing someone after they have been elected president and before they officially take office. Nonetheless, today, two days after the elections, Perez Molina is also being referred to in local newspapers as President Elect.

Meanwhile, current president Alvaro Colom, who will be carrying out government
transition meetings with Otto Perez Molina over the next few weeks, just announced in an interview in the news daily El Periodico that he will continue to support his political party, UNE, but will be turning his attention to work on ‘regional security’ issues. Following these elections, the UNE has lost significant political control over important regions where resource extraction, hydroelectric, African palm and other lucrative commercial industries are highly contested and, profitable.

For those who can speak Spanish, there is an excellent website albedrio.org that will no doubt be coming out with several analytical essays from about the elections. Authors to look out for include: Gustavo Porras, Marielos Monzon, Sandino Asturias, Claudia Samayoa (who visited BTS at the 2011 AGM) among others.

Update from Intern Laura Fanjoy following Rainy Season in Guatemala

2011-11-01T06:07:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to visit Salvador Xolhuitz this week, the CCDA-affiliated community that was most affected by the recent rains. The members of the community showed me the damages suffered on their property, and requested that I put together an article for their English-speaking friends to convey the impact of the damages and their concerns for the future.

The people of Salvador Xolhuitz have been through their fair share of struggles, since gaining access to their finca (plantation) through the government's land fund in 2004. They have worked to build their community, overcome internal conflict and attempt to meet the annual payments required to pay off their debt. Despite all of these challenges, residents are grateful for the land they now live and work on, and are determined to make their story a successful one.

Just as the rainy season was drawing to an end, the residents of Salvador Xolhuitz were presented with another challenge. After days of heavy rain, the earth gave way, and their finca suffered numerous landslides. Thankfully, there were no injuries or deaths, since the lanslides occured in the part of their property designated for production. The result however, is the loss .352 hectares of productive land, in the middle their harvest. Their losses are principally banana trees, coffee and trees used for wood. It is estimated that the cost of the damages is over Q 800,000.00 or $101,105.81 Canadian dollars.

The effects of the landslides would be devestating to any community, but in Salvador Xolhuitz there is an additional challenge, their debt. Altogether, Salvador Xolhuitz owes Q 2,740,123.28 (345,883.97 Canadian dollars) for the land they bought through the land fund in 2004. This figure represents an immense challenge, considering that each benefactor earns approximately Q 20 ($2.50 Canadian) a day[1]. As interest accumulates on their debt, benefactors find themselves further and further away from paying off the finca, with their payment plan to expire in 2016.

Guatemala's land fund was founded in the 1996 Peace Accords for the purpose of addressing the unequal access to land that plagues Guatemala. The land fund adheres to a market-based approach to land reform, which means that it serves as an intermediary between groups of campesinos interested in accessing land, and landowners interested in selling their property. Unfortunately, this program has failed to alleviate the problem of landlessness, as only 253 communities have succeeded in buying land since the land fund began its operations in 1998. Among land fund benefactors, the majority live in conditions of poverty, due to the poor quality of land accessed. It is common for fincas bought through the land fund to be remote, lacking infraestructure such as roads, potable water and electricity, and to have been long abandoned with land that is no longer productive. Since the creation of the land fund provoked a surge in demand for land, with few landowners willing to sell, the land accessed is often overvalued, leaving benefactors with a large debt. As the result of this situation, it is predicted that 139 of the 253 communities that accessed land through the land fund, will be unable to pay off their debt, and therefore are at risk of loosing their land. To date, three communities have lost their land after finding themselves unable to repay their debt.

Despite being among the 139 communities at risk of loosing their land, the residents of Salvador Xolhuitz are fortunate. The land they accessed is of good quality, and they have been able to build a school, install electricity and enjoy access to water. Since accessing the finca, they have had several good harvests, but have so far not been able pay the full amount outlined in their annual debt payments. Now, having lost approximately half of their coffee harvest, as well as other crops, they find themselves worrying about making ends meet, nevertheless fulfilling their debt payment. The damages suffered to the finca are yet to be acknowledged by the land fund, which has failed to provide any assistance to the community.

Aside from the land fund, the government has also failed to provide assitance to the community of Salvador Xolhuitz or other small producers affected by the rains. Unfortunately, when natural disasters strike Guatemala, emergency relief is often channeled through the government, where it rarely reaches campesinos. It is for this reason that the residents of Salvador Xolhuitz have turned to the CCDA their international partners, in this time of need.

In my conversations with the governing council for the community of Salvador Xolhuitz, I was told that any help received would be directed replanting lost crops and repairing damages, all of which will help them make this year's debt payment. Residents expressed their frusteration, that they have been forced to turn to organizations such as the CCDA and international partners for assistance, in times where it is the government's responsibility to come to their aid.

Donations can be sent to CoDevelopment Canada at #260 2747 EastHastings St., Vancouver, BC, V5K 1Z8. Any donation over $20 will receive a tax receipt. In order to ensure that your contribution is directed to the CCDA, please write "CCDA relief" on the memo line of your cheque. For more infomration, please write:

I (Laura) would be happy to answer any questions. I can be reached at l_fanjoy@hotmail.com. Please pass this information along to your communities!

[1] This figure is based on an estimation of their daily wages, using the approximate annual income of the finca divided by beneficiaries and days worked.

Please see attached for some pictures and a video I took during my visit.

Take care,

Laura

Take Canadian Action against Guatemalan War Crimes

2011-09-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

Some of you may know that the Guatemalan community of Las Dos Erres was massacred on December 7th, 1982. Some of you may have even followed the efforts of survivors to seek justice and guarantee historic memory. What you may not know, however, is that Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes - a former elite military office and one of the suspected perpetrators of the massacre - was arrested in Canada earlier this year.

Instead of facing charges of crimes against humanity, he has judged fit for extradition to the United States where he is wanted on the charge of immigration fraud. We can’t let this happen. It is worth noting that both Sosa Orantes and one of the survivors have Canadian citizenship.

Collaborating with various organizations, including: Breaking the Silence, Projet Accompagnement Québec-Guatemala, Lawyers without Borders Canada, Canadian Centre for International Justice, and Acoguate, we have created a website with further information on the case and a request to take action.

In English : http://lasdoserres.wordpress.com/

In French: http://lasdoserresfr.wordpress.com/

We encourage you to check it out, inform yourselves, and sign and send the letter under the “Take Action” section, to demand than an investigation be conducted in Canada under the War Crimes Act regarding Sosa Orantes’ alleged participation in this massacre.

* * *

16 sept. 2011

Certains d'entre vous savent que la communauté guatémaltèque de Las Dos Erres a été massacrée le 7 déc. 1982. Certains sont aussi au courant des efforts déployés par les survivants en défense de la mémoire historique et de la justice. Ce que vous ne savez peut-être pas, c'est que Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes, un ancien membre de l'unité de combat connu sous le nom de Kaibiles et un des présumés responsables du massacre, a été arrêté au Canada en janvier.

Au lieu de répondre à des accusations de crime contre l'humanité, il a été jugé apte à l'extradition vers les États-Unis où il est recherché pour fraude dans une demande d'immigration. C'est inacceptable. En plus, Sosa Orantes ainsi qu'un des survivants ont maintenant la citoyenneté canadienne.

En collaboration avec Breaking the Silence, Projet Accompagnement Québec-Guatemala, Avocats sans frontières Canada, le Centre canadian pour la Justice internationale, et Acoguate, nous avons créé un site contenant plus d'information sur le cas et une requête d'action.

En français: http://lasdoserresfr.wordpress.com/

En anglais: http://lasdoserres.wordpress.com/

Nous vous encourageons à le parcourir, à vous informer, et à signer et envoyer la lettre sous l'onglet "Agissez" pour exiger qu'une enquête soit menée au Canada, sous la Loi des Crimes de guerre, sur la participation présumée de Sosa Orantes au massacre.

Merci.

The alliance between the indigenous peoples and trade unions in Latin America

2011-08-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

ITUC Bulletin:

Discrimination, feudal exploitation, poverty, isolation, forced labour…the indigenous
peoples of Latin America are marginalised and with trade union support
denounce the pillage of their ancestral lands.
Reports about the Marlin gold mine in Guatemala and the El Chaco region in
Paraguay. Testimony from Brazil. The trade union priority is the implementation
of ILO Conventions 168 and 29, particularly in relation to international trade
agreements.

For complete report, see: http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/VS_indigenesEN.pdf

Four Detained in Rabinal for the Massacre of 268 campesinos

2011-08-12T09:57:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday night and yesterday afternoon, security forces captured three members of the defunct Civil Defense Patrols implicated in the massacre of 268 peasants in the community of Plan de Sanchez in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, on July 18, 1982.

BY CARLOS GRAVE, Baja Verapaz

The detained were identified as ex-military commissioner Lucas Tecu, 56 years old, and Civil Defense Patrollers, Mario Julian Acoj, 54; Eusebio Grave Galeano, 56; and Santos Rosales Garcia, 70.

The first two were detained last Wednesday at the entrance of the community of Pacux, near zone 3 of Rabinal, and Grave Galeano y Rosales Garcia were apprehended in the community of Conculito in the same municipality.

To The Preventative Jail

They were all sent to the Preventative Jail in zone 18 of Guatemala City and today they will give their first declaration in court.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office has accused them of assassination and crimes against humanity. These are the first detentions for this massacre.

The Facts

The massacre occurred during the de facto regime of General Jose Efrain Rio Montt (1982-1983). The criminal process was slowed for several years given the amnesty that the military of the time enjoyed.

The survivors submitted a petition to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights in 1996, which in 2004 ordered monetary and non-monetary compensation and symbolic compensation to families of the victims.

The military’s harassment of the community began at the beginning of July 1982, when a helicopter flew over the community and fired nearby, said Maria Lajuj, a survivor of the massacre.

In the early morning of July 18 of that year, the army fired bombs at the community from the military base which was located near the soccer field in Rabinal.

Since it was a market day, there were people traveling towards the town of Rabinal; the explosions alerted community members and they took refuge in the ravines, but the soldiers returned in the afternoon and executed them.

Guatemala Las Dos Erres civil war massacre trial begins

2011-07-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

Guatemala Las Dos Erres civil war massacre trial begins

The four suspects (front row) deny having been involved in the massacre

BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14285665

Four former Guatemalan soldiers are standing trial for the massacre of more than 220 people during the country's civil war.

The men are accused of being part of a Guatemalan counter-insurgency unit that carried out the massacre in the village of Las Dos Erres in 1982.

All four have denied the charges.

One local human rights group has called the trial "historic", saying it is the first of its kind to involve former soldiers.

The group, CALDH, has said the trial marks "the opening of the historical debate in our country".

At least 200,000 people - mainly from the indigenous Maya population - were killed during the country's 36-year civil war, which ended in 1996.

In 1999, a UN-backed commission estimated 93% of the killings were carried out by the security forces, who said they were targeting left-wing guerrillas.

The accused - Carlos Antonio Carias, Manuel Pop, Reyes Collin and Daniel Martinez - were part of the Guatemalan special forces, known as the Kaibiles.

A unit of Kaibiles entered the village of Las Dos Erres in the northern department of Peten in December 1982, during the time of the military ruler, General Efrain Rios Montt.

The military suspected the villagers of supporting or harbouring left-wing guerrillas.

Over a period of three days, the Kaibiles interrogated and then killed the inhabitants, including children, women and the elderly.

Many inhabitants were raped and beaten, before they were shot or bludgeoned to death. The victims' bodies were thrown down a well.

Fight for justice

Estimates vary as to the exact number of villagers killed.

In 2001, then Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo acknowledged that 226 people were killed and that the state bore responsibility for the massacre.

He awarded the relatives of those killed $1.8m (£1.1m) in compensation.

But relatives say the real total of victims is over 250.

They have been fighting for justice for years. The case was first investigated in 1994.

But, until now, no-one has been prosecuted.

The Guatemalan authorities have been under pressure to prosecute those responsible for human rights violations committed during the civil war.

And in 2009, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the state must act in the case of the Las Dos Erres massacre.

Another soldier suspected of involvement in the massacre - Pedro Pimentel Rios - was deported from the United States earlier this month, but has yet to face trial.

Several other suspects are still at large.

Guatemala tries soldiers on massacre charges

Aljazeera English: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/07/201172644624981484.html

Four officers accused of killing 201 people in the second massacre trial related to country's 36-year civil war.

[From left to right] Daniel Martinez, Carlos Carias, Manuel Pop and Reyes Collin have all pleaded not guilty [AFP]

"That day, at 5pm, people arrived to tell me that there had been a problem [in Dos Erres], and since it was not my jurisdiction I couldn't help them," said Carias, who was second lieutenant at the time in command of an area 10km from Dos Erres.

The trial of four former Guatemalan soldiers, charged with taking part in a 1982 massacre of hundreds of civilians during the country's 36-year civil war, has begun in the Guatemalan capital.

The defendents, three of whom had been members of an elite security force known as "kaibiles", pleaded innocent on Monday in a Guatemala City court to killing 201 men, women and children, in the village of Dos Erres.

Daniel Martinez, Carlos Carias, Manuel Pop and Reyes Collin said they were not in the village and were stationed elsewhere the day it was stormed by government troops who killed at least 250 people in total there, according to court filings.

"I directed them to other villages to seek help."

Raping and killing

During the atrocity, the soldiers allegedly raped and killed women and young girls, among others, and threw the bodies of victims down a well.

Dozens of bodies were exhumed from the well in the 1990s and the remains from 171 victims were recovered in total. At least 67 children under the age of 12 were among the dead.

Prosecutors say soldiers entered Dos Erres in 1982 looking for missing weapons that guerilla groups operating in the region had stolen from the soldiers days earlier.

They did not find the weapons but accused farmers in the village of collaborating with the rebels.

Witnesses say villagers were tortured and robbed by the soldiers as part of a "scorched earth" campaign to eliminate communities supporting opposition groups at the height of Guatemala's longest civil war in history.

'Hungry for meat'

Cesar Ibanez, one of the witnesses, testified in the court proceeding that one soldier had sliced off a piece of flesh from a wounded villager's rib after his superior had told the soldier he was "hungry for meat".

From 1960 to 1996, more than 200,000 people were killed or disappeared as a military dictatorship fought to quell a popular uprising across the country, according to UN figures. Entire villages were exterminated in the conflict.

This is Guatemala's second massacre trial related to the civil war.

The first trial ended in a 2004 guilty verdict against an officer and 13 soldiers, but the verdict was overturned on appeal.

Also on Monday, a judge announced that a former National Police official has been accused of carrying out an enforced disappearance during the civil war and was jailed Sunday night.

Former chief of the 6th Commando, Pedro Garcia Arredondo, is accused in the disappearance of Edgar Saenz, Judge Veronica Galicia said.

THE DEATH OF FACUNDO CABRAL - SHAME?

2011-07-16T05:13:00.000-07:00

By Fernando Suazo, Rebelion, voselsoberano.com, July 12, 2011

(Translation for Rights Action by Rosalind Gill, RGill@glendon.yorku.ca)

Once again, Guatemala’s reputation on the world stage has been stained by an abject crime. This time it was Facundo Cabral who fell victim to our long and tragic saga of domestic crime. Cabral, a famous Argentinean citizen of the world – “I am not from here, neither am I from there”, “I have no age, no future” – had been a faithful friend during our uprisings in the seventies.

And while this bloody deed is being investigated, and the media competes to provide us with the latest details on the murder, it is time for us to look into the distance at the dark horizon that caused this murder and so many other crimes in our country.

It has only been two and a half weeks since the International Conference of Support for the Central American Security Strategy was held. The objective of this conference was to find ways to combat organized crime. During the conference, even the normally submissive presidents of the region spoke to Hilary Clinton in a manner that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, or even a few months ago: The Mexican president dared to say what everyone in that country knows very well, even the birds, that 70% of the vehicles, aircraft, arms and munitions that kill our people are sold in the United States.

The Guatemalan president surprised us by saying that 83% of the drugs that pass through the region are consumed in the United States, and the remaining 17% in Europe. The presidents of Costa Rica and El Salvador stated firmly that drug trafficking would not exist without the enormous demand in the United States. The president of Colombia pointed out that the presence of drug trafficking mortally corrupts a democracy and eliminates many of the best professionals and civil servants in the country (I don’t know if he actually said the ‘mediocre’, which is the majority, that are corrupted by it).

It is clear that the United States must take responsibility for the situation – even Clinton recognized that her country is part of the problem — “We are accelerating our police patrols to find transnational organized crime networks ...” (we assume she meant within her country, but US imperialist diplomacy would, of course, not allow her to say so precisely).

There is no doubt that our region is the most violent part of the continent, and although it has no declared wars, it is one of the most violent areas of the world. According to the UNDP, the homicide rate in Central America is 33.3 per 100,000 inhabitants. Could this have anything to do with our imperialist neighbour to the north?

“Organized crime, basically derived from drug trafficking, is the most serious threat to the Guatemalan State. (…) It has infiltrated it and subordinated it over the last ten years, since Guatemala was convinced by the US to finance Reagan’s anti-communist policy in Central America.” This quote from journalist José Rubén Zamora refers to the eighties and the imperialist National Security Doctrine. (el Periódico, 27/06/11).

In the meantime, Guatemalans are shamed on the international stage because of the tragic death of a visitor from Argentina who sang such meaningful songs as: “My boss, poor guy, thinks I’m the one who’s poor …”

The word shame is on the lips of many people these days. Others, who take a more commercial point of view, point out that this crime will harm our tourist industry. And here we are, vacillating between shame and exposure of the fact that our beauty has been sacked, alienated and corrupted.

But is shame what we are really experiencing? I think it is more indignation or rage that the Guatemalan state has not fulfilled in any way its obligations because it has been taken over by transnational powers.

This is an old story in Guatemala: both inside and outside power groups have forced us into shameful situations that would never have arisen without their influence: When I was teaching our history to high school students, I would tell them of the strong emergence of indigenous communities in the sixties and seventies, when they began to seek development and affirmation as members of this society; I would also introduce the armed conflict and the bloody deeds of civil defence patrols set up by the army. Inevitably, some one would ask the question: “But how could those cruel patrol members be the same people who just a few weeks before had been working in solidarity for the development of their communities?”

Yes indeed, they were the same people. But the counter-insurgency war created life-and- death situations in which, as one of the students remarked – “you either had to go against your own people, or die”.

And from that corruption comes shame, self-denial, guilt and repression of sensitivity to people. Then the ground is prepared for power politics and patronage and for the influence of perverse religious groups. And this is still the case in our Guatemala today.

This is why I say that it is indignation rather than shame that we are experiencing. Rubén Zamora said: “In other words, the basic US strategy to combat drug trafficking by containing and reducing the supply of drugs has been a failure. Drug usage has not declined, drug distribution has increased and diversified and “laundered” money has gone from 2% of the world economy in 1998, according to the IMF, to10% of the world GDP, according to recent estimations. The money has gone from being laundered in remote fiscal paradises to taking its place in New York and London.”

Let other people feel shame – we should be outraged.

Farewell to the Legendary Alfonso Bauer Paiz

2011-07-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

The legendary Guatemalan lawyer and political activist, Alfonso Bauer Paiz, passed away at the age of 93 due to heart failure on Sunday, July 10th, 2011. Revered as an exemplary citizen and the last of an outstanding generation, Bauer Paiz held several official posts during the revolutionary governments of the so-called Guatemalan Spring between 1944 and 1954. Exiled for many years after the U.S.-led coup d’état in 1954 turned the country into a violent downward spiral that led to an eventual genocide, Bauer Paiz participated in the Latin American revolutionary processes in Chile, Cuba, Nicaragua, and eventually aided Guatemalan refugees in Mexico. Before his burial, the man lovingly known as “Don Ponchito” was paraded for one last time along the streets of Guatemala’s historic center.

To see the complete photoessay by James Rodriguez click here.

Outrage over the Murder of Protest Singer Facundo Cabral

2011-07-12T08:32:00.000-07:00

Guatemalans from all sectors of society expressed their outrage over the murder of Argentinean protest singer Facundo Cabral. Mr. Cabral was gunned down in Guatemala City on Saturday, July 9th, after performing two concerts in the country. The primary hypothesis claims the assassination was in fact directed at Henry Fariña, Nicaraguan promoter who brought Cabral to Central America. (1) Nevertheless, Nobel Peace Prize recipient and presidential candidate Rigoberta Menchú assures Cabral “was murdered because of his political ideas and powerful music.” (2)

Cllick here to view the entire photo essay by James Rodriguez

HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS FILE TORTURE COMPLAINT WITH UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR AGAINST GUATEMALAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE GENERAL OTTO PEREZ MOLINA

2011-07-06T18:00:00.000-07:00

Today, June 28, 20011, three human rights defenders presented a formal report of torture, or “Allegation Letter”, to Professor Juan Mendez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. The letter alleges that General Otto Perez Molina, now a leading presidential candidate in Guatemala, was directly involved in the systematic use of torture and acts of genocide during the long civil war in Guatemala. Specifically, he was on the ground and in command in the Ixil triangle in 1982 during the village by village massacre campaign, and he was directly responsible for the long term torture and disappearance of prisoner of war Efrain Bamaca Velasquez. Protesters in Washington D.C. recently demanded the cancelation of his visa to the United States.

The report is accompanied by 1982 film footage[1] showing the then- Major Perez Molina being interviewed by journalist Allan Nairn in the Ixil triangle. The battered bodies of several prisoners lie nearby on the ground. Although Perez Molina was using a different name, he is identifiable by his voice and features. He is also well remembered in the Ixil . The video may be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DIEN9OBmLdcE. According to the U.N. sponsored Truth Commission report, “Memoria de Silencio”, the army carried out daily acts of torture, genocide and terror in the Ixil region, and razed between 70 and 90% of the villages there. Perez Molina currently presents himself as a reformist and “peace candidate for peace”.

Otto Perez Molina was also the National Director of military intelligence (D-2) on March 12, 1992, when Efrain Bamaca, a Mayan resistance leader, was captured alive and taken to the Santa Ana Berlin military base. According to evidence cited in the Allegation Letter, a high level intelligence meeting was held at the same base that day, and the officers decided to subject Bamaca to a secret intelligence program for valuable prisoners of war. This consisted of long term torture in order to break the prisoner psychologically and force him or her to collaborate with the D-2 forces. Bamaca was severely tortured for more than 2 years: always in D-2 compounds, under orders of the D-2, and by D-2 specialists. He was also transported throughout the country by the D-2, and twice detained by a secret D-2 death squad based in the Capital at the notorious “La Isla”. The letter alleges that Perez Molina was the key intellectual author of this and similar war crimes cases. U.S. declassified documents confirm that the D-2 systematically tortured all prisoners of war, then either executed them or forced them to collaborate. In 1993 the CIA reported 300 such prisoners . See attached memorandum re Bamaca case.

The Allegation Letter requests an investigation into General Perez Molina’s responsibility for such war crimes, and was presented by the following human rights defenders: Annie Bird, Co- Director, Rights Action, annie@rightsaction.org 202-680-3002, Jennifer K. Harbury, Human Rights Attorney, jharbury@gmail.com 512-751-5852Kelsey A. Jones, Director, Guatemala Human Rights Commission-USA, kajones@ghrc-usa.org 202-529-6599

HONDURAS - COMMUNITY LEADERS ARRESTED ON TRUMPED UP CHARGES, FOR PROTECTING FORESTS FROM ILLEGAL LOGGERS LINKED TO GOLDCORP Inc.

2011-07-06T05:10:00.000-07:00

HONDURAS - COMMUNITY LEADERS ARRESTED ON TRUMPED UP CHARGES, FOR PROTECTING FORESTS FROM ILLEGAL LOGGERS LINKED TO GOLDCORP Inc.

(By Annie Bird, Rights Action July 5, 2011)

Early this morning, July 5, Carlos Amador, a local teacher who holds the position of Secretary of the Valle de Siria Environmental Committee, and Marlon Hernandez, a teacher who holds the position of President of the Community Committee of El Terrero were arrested as they walked to work.

(Since 2004, Rights Action has supported and worked with the Valle de Siria Environmental Committee)

A total of eighteen arrest warrants have been issued against community human rights defenders and environmentalists from the Valle de Siria Environmental Committee and the Community Committee of El Terrero, apparently in the interest of facilitating access to gold deposits for the Goldcorp Inc gold mining company.

ABUSE OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM AS A TOOL OF REPRESSION

The community leaders have been charged with Obstruction of a Management Plan by judge Ingrid Quiroz in the Talanga Court. They were given conditional release until their trial scheduled to begin August 2.

The President and a Representative of the Valle de Siria Environmental Committee, Martin Erato and Marco Tulio Martinez, also are subject to arrest warrants, as are most members of the Community Committee (Patronato) of El Terrero.

During the day, members of the communities affected by Goldcorp Inc's concession poured into Talanga in a show of support, including six more Community Committee members with arrest warrants who voluntarily presented themselves before the judge.

CRIMINALIZATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS

This process is clearly a case of criminalization of human rights defenders, yet another example of how the Honduran justice system is engaged in flagrant violations of fundamental rights and due process.

The Public Prosecutor requested the arrest without having first undertaken sufficient investigation into the land rights of the two groups in conflict. Today leaders of the five communities affected are presenting fraud charges against the family who created a false title to the land in conflict.

PROTECTING DRINKING WATER FOR 20,000 PEOPLE

The arrests stem from a conflict over a forested mountain known as Cerro La Terracita in the municipality of El Porvenir, department of Francisco Morazan, Honduras, an area communally owned for 250 years.

(Goldcorp Inc began operating its "San Martin" in the neighboring municipality. Goldcorp has a concession, illegally gotten according to many Honduras, to mine in El Porvenir as well, but never were able to operate their mine there due to the peaceful opposition of the local population).

On April 7, 2010, lumberers attempted to enter the communal forests, and were blocked by area residents who hold title over the land. Approximately 800 hectares of forests protect the spring that is the source of drinking water for between 15,000 and 20,000 people, inhabitants of the villages of Pueblo Nuevo, Guayovillas, Pedronal, Terrero, and Escanito. For many years the communities have been requesting that the Institute for Environmental Conservation declare the area a protected area.

The mountain forms part of a 1,870 hectare communal land title pertaining to the villages, a title that dates back to the early 1800s. However, since the Canadian gold company Goldcorp obtained its concession to the subsoil mineral rights in the mountain, residents of El Porvenir report that Goldcorp developed close ties to a family originally from the villages, the Raudales Urrutia family, who have for many years lived in Tegucigalpa and the town center of El Porvenir.

According to reports, approximately three years ago the Raudales Urrtia family, through fraudulent processes, obtained an illegitimate title over the land and obtained a permit for a management plan from the Institute for Forestry Development. Area residents report that the intention of the permit is to clear cut the forest. This would then facilitate exploitation later by Goldcorp since environmental permits would be easier to obtain for the already deforested mountain.

GOLDCORP LINKED TO PRIVATELY ARMED GROUP AND POLICE REPRESSION

Since the Raudales Urrtia family began asserting ownership over the communal lands, they have maintained a private security force of six or seven heavily armed guards in the town of El Porvenir, who enter the villages heavily armed in vehicles with the obvious intention of intimidating and terrifying the population to facilitate appropriation of the lands.

On April 13, 2010, 15 heavily armed police arrived at the middle school where Carlos Amador, a teacher and 7-year member of the Valle de Siria Environmental Committee, works. They approached the school with guns raised in attack position. When they were unable to find Carlos, the police next went to his house which they also approached with raised guns and interrogated his two minor daughters as to his whereabouts, and left a citation to appear before police investigators.

Carlos Amador responded to the citation, but instead of asking questions related to the conflict over the La Terracita forest, the district attorney questioned him about the work of the Environmental Committee, asking questions like, "who are the leaders of the committee", "where do they live", "when does the committee meet", etc.

The conflict in La Terracita began shortly after Goldcorp's March 18, 2010 announcement to the press that its mine Closure Plan had been approved. Goldcorp, having completed exploitation of their first tract, the Palo Alto y Tajo la Rosa concessions, is anxious to begin exploitation of neighboring concessions, such La Terracita.

On request, Rights Action can provide substantial documentation and film links of serious health and environmental harms caused by Goldcorp's open-pit, cyanide heap leach mine.

GOLDCORP IMPUNITY HAD BEEN CHALLANGED BY PRESIDENT ZELAYA'S GOVERNMENT

The controversial closure plan was rejected by neighbors as it did not take adequate measures to clean up the heavy metals, such as cyanide, arsenic and mercury, among others, which have been demonstrated to exceed internationally established standards in Valle de Siria water system, and in the bodies of the residents.

The Closure Plan had not been accepted by the administration of then President Manuel Zelaya, which in April of 2009 created an inter-institutional commission to examine the plan and the impact of Goldcorp's operations in the region.

This measure followed a moratorium that banned the exploitation of mining concessions using certain techniques, such as those employed by Goldcorp, that the Zelaya administration enacted through a presidential decree in 2007.

Challenged by mining companies, in a 2008 ruling by the Supreme Court supported the Presidential Decree, finding sections of the 1998 General Mining Law, approved in the havoc following Hurricane Mitch, to be unconstitutional. This highly unpopular law had ushered in a fire sale of mining concessions in the late 1990s, early 2000s.

A new and fair mining law is seriously needed to define the all the procedures and guidelines that mining companies must follow if they want to exploit concessions they hold.

On April 27, 2009 President Manuel Zelaya proposed a mining law that banned open pit mining and the use of certain heavy metals, such as cyanide, in the refining process. This law would have made impossible expansion plans by mining companies, such as Goldcorp.

... AND THEN THE MILITARY COUP OCCURRED

All discussions of the type of fair-minded mining law reforms that were needed came to a crashing halt, the day after the June 28, 2009 military coup ousted President Zelaya's government.

Though many expected the military backed coup regime to pass their own version of a new mining law - one that would be expected to greatly favour international companies and investors, to date this has not happened. It is possible that the interests that back a new mining law may be waiting for the ratification of the Canada - Honduras free trade agreement, expected to be enacted any day.

ABUSE OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM FOR THE WEALTHY AND POWERFUL / IMPUNITY FOR THE POOR AND DISPOSSESSED

Ever since Goldcorp acquired its 'concession', and particularly since it began mining operations in 2000, and health and environmental harms began to be documented, a myriad of legal actions have been presented against mining interests in Honduras, yet virtually only the constitutional challenge has been ruled upon.

The Environmental Committee alone has advanced at least 25 legal actions related to Goldcorp's operation.

In 2000, criminal contamination charges resulted in arrest warrants against a Canadian Simon Ridgeway, legal representative for Entre Mares, the local company that owns the San Martin mine, a company now subsidiary to Goldcorp. The arrest warrant was never carried out, and in a similar way the investigation or prosecution of many other charges has never advanced.

CONDITIONAL RELEASE

Carlos Amador and Marlon Hernandez are thankfully released. This is due in no small part to a huge national and international response to these illegal detentions.

However, the trumped up charges are pending against them, and 16 other local community members.

Stay tuned, Keep educated, Stay involved.

Thank-you / Gracias a la vida

* * *

WHAT TO DO:

WWW.RIGHTSACTION.ORG

Rights Action is a not-for-profit organization, with tax charitable status in Canada and the USA. We fund and work with community-based development, environmental, disaster relief and human rights projects and organizations fighting to eliminate the underlying causes of poverty, impunity and environmental destruction in Guatemala and Honduras, as well as in Chiapas [Mexico] and El Salvador.

TO MAKE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS

for the Valle de Siria Environmental Defense Committee, and other community-based organizations working for the re-founding of Honduras, for community-controlled development, environmental justice, human rights & justice in Honduras, make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to:

UNITED STATES: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887

CANADA: 552 - 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8

CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: http://rightsaction.org/contributions.htm

DONATIONS OF STOCK: info@rightsaction.org

* * * * *

SPEAKERS:

Contact us to plan educational presentations in your community, school, place of worship, home (info@rightsaction.org)

EDUCATIONAL DELEGATIONS TO CENTRAL AMERICA:

Form your own group and/ or join one of our educational delegation-seminars to learn first hand about community development, human rights and environmental struggles (info@rightsaction.org)

CREATE YOUR OWN

email and mail lists and re-distribute our information

RECOMMENDED DAILY NEWS:

www.democracynow.org / www.upsidedownworld.org / www.dominionpaper.ca

RECOMMENDED BOOKS:

Eduardo Galeano's "Open Veins of Latin America"; Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States"; James Loewen's "Lies My Teacher Told Me"; Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine"; Paolo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed"; Dr Seuss's "Horton Hears A Who"

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Annie Bird, annie@rightsaction.org, Grahame Russell, info@rightsaction.org, Karen Spring, spring.kj@gmail.com

Register for the BTS Interns' Reunion

2011-06-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

Friends, a few of you who we know for sure are attending the Reunion (and you are quite a few!) have registered, but many of you have not. Please do so, as once we have a good number, we will send out a questionnaire to get some feedback from you re plans.

If you can pay a significant amount of your fee of $165 now, so much the better. But, if not, please still register. You can register online at the TC Website, www.tatacentre.ca.

The Intern Reunion schedule begins Friday, July 1st:4:30-5:30: Registration (Come earlier if you wish!), 5:30 Supper. We finish July 3rd with Sunday lunch.

We have BTS bursaries available of up to $100 per person. Maximum total $ available is $1000. First come, first served. Please contact me, not Tatamagouche Centre, re bursaries.

Also you can reduce your costs by about $40 by camping. First come, first served, as we have only a limited number of camping spaces available.

Hasta pronto!

Kathryn

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES TO HOLD GOLDCORP ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE REAL COSTS & PRICES OF GOLD:

2011-05-31T20:41:00.000-07:00

The enormity of transforming an unjust, unequal global economic system

By Grahame Russell, May 2011

Not surprisingly, Goldcorp Inc. did not agree, at its annual general meeting in Vancouver (May 18, 2011), to a shareholder’s resolution to suspend the “Marlin” mine in Guatemala, as ordered by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights.

In defiance of this binding suspension order, Goldcorp continues to mine gold and silver in Guatemala; huge profits continue to flow north to company directors, shareholders and millions of other investors across North America.

Neither government of Guatemala or Canada has done anything to ensure respect for the suspension order. The OAS (Organization of American States) has again shown its weaknesses, doing nothing to insist upon respect for the suspension order.

A GOOD (NECESSARILY LONG-TERM) STRUGGLE

This is not a failure of education and activism work to put a stop to a long list of environmental and health harms, acts of repression and other human rights violations caused directly or indirectly by Goldcorp’s two open pit/ mountain-top removal, cyanide-leaching mines in Guatemala and Honduras.

THE ENORMITY OF GLOBAL INEQUALITY & IMPUNITY

Rather, it is a reminder of the enormity of the challenge of ending the impunity and immunity from legal accountability with which mining companies operate around the world and of transforming an often-times unequal and unjust global economic order. This impunity and immunity exist not only for mining companies, but also for many global industries producing fruits, ethanol based bio-fuels, oil and gas, textiles, tourism sites, dams, etc.

Moreover, this impunity and immunity are not narrow legal issues (ie, a lack of enforceable laws); rather, they are broad political, economic and social issues.

Reflecting on a struggle, now 7 years old and counting, to put an end to and hold Goldcorp accountable for harms, repression and other violations at its mines in Honduras and Guatemala, I find two major learning points.

Firstly, this is part of a long-term struggle to transform the often-times unjust and unequal global economic order. Goldcorp is a normal mining company operating in a normal way that brings huge benefit to some, and causes huge suffering to others. It is the very global economic model that needs transformation, with its inherent inequalities and injustices both inside and between nations.

Secondly, this remains an urgent struggle to reform laws in Canada and the USA so that enforceable environmental and human rights standards attach to all corporate and investor activities, whether at home or globally.

Any person or community from around the globe should have the right to file civil suit, or demand criminal proceedings in Canada and the USA if and when their rights and well-being are violated or harmed by Canadian or American corporate or investor actions.

The Goldcorp struggle is just one more example of the need to break the North American wall of impunity and immunity from legal accountability.

INSPIRING RESISTANCE

While Goldcorp continues its mining operation in San Miguel Ixtahuacan, Guatemala, generating great profits and harms, it is worth high-lighting that this struggle has served to inspire other communities across Guatemala, and elsewhere in Central America, to take actions (holding community based consultations; doing community education work; organizing peaceful resistance; etc) to stop mining in their communities before it starts.

DETERRING OTHER COMPANIES

This increasingly well-known struggle serves as a cautionary note and partial deterrent to other companies that, like Goldcorp, would love to operate mines in Guatemala or Honduras where there is little mining oversight intention or capacity, and where the companies leave no more than 1% of profits in country. Almost all the profits flow north, while all the harms, repression and other violations remain in these countries of the global south!

PUTTING A DENT IN THE IMAGE OF “CANADA THE GOOD”

Canada has long marketed the image of “Canada the good”, a peace-maker country giving “aid” to the poor. As Goldcorp and other Canadian mining companies continue to cause harms, repression and other violations in countries across Latin America and the globe, the veneer has been taken off this myth.

UNREGULATED GLOBAL INVESTMENTS

This struggle has served not only to better educate Canadians and Americans about what some of our corporations are doing elsewhere, but also of how our own investments are often benefiting from unjust, harmful corporate activities.

Many more Canadians and Americans now know that they are (via pension funds, private funds and even “ethical” funds) invested in Goldcorp - and in a long list of global companies -that can and do cause harms, repression and other violations as part of their corporate operations, and that there is no direct way to hold our investment institutions accountable to even a minimum set of environmental or human rights standards. Over and over, we are reminded that our investment managers have one fundamental responsibility and fiduciary duty – to maximize profits!

A CANADIAN/ AMERICAN PROBLEM

Essentially, this struggle to hold Goldcorp accountable has served to educate North Americans that our governments and ourselves, as investors and consumers, are ultimately the enablers and beneficiaries of these often times unjust and harmful corporate and investor activities.

WHAT TO DO

"There are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to overcome the problems we face, just the familiar ones: search for understanding, education, organization, action ... and the kind of commitment that will persist despite the temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures and only limited successes, inspired by the hope of a brighter future."

(Noam Chomsky)

Until we bring about legal, political and economic changes in Canada and the USA, companies and investors from our countries will continue to operate in ways, across the planet, that often benefit from harms, repression and other violations.

Slowly and steadfastly, more and more Canadian and Americans must get involved in this, and similar, global corporate struggles.

Support for local groups:

It remains imperative to directly fund and otherwise support community based groups in the mining affected communities who are leading the work (often at risk of repression) to put an end to the harms and violations. Delegations of concerned North Americans (including politicians, journalists, donors) must continue to visit the families and communities being harmed by mining, to learn from them, and to build direct solidarity alliances and partnerships.

Follow the money:

As stated above, whether we know it or not, most North Americans are invested in Goldcorp and many more companies that directly and indirectly cause harms, repression and violations around the world. North Americans should investigate whether their own pension fund, private investment fund and/or “ethical” fund is invested in Goldcorp (let alone a list of other controversial companies and industries) and then start demanding the implementation of binding environmental and human rights standards to all investor activities.

The votes:

As policy, the governments of Canada and the USA work endlessly to expand North American investor and corporate interests across the planet, more often than not turning a blind eye to harms, repression and other violations that our investments and companies sometimes cause. This makes the harms, repression and violations our issues, and we need to hold our governments accountable to uphold the highest environmental and human rights standards in all of our international dealings.

The message:

Our media usually relegates corporate and investment issues to the business and financial sections of their coverage, more often than not ignoring the environmental and human rights impacts of businesses and investments. Across North America, we need to keep on challenging our media to properly do their jobs.

LA LUCHA SIGUE / THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES FOR ‘ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE’

Thank-you to all organizations and people who are involved in on-going efforts to hold Goldcorp accountable for the harms, repression and other violations it is causing and benefiting from, and who are involved, more broadly, in on-going efforts to create a just and equal global order.

We look forward to continuing this struggle over the years to come with people and organizations in Guatemala, Honduras, Canada and the USA.

Grahame Russell, Rights Action

info@rightsaction.org

www.rightsaction.org

Goldcorp Asks Shareholders to Ignore International Consensus to Suspend Operations at its Marlin Mine in Guatemala

2011-05-19T10:07:00.001-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 19, 2011

CONTACT:
Jennifer Moore, Latin America Program Coordinator, MiningWatch Canada
Tel: 613-569-3439, jen@miningwatch.ca

Kris Genovese, Senior Attorney, Center for International Environmental Law
Tel: 604-220-4009, kgenovese@ciel.org

Goldcorp Asks Shareholders to Ignore International Consensus to Suspend Operations at its Marlin Mine in Guatemala

Vancouver—After a year in which every major human rights body has called for the suspension of the Marlin mine in Guatemala, on Wednesday Goldcorp asked its shareholders to trust its judgment instead. Six percent of shareholders voted in favour of a resolution presented at the company’s Annual General Meeting that would bring Goldcorp into compliance with international law, including an order by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued in May 2010.

Goldcorp CEO, Charles Jeannes, defended his company, citing its support for a new measure to regulate consultation of indigenous peoples in Guatemala.

“Indigenous organizations in Guatemala have roundly condemned the proposed administrative decree to regulate consultation,” comments Benito Morales, attorney with the Rigoberto Menchú Tum Foundation in Guatemala City, who attended the AGM today. “The government has put forward the decree to ensure that mining is able to continue in the face of over 50 local plebiscites in which roughly a million people have voted against mining in the Guatemalan countryside.”

Jeannes also referred to the company’s plans to implement recommendations from a human rights assessment it commissioned, and a new human rights policy that the company adopted in October 2010.

“What is your human rights policy worth if you disregard the findings of international human rights bodies?” asks Francois Guindon with the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala.

“Goldcorp said that it will no longer report on its implementation of recommendations from the human rights assessment,” remarks Wyanne Sandler of the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network. “Also, many of the most important recommendations have not been implemented, such as posting a sufficient financial guarantee to ensure adequate funds for mine closure.”

Vice President of Corporate Affairs David Deisley argued against voluntary implementation of the IACHR recommendations, saying that affected communities or civil society organizations concerned about Goldcorp’s operations should enter into dialogue with the company.

“Dialogue requires trust,” says Jen Moore, the Latin America Program Coordinator for MiningWatch Canada, “but when the company is actively lobbying against the implementation of recommendations of human rights bodies, while ignoring the results of independent scientific studies that provide evidence of serious impacts on water supplies and local health, that trust has not been earned.”

“It is just as important to comply with international law as it is to comply with tax law,” said Kris Genovese, Senior Attorney with the Center for International Environmental Law in Washington D.C. “This case could not be any clearer. The mine must be suspended.”

http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/goldcorp-asks-shareholders-ignore-international-consensus-suspend-operations-its-marlin-mine-guatema

What You May Not Know About the Marlin Mine in Guatemala

2011-05-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

From CAMIGUA (The International Coalition Against Unjust Mining in Guatemala):

The continued operation of the Marlin mine is in contravention of the precautionary measures issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in May 2010.

1 Goldcorp asserts that the administrative process initiated by the Guatemalan government to consider a possible suspension of the Marlin mine “is in compliance with the precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).”

What Goldcorp isn’t saying: The recommendations of the IACHR are binding on Guatemala, which should have resulted in the immediate suspension of the Marlin mine.

The IACHR did not ask the government of Guatemala to open an administrative process to investigate the merits of its recommendations, but rather to suspend the mine to prevent irreparable harm while pending complaints are properly investigated. The measures were issued not only to ensure the health and safety of the communities, but also due to the severity of underlying human rights allegations.

2 Goldcorp asserts that the Guatemalan government is carrying out an administrative procedure that “involves a thorough investigation of the Marlin Mine.”

What Goldcorp isn’t saying: Goldcorp is relying on studies that have not been made public and were conducted by agencies without the capacity to do them.

Of 23 studies referenced by the Government of Guatemala, not one has been made public. Goldcorp’s own Human Rights Assessment found “a lack of capacity and limited experience [by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) with the issues required to enforce environmental standards in the mining industry.”

3 Goldcorp asserts that based on government information, “there has been no harm to human health or damage to the environment as a result of the operation of the Marlin Mine.”

What Goldcorp isn’t saying: Goldcorp is ignoring independent scientific studies.

Physicians for Human Rights found “some residents living near the mine have relatively high levels of lead in their blood and arsenic in their urine.” Belgian researchers at the University of Ghent found evidence to indicate that the Marlin mine is depleting surface waters and drawing arsenic- rich groundwater to the surface.

US-based E-Tech International found that water in the tailings impoundment did not meet IFC effluent guidelines in 2006 for cyanide, copper and mercury being 3, 10 and 20 times IFC guidelines, respectively.

4 Goldcorp asserts, there is “…no existing danger to the life or physical integrity of the population and definitely no possibility of irreparable harm.”

What Goldcorp isn’t saying: Peoples’ lives are at risk. Threats and intimidation against human rights defenders have been on the rise since the mine opened.

Impacts are not only on water. Amnesty International issued three urgent actions about the Marlin mine since 2010, including for the attempt on the life of a known activist.

5 Goldcorp asserts that a multi-stakeholder roundtable dialogue is an example of its contributions to human rights advancement in Guatemala, saying the process is addressing the petition before the IACHR as well as development issues.

What Goldcorp isn’t saying: The IACHR did not convene this dialogue, nor is it the appropriate forum to address the petition.

The dialogue table does not include diverse voices. It does not include all the legal representatives for the petitioners or those who oppose the mine.

6 Goldcorp asserts that Guatemala’s decision to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is another step ahead for human rights.

What Goldcorp isn’t saying: The importance of this revenue transparency initiative is in its implementation, which has been poor.

EITI ensures the verification and publication of revenues member governments receive from oil, gas, and mining. Joining is only the first step; compliance can take years. This initiative does not verify compliance with human rights standards, nor has it prevented socio-economic conflict in other parts of the region where it is being adopted.

7 Goldcorp asserts that Guatemala’s proposal for a law to regulate consultation of indigenous peoples also advances human rights.

What Goldcorp isn’t saying: The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has criticized this law as another violation of indigenous rights.

As a result of having failed to consult with indigenous peoples in Guatemala over the design of this law, tensions within the country are being further aggravated rather than being addressed.

8 Goldcorp asserts that it “strives to continuously improve its performance in all aspects of its business, and believes that many positive results have been achieved, particularly with respect to the Company’s respect for human rights.”

What Goldcorp isn’t saying: Goldcorp is selectively responding to recommendations, avoiding crucial issues such as land acquisition and adequate consultation.

Goldcorp is not implementing key recommendations from its own Human Rights Assessment, such as “to halt all land acquisition, exploration activities, mine expansion projects, or conversion of exploration to exploitation licenses, pending effective State involvement in consultation with local communities, and agreements put in place with communities to structure future land acquisitions.”

Goldcorp should voluntarily comply with the recommendations of the IACHR and voluntarily suspend the Marlin Mine. It should also halt all land acquisitions, exploration activities, mine expansion projects, or version of exploration or exploitation licenses, until it complies with international law.

For more information, contact:

In Canada, Jennifer Moore, MiningWatch Canada, jen@miningwatch.ca

In the US, Amanda Kistler, Center for International Environmental Law, Amanda.kistler@gmail.com

Tell the Canadian Pension Plan to vote for shareholder resolution

2011-05-04T12:12:00.001-07:00

Resolution asks Goldcorp to respect international law and voluntarily suspend the Marlin mine in Guatemala

SIGN THE PETITION:
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6497/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6657

The Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board currently has $256 million worth of shares in Goldcorp, the company that operates the highly-contested Marlin mine in Guatemala’s western highlands. In May 2010, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued precautionary measures urging that the mine be suspended in order to ensure the health and safety of affected communities, and as a result of the severity of alleged underlying human rights violations regarding the lack of consultation and consent from local indigenous peoples. Almost a year later, the Marlin mine continues operating; intimidation and threats persist against those who are critical or outspoken against the mine.

Shareholders have presented a resolution to Goldcorp asking the company to voluntarily suspend operations at its Marlin mine in compliance with the precautionary measures. The proposal comes in the wake of violent confrontations at the mine site and highlights the increasing national and international press focus on this issue.

Through your pension payments, Canadians help finance Goldcorp’s operations and alleged human rights abuses in the Americas.

Please take action today to tell the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board to vote for the shareholder resolution.

Lies and War Crime

2011-03-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

Guatemalan ex-military accused of war crimes held in Alberta prison
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/3917
by Valerie Croft

CHIMALTENANGO, GUATEMALA—Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes, ex-member of the Guatemalan special forces known as the Kaibiles, was arrested in Lethbridge, Alberta on January 18, 2011. He was detained at the request of the United States, who may solicit his extradition to face charges of immigration fraud.

If proven guilty of having lied about his role in the Guatemalan military on his US application for naturalization, Sosa Orantes could face up to ten years in prison in the United States. Meanwhile, human rights groups in Canada and Guatemala are petitioning the Canadian courts to try him for war crimes.

Sosa Orantes has been implicated in the planning and execution of the massacre at Las Dos Erres, in the northern department of Petén, where at least 252 unarmed civilians were systematically killed on December 6, 1982. This massacre was carried out in much the same manner as the more than 650 massacres committed by the Guatemalan military during the country’s 36-year internal armed conflict, which included widespread rape, torture and the mass killing of men, women and children, who were mostly Mayan.

According to Aura Elena Farfan from the Association for the Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Guatemala (FAMDEGUA)—the plaintiff organization that since 2000 has been bringing forward a case against Sosa Orantes and 16 other ex-kaibiles implicated in the massacre—it is important that he is tried for the more serious crimes against humanity, rather than the lie he told US immigration officials.

“Of course that lie is important,” says Farfan. “But for there to be justice, it is important that he is not only judged for that lie, but for the serious violation of human rights in Guatemala.”

Even with an unprecedented amount of evidence, including survivor testimonies, exhumation records, and the testimony of a repentant ex-kaibil who took part in the massacre, Farfan does not believe the justice FAMDEGUA seeks is possible in Guatemala.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has found the Guatemalan government unwilling to live up to its judicial responsibilities to investigate and successfully prosecute those responsible for the massacre. The country is still characterized by widespread violence, while many of the intellectual and material authors—those who planned and those who carried out the massacres—retain high positions of political power in the current government and military.

Even though the Guatemalan Supreme Court issued arrest warrants in 2010 for the 17 ex-kaibiles implicated in the massacre, Farfan believes this case is stuck in impunity. “It needs to be heard in a place where there does not exist the same danger of being bought off.” Such bribery, says Farfan “is likely to happen in Guatemala.”

Matt Eisenbrant from the Canadian Centre for International Justice (CCIJ) has called on the Canadian government to launch a full criminal investigation against Sosa Orantes.

“Usually, a trial in the place where the abuses occurred is preferable,” he says. “This should only be done, however, if all due-process guarantees can be protected and there are assurances that a fair trial can proceed without being tainted by outside influences.” The CCIJ is calling on the Canadian government to ensure that Sosa Orantes will be held fully accountable by conducting its own criminal investigation into possible war-crime charges, taking this into account when considering the extradition requests.

Legal support for the case first surfaced in 1994, after FAMDEGUA officially received an exhumation request from three families from the area. Within a year, anthropologists had found 162 complete skeletons in a 12-metre grave, 67 of which were from children under age 12.

According to a report released by Amnesty International in 2002, the findings of the exhumation matched up with survivors’ testimonies about the massacre; it involved first the mass and repeated rape of the women and young girls, followed by the killing of the children and then the women, many of whom were pregnant. The men were killed last. Anthropologists’ reports reveal that most of the victims were killed by a blunt object to the back of the head, after which they were thrown into the mass grave.

Both witnesses and FAMDEGUA have received numerous threats for bringing this case forward. Still visibly affected by the case, Farfan says that “[Sosa Orantes] did not have compassion for the victims who were asking not to be killed, not to be tortured.” She expresses the weight of the blood that was spilled in Guatemala, stating that the bodies of the young children and pregnant women should tip the scales of justice further than the lie Sosa Orantes told to gain US citizenship.

“If victims are to be satisfied and if we are to provide deterrence against such abuses happening in the future, perpetrators must be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible,” says Eisenhart.

Sosa Orantes was denied bail on March 9, 2011, by Albertan judge Suzanne Bensler who deemed him too much of a flight risk. His next court appearance is scheduled for April 20, 2011.

Valerie Croft is living in Guatemala, completing a CIDA internship with CEIBA - a Guatemalan environmental advocacy organization that works on issues related to climate justice, food sovereignty, and the defense of territory.

Update from CCDA by Rebecca MacDonald

2011-03-17T11:22:00.001-07:00

Rebecca MacDonald is a current Breaking the Silence intern with the Highlands Small Farmer's Committee (CCDA) in Colonia Santa Cruz Quixaya, in Guatemala.

During my time so far with the CCDA, I have had the great privilege of participating in various CCDA workshops, hearing from campesinos and campesinas about the day to day struggles of life in Guatemala. One woman spoke of the devastation of Agatha in June 2010, lamenting the fact that many people's homes are still without roofs. Numerous families were left without homes as a result of this storm, or tormenta as it is called here; of the people who are lucky enough to own a piece of land to plant on, the majority of their crops were washed away. This has already affected food prices around the country, particularly here in the region where I am living. As we go further into the dry season, which runs from late November to April, food scarcity will become a major issue; indeed already the price of the basic food basket (a grouping of the most basic foodstuffs, clothes and consumer goods per month necessary to survive) has begun to rise.

One of the most disheartening factors with this issue is the fact that many campesino families do not have land to plant on in the first place. It is the same issue that has plagued Guatemala since the Spanish invasion centuries ago; during the 1870s, the government began expropriating Mayan communal lands and selling them off to foreign investors, eager to cash in on the growing global coffee industry. This accumulation of vast tracts of land in the hands of the few is also known as the latifundia system; in Latin America in the 1960s, latifundistas (large landowners) made up about 5 percent of the population and held 80 percent of land. Minifundistas (small landowners) made up about 80 percent of the population but only owned about 5 percent of land. Around one third of the agricultural labour force was landless in this period, and the majority of minifundistas and the landless worked in latifundia as permanent or seasonal workers (1).

This is only one of the multitude of factors that has led to and maintained the huge gap in land ownership in this country: the latifundia (finca) system, the armed conflict, and structural issues built into past and current government systems have all helped to maintain the majority of the land in Guatemala in very few hands. According to the Land Research Action Network, less than 1% of landowners hold 75% of the best agricultural land (2). This land is mainly used in the latifundia system - huge tracts of land which are used to cultivate a single crop, such as sugar cane. You can drive for hours near the west coast and see nothing but vast fields of sugar cane, and these crops are mainly for export. This all maintains a status quo, allowing the dominant land-owning minority of the population to maintain their status while, according to the United Nations Development Program report released last month, 50% of the population suffers from chronic malnutrition (3). The introduction of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), signed in 2005, has only aggravated the issue of malnutrition, driving the price of basic grains up and in doing so affecting food security; Guatemala was once known as the "granary of Central America", but now, because of reductions in tariffs, the market has been flooded with subsidized food crops from the north and cheaper imports. This has led to a significant increase in the price of corn, a staple in the diet of the majority of Guatemalans (4). Furthermore, it has concreted the power of large landowners through facilitating exports of large-scale crops (5), excluding from the process small producers.

One of the major factors that led to the 36 year civil war in Guatemala was the issue of land ownership. Many Guatemalans remember fondly the "ten years of spring", from 1944 to 1954, during which the government of Jacobo Arbenz set in motion major land reforms aimed at decreasing the gap in land ownership in Guatemala. Elected in 1951, he redistributed land to 100,000 peasant families within 18 months of his inauguration (6). As Indigenous peoples and peasants had been forced off of their lands en masse since the Spanish invasion, increasing the land ownership gap, these land reforms were urgently needed. But Arbenz became a threat to the latifundistas, and in 1954 a US-supported military coup removed Arbenz from rule, sending him into exile and forcing the recipients of expropriated land off of what had become the beginning of a livelihood, reinstating the latifundia system, and effectively sending the country spiralling into a civil war that would last 36 years. At the beginning of the civil war, when peasants and indigenous peoples who owned land tried to defend it, they were faced with tremendous oppression. Hundreds of thousands of mainly indigenous peoples were tortured, killed, or disappeared for defending their lands, or simply for being a part of an indigenous community during this war.

In 1996, when the Peace Accords were finally signed, two separate accords, the Agreement on Identity and Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Agreement on Social and Economic Aspects and the Agrarian Situation put responsibility on the government to either restore or pay compensation for land taken from indigenous peoples, as well as to provide land access to small-scale farmers. Sadly, almost 15 years later, the issue of land ownership has not been properly addressed, and the gap in land ownership has not decreased by any significant amount.

Although this powerful landowning minority holds sway over many government decisions (evident in the power held by CACIF, the Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Comercial, Industrial and Financial Associations), the CCDA, along with a number of other peasant organizations, have been working diligently for ten years to address this land gap with proposed Bill 40-84, the Integral Rural Development Law. This law has as its main subjects rural populations living in poverty and extreme poverty, indigenous and peasant peoples with little or no land, indigenous and peasant women, day labourers, small producers and small business owners. Some of the major reforms outlined in the policies of this bill are the reform of land ownership and land use, guarantees for technical and financial assistance to increase rural production, guarantees of basic social services, the assurance of labor benefits, iniciatives to combat malnutrition by means of food sovereignty iniciatives, and actions to protect and improve the environment. These are a few of many iniciatives contained in the law, but even these few points would make a huge difference to the 43 percent of children under 5 who suffer from malnutrition, or the 70 percent of indigenous labourers who are paid under minimum wage (7).

The current government clearly favours the corporate citizens of the country, exporters of coffee, sugar and fruit, for example. These companies have bulging profit margins, as the entire system of production is based on wage slavery. In a country where the minimum wage doesn't even cover the basic food basket, those working for under minimum wage have few options; the government does nothing to monitor wage standards, and anyone speaking up for their labour rights is sure to find out just how expendable they are to the finca owner. The government hides from these problems of labour and hunger behind Mi Familia Progresa, a program that provides "solidarity bags" of food, "solidarity foodbanks" and scholarships to children in poor families. What this program does not address is the underlying problem of land ownership and unchecked labour violations, attempting to put a bandaid on a grave flesh wound. Furthermore, the president's wife is the coordinator of the program, and it is widely seen as a tactic to get her elected in the upcoming presidential elections.

Attacking the structural issues of endemic poverty, malnourishment, labour issues and rampant violence within the country cannot be accomplished within a government corrupted by business interests; what is needed is a redistribution of land, as mandated in Bill 4084; despite the fact that the majority of Guatemalans practice subsistence agriculture on little or inadecuate land, they still produce 80 percent of the food consumed in the country, and even with what they are able to produce the majority are barely surviving (8). The sad truth is that without land it is impossible to produce - with fair land distribution, the structural problems of hunger would begin to improve, and the surplus of the harvests to come would begin to put and end to the cycles of poverty, slavery, and malnourishment, perhaps allowing for a child to attend school, instead of working with their parents in the finca to help feed the rest of the family.

(1) Griffin, Khan and Ickowitz. "Poverty and the Distribution of Land". Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol. 2 No. 3, July 2002, p. 295.
(2) http://www.landaction.org/display.php?article=54
(3) http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/national/latinamericathecaribbean/guatemala/name,20685,en.html
(4) Guatemalan Human Rights Commission Factsheet on Neoliberalism. http://www.ghrc-usa.org/Programs/Immigration_Trade/factsheet_neoliberalism.pdf
(5) "CAFTA Impacts Year Two" - Stop CAFTA Coaliton Report - DR-CAFTA's Impact on the Guatemalan Agricultural and Food Sector, Susan Gauster, 2007
(6) Gleijeses. "The Agrarian Reform of Jacobo Arbenz". Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 21 No 3, Oct. 1989, p. 453.
(7) http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/national/latinamericathecaribbean/guatemala/name,20685,en.html
(8) "El Comercio Justo Plus: Un Aporte a la Economia Campesina en Resistencia al T.L.C", CCDA, October 2008

Violent (& Deadly) Evictions of Campesino & Mayan Qeqchi Communities

2011-03-17T08:42:00.000-07:00

From Rights Action www.rightsaction.org:

IN MEMORY OF ANTONIO BEB AC, ...

... one more Mayan campesino assassinated by wealthy land-owners who exploit slave-like labor and the best lands to produce sugar and African Palm Oil for export.

(Antonio Beb Ac, killed March 15, 2011, during the illegal, violent eviction of the Miralvalle community)

On March 15, 2011, hundreds of Guatemalan police, soldiers and armed civilians (hired by the self-claimed landowner, the Widmann family, owner of the Chabil Utzaj sugar refinery) carried out violent, illegal evictions of the Agua Caliente and Miralvalle communties of poor Mayan Qeqchi villagers, in the Polochic Valley, department of Alta Verapaz.

These violent evictions, and this most recent killing, were not 'an accident', not 'a crisis', not 'a tragedy'. Systemic repression against, and violent evictions of poor, landless campesinos is how "free trade" and the global "development" model works in Guatemala.

This is the global "free trade" economic model supported by the Guatemalan regime and the governments of Canada and the USA, that benefits global corporations and investors, and consumers of sugar products and African Palm tree products (cooking oils, soaps, bio-diesel fuels).

(Soldiers and police, by the Agua Caliente community)

(Tear gas being fired in Agua Caliente)

(Company tractors destroying corn and bean crops, in Agua Caliente. This is a brutal way of further repressing and indeed starving impoverished communities by destroying their subsistence and survival crops)

* * *

We will provide more analyisis and information, in the near future, about this most recent example of State repression on behalf of the economic interests of the wealthy elites in the export sector, at the expense of the rights and development needs of a majority of the Guatemalan population.

HUMANITARIAN RELEIF FUNDS NEEDED

Rights Action is again sending emergency funds to victims of repression in Guatemala and Honduras, this time to the Polochic Valley region to help the hundreds of families from Miralvalle and Agua Caliente now left homeless and without their corn and bean survival crops.

To help homeless and landless families forcibly evicted in the Polochic Valley, make tax-deductible check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to:

CANADA: 552 - 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8

UNITED STATES: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887

CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: Go to www.rightsaction.org, or directly to: http://rightsaction.org/contributions.htm

DONATION OF STOCK?: Contact Grahame Russell, info@rightsaction.org

SEND COPIES OF THIS REPORT

To your own government officials and elected politicians in Canada and the USA, reminding them - again and again - that this is how the "free trade" model works in places like Guatemala.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Luis Solano, a Guatemalan economist and journalist, and analyst with the El Observador/Guatemala: luisesolano@yahoo.com
Rights Action: Annie Bird (annie@rightsaction.org) and Grahame Russell (info@rightsaction.org)

Thank-you for your continued support for these hard and amazing struggles and for your activism.

info@rightsaction.org / www.rightsaction.org

* Please re-publish this information, citing author and source

Tribute to Roberto Miranda on CKCU

2011-03-15T12:11:00.000-07:00

http://education-in-action.squarespace.com/

Anne Roy would like to share some words:
Please join me now and take a moment to pray for Roberto, Yolanda, Daniel and Flor, and hold them in your thoughts as we remember Roberto for his strength, courage, wisdom, love for all People and his strong vision for a better world.

"He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man." — Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Peace, Prayers and Blessings

If you wish to post a comment about Roberto, click HERE.

Anexo audio Saludo de condolencia CHHA para familia Miranda

If you wish to make a donation to Education in Action, please make cheque payable to "Education in Action" and mail to

Education in Action
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Gatineau, QC
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J8Y 3A8

Thank you for your support,
The Education in Action executives.

Guatemala Must Act to Stop the Killing of Women

2011-03-07T20:03:00.000-08:00

From Amnesty International:

7 March 2011

Amnesty International today urged the Guatemalan authorities to act to stop the high numbers of women being killed across the country and ensure perpetrators are brought to justice, ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March.

According to official figures, 685 women were killed in 2010 alone in Guatemala amid a culture of impunity, a legacy of the 1960-96 internal armed conflict which led to hundreds of thousands human rights violations which remain unaccounted for.

“Women in Guatemala are dying as a consequence of the State's failure to protect them," said Sebastian Elgueta, Guatemala researcher at Amnesty International.

"High levels of violence and a lack of political will along with a track record of impunity, mean authorities are both unable to pursue perpetrators, or just don't care. Perpetrators know they will not be punished."

"This culture of violence and impunity must end and women's human rights be respected and protected.

“Passing laws is not enough. The government must initiate effective investigations into killings, improve police training and ensure prosecutions are effective.”

Less than 4% of all homicide cases result in perpetrators being convicted, despite the Guatemalan congress passing a law in 2008 that typified various crimes of violence against women and established special tribunals and sentencing guidelines.

The gender of the woman is often a determining factor in the motive of the crime, the way in which the authorities respond to the case and the way women are killed (female victims often suffering exceptional brutality before being killed, including rape, mutilation and dismemberment).

Described by the UN as witnessing genocide, Guatemala's internal armed conflict left 200,000 people dead.

Systematic human rights violations, including targeted sexual violence against women, committed by State forces were not properly investigated and perpetrators never held to account, encouraging a climate of impunity and indifference to violent crime that continues to blight Guatemalan society.

In December 2009, 22-year-old domestic worker Mindi Rodas, was violently attacked by her husband, who seriously injured her face. The man was charged and sentenced but not sent to jail.

With the help of local organizations, Rodas was given assistance in Mexico to obtain surgery and later moved to a women’s shelter in Guatemala.

In July 2010, Rodas left the shelter because she wanted to live closer to her community. A few months later, on 17 January 2011, her relatives were informed her dead body had been found by the authorities in the capital on 18 December.

The authorities have not as yet initiated an effective investigation into her killing.

In another case, 15-year old Maria Isabel Franco was raped and brutally killed in December 2001.

Her mother, Rosa Franco has been fighting for justice ever since, but the Guatemalan authorities have not brought the perpetrators to justice.

Rosa has faced death threats and harassment by unknown individuals in the struggle to find those responsible for her daughter’s killing,

In October 2006, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights admitted the case on the grounds of unjustified delay in the investigation by the Guatemalan State.

The case is now pending before the Commission: the Guatemalan authorities have been slow in responding to the Commission’s request for information.

AI Urgent Action: Guatemala - Mine Activists Beaten and Threatened

2011-03-05T18:12:00.000-08:00

From Amnesty International:

On 28 February, protesters against the Marlin Mine in south-western Guatemala were attacked. One protester, Aniceto López, was taken to the office of the local mayor, where he was allegedly beaten and threatened with death for speaking out against the mine.

On 28 February, 200 members of the communities of San Miguel Ixtahuacán municipality were protesting against the Guatemalan state's failure to suspend extraction activities in the Marlin mine. The mine is located in the San Miguel Ixtahuacán municipality, in the San Marcos department of south-western Guatemala. Activities have continued at the Marlin Mine, owned by Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, S.A., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Goldcorp, despite an order from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) that activities be suspended until the effects of the mine on local indigenous communities are properly assessed.

The protests, organized by the Front in Defense of San Miguel Ixtahuacán (FREDEMI), lasted around 12 hours. When the protesters left, the bus they were travelling in was stopped and the protesters were forced to get off the bus and were beaten and robbed. Some protesters were taken from the group and attacked individually. Miguel Bamacá, who the IACHR has already requested the Guatemalan government protects, and Aniceto López were singled out. Aniceto López was reportedly taken to the office of the local mayor where he was beaten in the face, robbed of his documents and possessions, and threatened with death. Others were seriously injured, such as Fredy González, who was hospitalized due to an injury caused by being hit by a firearm.

Miguel Bámaca and Aniceto López were released later that evening, seriously injured, and are in fear for their safety and the safety of their families. The Ministry of the Interior has already been asked to ensure that the Police protect these individuals.

PLEASE ACT QUICKLY.

* Call for an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into the threats and attacks on Aniceto López and Miguel Bámaca, with the results made public and those responsible brought to justice.

* Urge the authorities to take immediate steps to provide appropriate protection to members of the 18 Mayan communities who were granted protective measures by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and to activists working on alleged human rights violations as a result of mining operations.

* Urge them to comply with the precautionary measures ordered by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to suspend activities in the Marlin mine.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS TO:

Attorney General:

Licda. Claudia Paz y paz Bailey

Fiscal General de la República y Jefa del Ministerio Público

8ª Avenida 10-67, Zona 1

Antiguo Edificio del Banco de los Trabajadores

Ciudad de Guatemala, GUATEMALA

Fax: 011 502 2411 9124

Salutation: Dear Attorney General / Estimada Sra. Fiscal General

Minister of the Interior:

Lic. Carlos Menocal

Ministro de Gobernación

6ª Avenida 13-71, Zona 1

Ciudad de Guatemala, GUATEMALA

Fax: 011 502 2413 8658

Salutation: Dear Minister / Estimado Sr. Ministro

AND COPIES TO:

His Excellency Georges de la Roche Plihal

Ambassador for the Republic of Guatemala

130 Albert Street, Suite 1010

Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5G4

Fax: (613) 233-0135

Email : consular@embaguate-canada.com

UDEFEGUA

1 Calle 7-45 Zona 1

Oficina 2-b

Ciudad de Guatemala, GUATEMALA

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The request for precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on 20 May 2010 asked that the Guatemalan government suspend operation of the Marlin mine, owned by Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, S.A., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Goldcorp, and implement measures to prevent environmental contamination until the IACHR reaches a final decision on the petition presented by the communities to the IACHR. The IACHR also requested that the Guatemalan government take any necessary measures to guarantee the life and physical integrity of the members of the 18 Indigenous communities.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of Indigenous People (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/indigenous/rapporteur/) visited Guatemala from 14-18 June 2010 in order to analyze the application of the principles of consultation with Indigenous Peoples in Guatemala, in particular with relation to extractive industries, and with a special focus on the situation of Indigenous Peoples living near to the mining operations in San Miguel Ixtahuacán and Sipacapa. At the end of his visit, the Special Rapporteur stated that he had received allegations that on many occasions the Guatemalan government had granted licenses for the exploitation of natural resources in Indigenous territories without the necessary consultations with local Indigenous Peoples. He added that he had received testimonies alleging that there had been harassment and attacks against community leaders, and that the testimonies imply that the security forces and private companies could be behind such incidents.

On 23 June 2010, the Guatemalan government announced that they would comply with the IACHR request to suspend the mining company's operations, but added the next day that this would take some time as legal and administrative processes would have to be followed. The mining company's operations continue to date.

The defense of human rights is a legitimate activity, fundamental for the advancement of human rights for all. The authorities in Guatemala have demonstrated an unjustified delay in adopting and implementing a Program of Protection for human rights defenders at risk and a Protocol of Investigation for cases of abuses against them. It is essential that the Guatemalan authorities take seriously their responsibility to ensure that human rights defenders are effectively protected so that they can carry out their work safely and free from fear, as established in the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the Organization of the United Nations in 1998. (See Public Statement Index Number: AMR 34/005/2010 and open letter to the President of Guatemala Index Number: AMR 34/004/2010: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR34/005/2010/es and http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR34/004/2010/es )

The Front for the Defence of San Miguel is an alliance of diverse communities and organizations that resist the extractive work of the Marlin Mine. The Front aims to carry out legal and resistance actions around the mining activity in San Miguel Ixtahuacán. The Front represents the people that presented the petition to the IACHR.

Adolfo Ich and Canada's HudBay Minerals

2011-03-01T15:11:00.001-08:00

By Project Accompaniment Quebec Guatemala

The extractive industry in Guatemala has long been a source of controversy and the role of Canadian companies in the ongoing situation is widely known. Canadian companies in the region are numerous, from Goldcorp's Marlin mine, to iron exploration on the southern coast by G4G Resources, to the work-in-progress silver mine near San Rafael de las Flores by Tahoe Resources. Questions of indigenous autonomy, land rights, environmental effects and community conflict surround nearly every mining project in the country.

It is Canadian company HudBay Minerals in the municipality of El Estor, department of Izabal however that is the source of the latest development in the ongoing story of the mining industry in Guatemala. On December 1st of last year, Angelica Choc, the wife of murdered indigenous leader Adolfo Ich Chamán filed a lawsuit in a Toronto court against HudBay Minerals seeking general and punitive damages in the amount of $12 million for the death of her husband. The civil suit which is being represented by Toronto's Klippensteins, Barristers & Solicitors alleges that wrongful actions and omissions by HudBay Minerals and its Guatemalan subsidiary Compania Guatemalteca de Niquel (CGN) led to Adolfo Ich's death on September 27, 2009. The company has denied involvement in the death but has insisted that they are cooperating fully with the investigation in order to apprehend those responsible.

Since the 1960s the Canadian mining industry has been active in the El Estor region when Inco was first granted nickel mining rights to the area. But there has been conflict over land ownership since the beginning, with local indigenous communities expressing outrage over claims by the Guatemalan government and Canadian companies that the lands they are living on do not belong to them. Although the evictions began in the 1960s with the opening of the mine, more recently in 2006 and 2007 Skye Resources (now HMI Nickel Inc., a Canadian shell company and subsidiary of HudBay) was accused in conjunction with Guatemalan police and military forces of having evicted hundreds of indigenous peasants from a number of communities in the El Estor region. Homes were burned during the evictions and in one community there are allegations of gang rape by the governmental and private security forces.

Whether the company owns legal title to the lands also remains unclear but according to a 2007 report by the UN's International Labour Organization (ILO) the Guatemalan government had broken international law by granting Skye Resources their mining rights to the area in the first place, without first consulting the local population (a violation of the ILO's convention 169, concerning indigenous and tribal peoples in independent countries). Despite the ruling however, government forces have continued to pressure local communities to leave the lands in question in order to open them up for mining activities.

The current court case however focuses solely on events that occurred on Sunday, September 27, 2009. According to reports, the governor of the department of Izabal, Luz Maribel Ramos, accompanied by members of the National Civilian Police and members of a private security company employed by CGN arrived in the community of Las Nubes that day. Residents claim that despite the lack of any legal documentation or an eviction order, they insisted that the families leave the community immediately. Company officials say that the governor had arrived only to dialogue with the community about how to resolve their illegal occupation of the lands. Regardless of intent, the presence of the officials resulted in protests by members of neighbouring communities in El Estor in favour of their land rights and against the public officials and security personnel.

Adolfo Ich, a well-known teacher and community leader from the neighbouring community of La Union, was already known to the government authorities and to CGN as approximately two weeks earlier he had organized a meeting between municipal, departmental, and national governments with local communities in El Estor to discuss their land rights. When in the afternoon gunshots were heard coming from a CGN-owned building close to his home, Adolfo Ich went to investigate and tell those nearby to evacuate the area, including several children. On arrival he was recognized as a community leader by the head of security for CGN, Mynor Padilla. Padilla said they'd been looking for him and invited him to come and talk with them in order to restore calm. Witnesses then allege that as Adolfo Ich approached the security forces several grabbed him and started beating him, while others attacked him with machetes. Following that, they allege that Mynor Padilla approached and shot him in the head at close range. He later died of his wounds. Seven other members of the neighbouring communities were also injured by gunfire that day and the following day as they drove to denounce the situation in Coban, some seriously.

According to Sergio Belteton, lawyer with the Comite de Unidad Campesina (CUC) and Angelica Choc's legal representative in Guatemala, an official from the public prosecutor's office arrived in the community the day after the death. Following the investigation, in December 2009 an arrest warrant was issued for Mynor Padilla. However despite five material witnesses to the crime and the outstanding arrest warrant, not only is Padilla still free but he remains employed by CGN. Sadly, this is an all-too-common occurrence in Guatemala where the impunity rate for crime is a staggering 98% according to the UN appointed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). In a country where only 2% of crimes even make it to court it is not surprising that the Ich/Choc family has been forced to seek an alternative venue for justice in the death of Adolfo Ich.

While the lawyers from Klippensteins hope that this will be a precedent-setting legal case for Canada, the events underline the pressing need for Canadian legislation to monitor and regulate the activities of Canadian corporations operating in countries where the existing legal framework may be incapable of bringing justice to victims of abuse. They expect the case to take years to make its way through the courts and in the meantime there is still no effective means for affected communities in developing countries to make their voices heard when their rights are put at risk.

With the narrow defeat in the fall of John McKay's Bill C-300, which would have provided a forum for foreign citizens to bring claims against Canadian extractive companies for abuses committed in the host country, attention is now passing to Peter Julian's Bill C-354. The aim of this bill is to hold all Canadian-based companies accountable for human rights violations, regardless of where they occur. However just as there was significant opposition from mining industry representatives to Bill C-300, there will surely be opposition to Bill C-354. The industry insists that corporate social responsibility initiatives are the way to achieve justice and respect for human rights in foreign countries, a claim which remains hotly contested by the proponents of government-imposed legal measures.

It remains to be seen what will come of the Adolfo Ich case in Toronto courts. HudBay's response to the suit has been to request that the Ontario courts have the case transferred to Guatemala. However with the endemic problems in Guatemala's judicial system and the stagnation of the existing legal case there, it is a near certainty that if the Ontario courts agree to transfer the case it will mark its end. In the meantime, HudBay and CGN will continue towards establishing their nickel mining presence in the area.

For more information, visit the website set up by Klippensteins regarding the case:
www.chocversushudbay.com

Life at Risk following Protest of Marlin Mine

2011-02-28T19:38:00.000-08:00

Guatemala 28 February 2011

The Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala

Collectif Guatemala

Breaking the Silence

Rights Action

URGENT CONCERN FOR SAFETY OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS OF SAN MIGUEL IXTAHUACÁN FOLLOWING PEACEFUL PROTESTS

We denounce the human rights violations and abuses committed today against peaceful protesters in San Miguel Ixtahuacán, Guatemala. The protest, demanding compliance with precautionary measures ordered by the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights regarding the Marlin mine, took place without incident during the day. In late afternoon, participants returning from the peaceful roadblocks were reportedly confronted and attacked by community development council (COCODE) members and mine workers in San José Ixcaniche.

According to participants in the protest, Miguel Angel Bámaca and Aniseto López were beaten and threatened with lynching; one bus including approximately 40 men and women have been illegally detained and some beaten in the community of San José Ixcaniche. As this alert is being written, they remain detained. We are deeply concerned that the lives of human rights defenders are at risk.

Contact has been established with the local Human Rights Procurator's (PDH) office, the local Presidential Commission for Defense of Human Rights (COPREDEH) and police, as well as national and international organizations to report these acts.

We ask you to stay alert and be ready to respond when more information and action requests are available from local organizations supporting communities resisting unjust mining in Guatemala.

In solidarity,

Francois Guindon - pancho@nisgua.org - +502 4014 7804

The Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala, USA

Cynthia Benoist - collectifguatemala3@gmail.com

Collectif Guatemala, France

Jackie McVicar - jmcvicar@gmail.com

Breaking the Silence, Canada

Grahame Russell - info@rightsaction.org - +502 4955 3634

Rights Action, Canada/USA

Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes and the Las Dos Erres Massacre

2011-02-20T20:18:00.001-08:00

On February 23, Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes will have a bail hearing in a Calgary court. Captured in Lethbridge, Alberta in January, 2011 Sosa Orantes is facing possible extradition to the USA where an indictment there alleges that he participated in carrying out a massacre in the community of Las Dos Erres during Guatemala's 36 year Internal Armed Conflict. He faces charges in the USA of lying on citizenship forms about his role with the Guatemalan military. Canada has a responsibility in this case to ensure that Sosa Orantes is not released on bail, nor extradited to the USA where he will be tried for lesser crimes.

Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes is one of 17 former Kaibiles, a Special Forces unit of the Guatemalan army, charged in relation to the Las Dos Erres massacre. On December 6, 1982, at least 252 unarmed civilians were systematically tortured and killed in the community of Las Dos Erres, in northern Guatemala. Only two children survived. In the years since the massacre, family members of the victims have sought justice, despite many obstacles and threats. The facts of the case are corroborated by the two surviving eyewitnesses, as well as by declassified documents from the US Embassy and evidence unearthed in two exhumations of the remains of the victims. Sosa Orantes is named as one of those who planned the massacre in the testimony of other Kaibiles tried in the case.

The Association for the Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Guatemala (FAMDEGUA) is plaintiff in the case against the Kaibiles and has been providing legal support for the case since investigations began in 1994. In 2000, the legal case against the 17 former Kaibiles was launched. Since then, 45 injunctions have been put forward by the defendants. There have also been numerous threats made against the staff of FAMDEGUA. In 2009, the OAS Inter-American Court on Human Rights ruled that the State of Guatemala was guilty of impeding justice in this case, and in 2010 the Guatemalan Supreme Court of Justice issued arrest warrants for the 17 men charged. Three of them were arrested and are being tried in Guatemala. Three others were arrested for immigration fraud in the United States, for lying on their immigration applications and for committing crimes for which they have not been tried. In 2010, one was convicted, and sentenced to 10 years in prison (the maximum possible sentence). The other two await trial in the United States, though the Guatemalan Attorney General has requested their extradition.

Sosa Orantes is also wanted for immigration fraud in the United States, but fled to Mexico before being captured. In October 2010, the RCMP alerted police in Lethbridge that Sosa Orantes might try to contact family living there. In January 2011, Sosa Orantes left Mexico for Canada and was arrested in Lethbridge on January 18. The United States has requested his detention in anticipation of possible extradition on charges of immigration fraud. He holds Canadian, American, and Guatemalan citizenship.

Sosa Orantes could be investigated here in Canada for crimes against humanity. He also faces charges in Guatemala for crimes against humanity, and his participation in the Las Dos Erres massacre could implicate him in the Guatemala genocide case in Spain. These countries may also seek extradition orders. These cases are at a critical juncture, and it is possible that the family members of those who were tortured and killed in the Las Dos Erres massacre may finally see justice, if Sosa Orantes and others are tried for the participation in the planning and execution of the massacre.

There are strong allegations that Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes was involved in the massacre in Las Dos Erres. He must not be released on bail, nor extradited to the United States where he will be tried for lesser crimes. Families of the victims as well as Guatemalan and international organizations are calling on the Canadian government to ensure that he is tried for the crimes that he has allegedly committed.

For more information see the Canadian Centre for International Justice website: http://www.ccij.ca/programs/cases/index.php?WEBYEP_DI=16

Guatemalan widow's lawsuit against HudBay could be precedent setting

2011-02-18T18:02:00.000-08:00

Guatemalan widow's lawsuit against HudBay could be precedent setting

By Matthew Hill, 18th February 2011 http://www.miningweekly.com/article/guatemalan-widows-lawsuit-against-hudbay-could-be-precedent-setting-2011-02-18

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) - The trial of a Guatemalan woman who is suing Canadian miner HudBay Minerals for C$12-million in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice for the death of her husband in 2009 is "probably years away", Angelica Choc's lawyer said on Thursday.

Choc, represented by Toronto law firm Klippensteins, claimed in court papers (court file number CV-10411159) that security forces under a HudBay Guatemalan subsidiary's employ "hacked and shot to death" her husband Adolfo Ich Chamán, who she said was an outspoken critic of the company in El Estor, located in the east of the Central American country.

TSX-listed HudBay bought a nickel project there in 2008, but slowed work on the mine in November that year because of market conditions at the time.

Ich Chamán died in the wake of a spate of community protests around the mine, called the Fenix project, in 2009. Choc alleged that CGN's then head of security CGN Mynor Ronaldo Padilla Gonzáles shot an unarmed Ich Chamán in the head at close range, citing eyewitnesses. She claimed the parent company, HudBay, failed in its duties.

HudBay, represented by Fasken Martineau Dumoulin, disputes this, saying it is confident CGN and its employees were not involved in Ich Chamán's death, based on its own investigations and eye witness reports.

Guatemala has since issued an arrest warrant for Padilla, though Choc's lawyers claimed he is still at large.

HudBay investor relations and corporate communications VP John Vincic said in reply to emailed questions that Padilla is on paid leave from CGN as there is "the presumption of innocence". "He is not operating in any capacity for the company at this time," he said.

An obstacle Choc has to overcome for the trial to be heard in Canada is convincing a judge that an Ontario courtroom is the suitable location the litigation to take place.

FORUM NON CONVENIENS

For the case to proceed in Ontario, Choc would have to prove that it is the most suitable jurisdiction. University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law assistant professor Sara Seck said on Friday Canadian courts have been reluctant to hear cases in which the defendant is a Canadian parent company and the alleged harm took place in another country, but that the legal landscape is changing on forum non conveniens.

"A case like this has never been heard in a Canadian court... It will be a very interesting case to follow," she said.

Forum non conveniens is a legal doctrine that states a court can dismiss a case if it finds it is not the most suitable jurisdiction for it to be tried. Cases have been brought by foreign citizens against Canadian companies in Canada for their actions elsewhere, but none have made it to trial yet. "It seems increasingly likely that such a case will be heard here," Seck said, adding that it was not guaranteed.

University of Ottawa faculty of law associate professor Penelope Simons agreed. She said there were a number of cases that foreigners had brought against Canadian companies over the past few years, and that "one of these cases will definitely get through" to trial. "The landscape is changing - there is a lot of awareness and a lot of concern around these issues. The courts are more knowledgeable now of them now," said Simons.

HudBay's Vincic said a case regarding Ich Chamán's death was currently before the court in Guatemala, and that "CGN has cooperated fully with the Guatemalan authorities and we intend to continue doing so until the investigations conclude".

PIERCING THE CORPORATE VEIL

Choc also argued that, through HMI Nickel, HudBay indirectly owns 98,2% of the shares of CGN, with the Guatemalan government holding the remainder, and that the Toronto-based parent company financed and supervised the Fenix security forces at all material times.

Piercing the corporate veil is a legal term, where a court can in exceptional circumstances hold the directors or shareholders of a company accountable for the corporation's actions.

"It is in the interests of justice to pierce the corporate veil and to impose liability for battery, wrongful imprisonment and wrongful death directly against the parent corporation, HudBay Minerals," Choc said in her statement of claim.

Klippensteins lawyer Murray Klippenstein said there was "no chance" of Choc getting a fair trial in Guatemala, citing a United Nations Special Rapporteur that said in February 2009 there is "a general climate of impunity" in the country, with only four out of every 100 crimes ending up before the courts.

Asked to comment on this Vincic said: "Our experience in this case is different from the perspective expressed in your quote. This case is currently before the courts in Guatemala and investigations are ongoing. From the outset, CGN has cooperated fully with the Guatemalan authorities and we intend to continue doing so until the investigations conclude."

"To say that Angelica can participate in the Guatemala case is offering a flimflam excuse, because the Guatemala justice system is so dysfunctional," said Klippenstein, who made headlines last year as one of the lawyers leading a C$45-million class action against the Toronto Police Services Board and the Attorney-General of Canada for the arrest of protestors at the G20 summit in Toronto.

Vincic said: "It should also be noted that Angelica Choc has been participating actively in these court proceedings and investigations in Guatemala."

"The Canadian legal system allows for the creation of artificial foreign-based subsidiaries and traditionally doesn't hold the parent accountable for their actions. That all too easily becomes a strategy for avoiding accountability where the actual control resides with the parent," said Klippenstein.

CANADIAN ACCOUNTABILITY

Human rights group Rights Action claimed earlier this month that Canadian mining companies are not held accountable for their actions in other countries.

Last year, Canadian lawmakers voted against proposed legislation that would block access to government funds for companies found guilty of human rights abuses.

Industry organisations such as the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada and the Mining Association of Canada fiercely opposed Bill C-300, which they argued would open the way for parties to make "vexatious" claims against resource companies. The proposed legislation was defeated in a vote of 140 to 134 in the Canadian House of Commons in October.

National Democratic Party Member of Parliament Peter Julian has been trying to muster support for his Bill C-354, based on the US Alien Tort Claims Statute, which would allow foreign citizens to sue Canadian companies for human rights or environmental violations.

FENIX

The Fenix operation, on care and maintenance since 1980, is the subject of a feasibility study, which HudBay said last year it aimed to publish along with its financial results, scheduled for March 10. HudBay had estimated Fenix, which it acquired with Skye resources in 2008, would cost $1-billion to build. The operation has been on care and maintenance since 2008.

"The updated feasibility study for the Fenix project is substantially complete, and we have not made a decision on when the study will be released publicly," Vincic said on Friday.

Copyright Creamer Media (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved. Tel: +27(0)11 622 3744 | Fax +27(0)11 622 9350 | newsdesk@miningweekly.com, http://www.miningweekly.com

* * * * * * *

FUNDS NEEDED

Rights Action asks for financial support to ensure that this case advances in the Canadian courts and that justice is done for the brutal and targeted killing of Adolfo Ich. As this case may take years, both short and long term funding are needed for the family of Adolfo Ich and a local community-based human rights group, for the Klippensteins law firm and for Rights Action. Funding needs for the family and their local Mayan-Qeqchi community development committee are:

TOTAL: $16,400

Communication (phones, internet): $1,800

2 laptop computers: $1,400

Digital and video cameras: $600

Transportation, in the region, and to and from capital city, for legal case related meetings: $1,200

Local meetings, to keep local Mayan Qeqchi communities informed: $2,400

On-going investigations into the killing of Adolfo Ich and other human rights violations: $2,400

Local publications: $1,800

Stipend for 2 local community leaders to carry on with this case: $4,800

TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS - Make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to:

CANADA: 552 - 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8

UNITED STATES: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887

CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: Go to www.rightsaction.org, or directly to: http://rightsaction.org/contributions.htm

DONATION OF STOCK?: Contact Grahame Russell, info@rightsaction.org

ANGELICA CHOC'S LEGAL FUND

Donations to Angelica Choc for use in her lawsuit can be made online at: www.chocversushudbay.com; or, by sending a cheque, made out to "Klippensteins in Trust for Angelica Choc", to Klippensteins Barristers & Solicitors, Suite 300, 160 John Street, Toronto ON, M5V 2E5.

Martial Law, Repression, and Re-militarization in Guatemala

2011-02-18T09:38:00.000-08:00

By Simon Granovsky-Larsen (originally published in NACLA)

On February 8, Felix Cuc Xo, a community activist from the settlement of Xya’al K’obe’ in northern Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, was beaten in front of his family and taken away by soldiers and police. He was detained in a private residence that was surrounded by police, and did not resurface. A statement issued by the community noted that local police and jails claimed to know nothing of Cuc Xo’s arrest, but news eventually reached the community that he was being held in prison.

Cuc Xo’s shadowy detention took place under the cover of Alta Verapaz’s martial law, a decree issued by Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom as an anti-narcotics measure on December 19, 2010, and extended for an additional 30 days on January 19. Martial law, declared under a “state of siege” (estado de sitio), is Guatemala’s highest level of alert before a state of war. It has received broad popular support as a response to the Mexican Zeta cartel that uses Alta Verapaz as a staging ground for its Central American operations. Security has been beefed up with 300 soldiers and 500 police in the city of Cobán alone, and officials claim that crime has dropped by 30% since the introduction of martial law.

However, details have begun to emerge that show that these measures have also provided the government with additional impunity in its attempt to quell social movement organizing in the region. Alta Verapaz is a large and predominantly indigenous department in the sparsely populated north–east region of Guatemala. Since efforts to develop the region economically began in the 1960s, the department has seen a boom in activity such as oil drilling, ranching, and agro-fuel production, and it has also become a stronghold of organized campesino and indigenous resistance.

Xya’al K’obe’ and the neighboring community of Se’ Job’ Che’ are two small settlements within Alta Verapaz’s Laguna Lachuá National Park that hold long-standing quarrels with park officials. Having fled their land during the height of the long and bloody Guatemalan armed conflict in the late 1970s, residents of these communities returned to resettle around ten years ago, but found that a national park had been established over their former settlements. Despite being declared illegal invaders by the government, aggression against the communities had been kept at bay and negotiations had been making progress toward resolving the conflicts.

The situations faced by both communities took drastic turns for the worse after the declaration of martial law. On January 10, 40 soldiers, two police officers, and 20 INAB park rangers entered Se’ Job’ Che’ unannounced, firing their weapons into the air. The troops destroyed more than 30 hectares of community corn, beans, and cardamom crops and stole chickens and turkeys. Community member Adelina Yaxcal also claims that a government official accompanying the troops attempted to rape her when he found her hiding among crops. A month later, troops returned and captured Cuc Xo from Xya’al K’obe’.

The Public Order Law outlining states of siege in Guatemala was written in 1965 as a counter-insurgency measure during the early stages of a guerrilla campaign. Under the measure, residents are stripped of the freedom of assembly, soldiers and police are given powers of search and arrest without warrant, and local press coverage of activity by state forces is censored.

Other aspects of the law highlight its political nature, placing the governance of the department in the hands of the Ministry of Defense, banning strikes and protests, and giving the military the power to dissolve any organization within the area under its control. Ramón Cadena, representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Guatemala, told the Guatemalan press that “this is a counter-insurgency law and it violates international conventions ratified by Guatemala.”

The return of military power alone would cause fear in much of the population of Alta Verapaz, as the department was one of the worst hit by genocidal counter-insurgency campaigns during the 1970s and 80s. A 1978 massacre of more than 100 civilians in the Alta Verapaz town of Panzós marked a turning point in the war as the indiscriminate slaughter that flows from scorched earth tactics gained prominence among the armed forces. Throughout the war, agricultural cooperatives and other rural communities in Alta Verapaz suffered as regular military targets.

In the 15 years since the conflict ended, hundreds of communities in Alta Verapaz have struggled to regain use of, and title to land they fled during the violence, or to reclaim territory lost to large landowners during previous generations. There are currently more than 300 agrarian conflicts in Alta Verapaz, and many of them amount to groups refusing to leave land to which they hold a legitimate claim, as is the case with Se’ Job’ Che’ and Xya’al K’obe’.

Communities engaged in struggles for land already walk a precarious line between negotiation and the willingness of Guatemalan state institutions to clear contested land with military force. Campesinos also face eviction at the hands of large landowners and their private security guards, and violent attacks of this sort also appear to have increased under martial law. Saquimo Setano, a community with a land title that has been contested by a large landowner, was attacked by armed men on January 20. In the neighboring department of Izabal three campesino activists were killed on February 12.

When state forces are involved, normal conditions require authorities to at least present warrants and bring along representatives of the public prosecutor or the human rights ombudsman when removing communities from land conflicts. As the above cases show, however, state forces have begun to abandon even these minimal legal pretexts under martial law.

It is difficult to tell whether Se’ Job’ Che’ and Xya’al K’obe’ are examples of a broader campaign of violent intimidation against organized communities, especially as the Guatemalan press has been restricted in their coverage of the military. The details outlined above were relayed through the National Campesino and Indigenous Coordinator (CONIC), a campesino organization connected to both communities, but with hundreds of groups living similar conflicts across Alta Verapaz it is likely that more military incursions may have gone unnoticed. Monitoring and denunciation is made all the more difficult given the state of siege stipulations against meetings and political organizations.

If the extent of military actions in rural communities is unclear, however, there has been a noticeable lack of success against drug traffickers. Uncovered weapons caches have been displayed with pride, but the few drug-related arrests made under martial law have turned up mostly minor players. During the first month of the measures, just 21 people were captured, and the first arrest of a high-level member of the feared Mexican Zetas wasn’t made until February. All signs point to the continuing power of the narcos when Alta Verapaz returns to civilian control.

Rather than making progress in the war on drugs, martial law in Alta Verapaz has already established its lasting impact as another major step in the country’s long process of remilitarization. Each of Guatemala’s four peacetime presidents has moved to re-assert the role of the armed forces in crime fighting and social control.

Among other significant milestones, the 1996 peace accord measures separating the military from internal policing was discarded in a 1999 referendum; joint military-police crime patrols were initiated in 2001; troops began the regular practice of evicting communities from land conflicts in 2004; and President Colom has recently reopened wartime military bases and begun military operations within national parks. The current state of siege—the first declared since the end of the war in 1996—sets an eerie precedent through direct military control and suspended civil rights.

Since 2008, a number of other Guatemalan departments have been subject to a series of “states of prevention,” emergency measures that are somewhat limited in scope as compared to states of siege, and which operate with a 15-day timeframe, albeit an extendable one. In contrast, the Public Order Law does not provide a time limit for martial law under a state of siege. Tellingly, Presidential Communications Secretary Ronaldo Robles declared early on that the administration will seek to maintain the state of siege for “as long as is necessary in order to regain governability of the department.”

Martial law in Alta Verapaz was almost certainly declared for reasons other than the repression of organized communities. The influence of opposing drug cartels within state institutions, pressure from the United States, and upcoming presidential elections quite likely played a role in taking the Guatemalan war on drugs to a new level. But the temporary measures have also generated an elevated state of impunity, a situation that was supposed to provide cover in the violent arrest of Felix Cuc Xo and the attack on Se’ Job’ Che’. It remains to be discovered just how many more communities and activists have been targeted under martial law, and what political role will be granted to the military in the months and years ahead.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Simon Granovsky-Larsen is a PhD candidate in Political Science at York University, Toronto, who researched land struggles with Guatemalan campesino communities and organizations during 2009-2010.

CCDA: Land Eviction Temporarily Averted

2011-02-09T15:25:00.001-08:00

February 9, 2011

CCDA members responded today to a call from the community of El Esfuerzo, San Juan Bautista, Suchitepequez, who were facing an order of eviction from their lands for the second time since November of last year.

Those that now live in El Esfuerzo were legally entitled to the land that they live on in 2001 as members of an association (Asociacion Veracruz) that accessed the land through the Fondo de Tierras (a governmental fund established after the Peace Accords to help campesinos access land to work and live on).

In 2002 the community of El Esfuerzo split from the Asociacion, and the former plantation was divided into two sections, Kabahuil and El Esfuerzo. However, legal title to the land remained in the hands of the Kabahuiles, along with subsidies and resources from the previous farm.

Even without the support of the Asociacion Veracruz, the community of El Esfuerzo has worked hard to subsist on the land, forming a Community Development Council recognized by the Municipality of San Juan Bautista, and a school with two teachers.

Although the Asociacion Veracruz has not cultivated much of their own land, they have made attempts to intimidate and appropriate land from the community of El Esfuerzo, culminating in this last effort at evicting them from their lands with the indirect support of the government Fondo de Tierras.

With the intervention of the CCDA and the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDH), the eviction order was suspended, and the same groups have committed to facilitating a dialogue for reconciliation between the communities.

However, questions remain. Why has the Fondo de Tierras labeled the community of El Esfuerzo “invaders” in response to information received solely from the Asociacion Veracruz, and without an official visit or investigation? Why would they support an eviction when they supposedly are against forced evictions?

These and other questions have led CCDA members to presume that the real reason behind the evictions is the community's inability to pay the arrears on the land debt, with the Fondo de Tierras taking advantage of a conflict between campesinos. In that case, why are those who legally carry the debt (Asociacion Veracruz) not being evicted? The CCDA seeks to resolve such confusion and receive clear answers from the Fondo de Tierras.

The point is not to condemn or to villify any one side of a division between small farmers engaged in subsistence lifestyles, but to seek reconciliation between both parties clarification from government, and a just agreement between all involved for the continuation of the community's life and work on the land.

Tomorrow the CCDA will meet again with members of El Esfuerzo to delineate roles and responsibilities in the construction of a process of dialogue, and will push for the Fondo de Tierras to re-evaluate their stance, remove the label of “invaders” from El Esfuerzo, begin the processes of legal recognition of its fifty families, and delineate the land belonging to each community.

Member of Caja Lúdica Murdered

2011-02-04T16:12:00.000-08:00

From: La Prensa Libre February 4, 2011

Twenty-four year old Victor Aroldo Leiva Borrayo, “The Monkey,” member of the artistic collective, Caja Lúdica (The Tickle Trunk), died yesterday after receiving gunshot wounds to the head.

By CAROLINA GAMAZO Guatemala (Translated by Jackie McVicar)

The attack occurred at 10:30pm on 12 Calle, 4-65 of zone 1, by unknown men who fled the scene.

The wake will be held today and tomorrow he will be buried in the General Cemetery.

"We denounce and condemn this act, we are dismayed; it took us by surprise and it’s painful,” affirmed Samuel Ochoa, member of Caja Lúdica, an artistic organization intended to reconstruct the Guatemalan social fabric through art.

Loving and Playful

"He was a great person, was always a very loving and happy person, outraged by reality, with a great passion to carry out artistic expressions, we remember him as our compañero, happy, full of life and joking,” said Ochoa.
Leiva was known in the Collective as, “The Monkey,” for his acrobatic capacity. He had Garifuna roots as his family was originally from Livingston, Izabal but he had lived his entire life in the capital.

He was founding member of Caja Lúdica, an association that he created together with friends in 2000, with the objective of reconstructing the social fabric through art and culture. “We promote alternatives for youth who, through their creativity with art and culture, stop being victims of the system,” expressed Ochoa.

Leiva used stilts, was a dancer and also participated in art projects in the association.

The investigation is now in the hands of the Public Prosecutor’s office, Ochoa assured, and denied any relationship between Leiva and criminal acts.

¡Que viva Victor Leiva!

2011-02-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

http://cascadiasolidaria.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/%C2%A1que-viva-victor-leiva/

“El Mono” Victor Leiva of Guatemalan youth arts collective Caja Lúdica, killed on the night of February 2, 2011.

The system

The machine persecutes youth: locks them up, tortures them, kills them. They are the living proof of its impotence. It throws them out: it sells them, human flesh, to foreigners.

The sterile machine hates everything that grows and moves. It is only able to multiply jails and cemeteries. It produces nothing but prisoners and cadavers, spies and police, beggars and exiles.

To be young is a crime. Reality commits it every day at the hour of dawn; and also history, which is born anew each day.

This is why reality and history are prohibited.

- Eduardo Galeano, Days and Nights of Love and War

Guatemala Arrest - Los Dos Erres

2011-02-02T16:06:00.000-08:00

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2011/01/27/guatemala-arrest/

We took a look at a man named Jorge Vinicio Orantes Sosa. Originally from Guatemala,he is accused of participating in the brutal massacre of 252 civilians during Guatemala's civil war in the 1980's.

Today a man named Jorge Vinicio Orantes Sosa will walk into a courtroom in Calgary. He's originally from Guatemala. He has Canadian and American citizenship. And he is alleged to have participated in the brutal massacre of 252 civilians during Guatemala's civil war in the 1980's. He was arrested last week while he was visiting family in Lethbridge, Alberta. Mr. Sosa lives in California now. But he used to live in Lethbridge. And Alex Del Cid, who owns a Guatemalan restaurant in Lethbridge, remembers him well.

American authorities want Jorge Sosa to be extradited to the United States. They accuse him of lying about his past in his application for U.S. citizenship. Alain Hepner is the lawyer for Mr. Sosa. He was in Calgary.

Guatemala Arrest - Arrest

Aura Elena Farfan is the Executive Director of The Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala. It's one of the country's oldest human rights groups. She told us about what happened in Dos Erres, Guatemala, on December 7th, 1982. Warning: Some of what she describes is quite graphic.

Kate Doyle is the Director of the Guatemala Project at the National Security Archive at George Washington University. She was in San Francisco, where she joined us for the show.

Guatemala Arrest - War Crimes

But while the Americans prompted this arrest, Matt Eisenbrandt wants Jorge Sosa to stay in Canada...and face war crimes allegations here. He's the Legal Coordinator for the Canadian Centre for International Justice. And he was in Ottawa.

Delegation Reflections, by Emma Van Rooyen

2011-01-27T19:44:00.000-08:00

This is a story about failure. I thought that I should begin by stating this outright, seeing as it is my own failure of communication that I need to talk to you about. I’ve been thinking about this failure a lot lately, especially after returning from a trip to Guatemala this past spring. The trip was a delegation of solidarity. A small group of Maritimers traveled through Guatemala for 2 weeks. We visited memorials, community organizations, church groups, women’s groups and families. We came to listen and learn.

Almost every group of the people we visited was, in some way, directly affected by the decisions that we make at home, both as individuals and as a country. One organization was sustained by the profits made by exporting Fair Trade coffee, while another was seeking the support of Canadian foreign policy to further their legal battle for justice and recognition after the atrocities committed during Guatemala’s 30-year civil war. We sat and we listened to their stories, sometimes we cried with them.

We became very attentive listeners. Especially when we arrived at the site of the Gold Corp mine. The Marlin mine, in San Miguel Ixtahuacan Guatemala is a Canadian owned silver and gold mine. The metals retrieved there are sent abroad, to make jewelry mostly.

Many members of the community oppose the mine, while others support it. The community has been brutally divided by this conflict, but none have felt the backlash as badly as the women. One woman told us how her brother had threatened to kill her because she opposed the mine, while he supported it. Another was fired from her job as a teacher because she questioned why the children were coming to school with open sores caused by pollution from the mine that has leached into the community’s drinking water.
The conversations that afternoon affected me deeply. The women willingly shared their pain with us. Their deepest sorrows were released to us, and we became their caretakers. The Women asked us to take their stories home and share them; to spread the pain thinly across many hearts, so that no one person had to carry it alone.

I swore to myself that I would carry these stories carefully, and share them often. I could not imagine letting down the hopes of these women who had so fully trusted me, without knowing so much as my name.
I returned raw and ill, weak and more than happy to enjoy the luxuries of home. I promised myself that I would rest, but I would not forget the women’s request.
When I recovered and came back to the world I tried to share the stories, to spread the burden. After all the women in San Miguel had not intended for any of us to carry it on our own. But it was difficult. I felt anger and frustration with those who didn’t seem willing to listen. I felt that I had failed the women of San Migel, I had not been able to share their message.

But I refuse to accept a reality where indigenous Guatemalans are treated as expendable second-class citizens. And so I stand here in solidarity with all of the poor and dispossessed people of the world.
I ask you to stand with us and join us in saying Ya Basta! C'est assez! Enough his enough!
Let us come together, to create hope through solidarity.

REFLECTIONS ON CANCUN:

2011-01-24T13:37:00.000-08:00

Some thoughts on the alternative summits and the results of the COP-16
By Val Croft

As a BTS intern with CEIBA – a Guatemalan environmental rights organization that works on issues of food sovereignty, the defense of territory, and climate justice – I was fortunate enough to attend the Global Forum on Climate Justice in early December in Cancun. The conference was organized by Friends of the Earth Mexico and Otros Mundos, as one of the many alternative meetings spaces set up to coincide with the 16th Conference of the Parties (better known as the COP-16) under the United Nations Framework for Climate Change (UNFCC).

Armed with a backpack of clothes, my tent and some blank notebooks, I left Huehuetenango at 6am on December 3rd with several others from CEIBA to drive to San Cristóbal, Chiapas where we met up with a 250-person-strong caravan heading to Cancun.

Over the next week, I attended panel discussions on the evidence for the climate crisis and the role that free trade agreements, transnational corporations and global financial institutions play in worsening it. I listened to Indigenous Peoples from across the world talk in these panels about the rights of Mother Earth and the need for climate justice. I heard arguments for the necessity to look at our forests as the generators of life, instead of just carbon stores that can be divided up and traded.

In roundtable discussions, we talked about the fundamental logical flaws of capitalism – the continual expansion and accumulation of natural resources in a resource-finite world – and debated real strategies for creating a new global system we can survive with. We heavily discussed the false, market-based solutions – programs like REDD+, the enormous expansion of biofuels, and the promotion of carbon trading – that are already well-established and heavily promoted by the corporate elite, without any real basis for believing they will have a positive impact on carbon reductions, and ignoring the experience that would indicate otherwise.

Although we gathered together to exchange information in organized panel sessions and roundtable workshops, what was equally important were the stories we traded over meal times in the community kitchen mess tent, and the experiences we shared sitting around a circle, making musical instruments out of whatever we could find in our tent city. What we were left with was an even stronger awareness that the destructive impacts of climate change are already being felt the world over.

So what was the big deal anyway? The COP-16.

While all of our discussions were happening, global political leaders and their negotiators were meeting to advance their own agenda at the COP-16. These meetings took place between November 29th and December 10th in the luxurious Moon Palace, with the goal of re-establishing confidence in a global forum where countries could effectively negotiate to find solutions to climate change. Already, in comparison with the failures of the COP-15 meetings in Copenhagen last year, the meetings this year are being triumphed by the mainstream media as a case study in international diplomacy and cooperation. But after having read the final declaration of the COP-16, I can’t help but rhetorically ask: Where is the substance? Whose voices have been left out?

The Accord generally acknowledges the need for cuts in global emissions, while recognizing the role developed countries have played in getting our atmosphere to a toxic 390 parts per million of carbon dioxide. It loosely calls on developed countries to take on their fair share of the financial burden in addressing the effects of climate change, while assisting developing countries through a substantial technology transfer and access to financial resources from a global Green Climate Fund.

But again, I have to ask: where is the substance?

The barely existent reference to the protection of human rights, with only the most haphazard reference to the relevant provisions of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, is very concerning. Also concerning is the role the Accord gives to the World Bank as the manager of the Global Green Climate Fund; this, despite loud cries by environmental NGOs for the financial institution that plays such a large role in making possible many of the causes of climate change – funding a record $6.3 billion to fossil fuel projects in 2010 alone - to have no role in managing climate finance.

In addition, although on paper the life of the Ad Hoc Working Committee on the Kyoto Protocol has been extended for another year, it is no secret that several powerful developed countries – including Canada – are doing their best to derail targets and withdraw completely from the only legally-binding mechanism for emission reductions. Instead, singing on key to the tune of “voluntary pledges,” these countries will likely have success in replacing the Kyoto Protocol with loose, non-binding targets that have no hope of reaching the drastic 40%-minimum reductions in emissions by developed countries that current science claims is necessary to begin to address climate change.

In a sentence: Despite the nice fluff, the agreement adopted at the UN climate talks in Cancun completely ignores the more critical point: the need for steep, binding emissions cuts for developed countries.

Market-based “solutions”: REDD+ and carbon offsetting

What did advance substantially, however, were talks around REDD+ programs – the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries.

REDD+ sets the framework for polluting corporations in the North to purchase carbon offsetting credits from countries in the South, therefore complying with their emission reduction targets and getting a green stamp of approval. These companies could then claim they operate "emission neutral" because they have helped to conserve trees in other parts of the world that are supposedly consuming the carbon that the polluting company emitted. Digging a little deeper, it becomes clear that this will allow corporations to continue with "business as usual," with lower costs associated with buying trees than would be attributed to reducing their carbon emissions.

Those in support of this program claim that it would give forest-dwelling communities the financial resources to climb out of poverty, leaving behind their need to rely on forests for fuel and building materials. But this program treats any forest "destroyer" the same - regardless of whether it is a company from the Global North that is participating in widescale deforestation to make way for bio-fuel plantations or cattle farming, or Indigenous communities that have relied on forests for their livelihoods for centuries. Many environmental organizations, including Friends of the Earth International, warn that including forests in carbon markets is a sure way to trigger a land grab, with no consideration to the rights of Indigenous Peoples to Free, Prior and Informed Consent.

Despite being championed as one of the great "successes" of the COP-16, there is no scientific basis for believing this will have any positive effect on cooling the planet.

The Alternative Voices at the COP-16: The ALBA countries

Many of the ALBA countries – Bolivia in particular – spoke up in favour of the environment, and as a result, were labeled by the international media as having blocked negotiations, in bad spirits of international cooperation. Most notably, Bolivia presented the results of the People’s Declaration on the rights of Mother Earth that was signed in Cochabamba in April 2010, in an attempt to bring the voices of social movements to the COP-16.

Getting to hear Bolivian President Evo Morales speak on the last day of the conference was a definite highlight. As I waited for him to come onstage, I thought about the divisions within the environmental movement itself, and wondered what else we could have done to have our voices heard. I wondered what damage will come out of yet more international accords that don´t put the rights of Mother Earth first.

Thankfully I find that inspiration comes at the most important times, and this was no exception. As I listened to Bolivian musical groups energetically play, I read the back of the t-shirt the guy sitting in front of me was wearing. With a well-known quote by Archbishop Oscar Romero, it read:

We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water the seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something and to do it really well.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders.
We are ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.

As I finish writing this more than a month later, the last line – “we are prophets of a future not our own” - still rings in my head. Although we have already seen big climate changes and will continue to see them over the next decades, those who will most feel what we leave behind will be future generations. With that in mind, I look towards the next round of discussions in South Africa next December, as yet another one of the many spaces for us to meet, with new strategies building on what we worked on in Cancun and what we will work on over the year to come.

Guatemala war crimes suspect arrested in Alberta

2011-01-18T20:13:00.000-08:00

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2011/01/18/calgary-lethbridge-guatemala-war-crimes-arrest.html

A man wanted for war crimes in Guatemala nearly 30 years ago has been arrested in Alberta.

Police in Lethbridge took Jorge Vinicio Orantes Sosa into custody Tuesday.

Sosa, who has both Canadian and American citizenship, is charged in the United States with making a false statement relating to naturalization and unlawful procurement of citizenship or naturalization.

Sosa was being transferred to Calgary, where he will be held in custody pending an extradition hearing to the U.S.

The 52-year-old is also wanted by Guatemalan authorities in relation to war crimes dating back to 1982.

It's alleged that Sosa participated in the attacks on Las Dos Erres in which 251 men, women and children were massacred.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2011/01/18/calgary-lethbridge-guatemala-war-crimes-arrest.html#ixzz1BS2nu6l5

Rabinal Legal Clinic: Update and Reflection from Chera-Lee Hickox

2011-01-12T16:03:00.000-08:00

As the 2010/2011 BTS intern working in the human rights department of the Legal Clinic (or Bufete) in Rabinal, it is an enormous challenge to adequately provide a clear picture of its successes and challenges. I would like to share with you a few of the developments within the community of Chichupac, a community that is represented by the Bufete in a petition in the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights

The Bufete has two petitions open in front of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. The first petition, submitted in 2007, has been deemed admissible by the Commission and will, most probably, after it passes a number of formalities including a denial of a friendly settlement with the State, be seen
by the Court. The petition in discussion includes a massacre in the community of Chichupac where 32 male community leaders were violently tortured and killed in 1982, and 17 other charges against the state including forced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, torture, and sexual violence. I feel
extremely privileged to have been present with five members of the Chichupac community when they were told that the petition was accepted by the Commission – it was the closest they have ever been to justice in nearly three decades of struggle.

Although this news moved me to tears and I had to contain myself from jumping for joy, the community members remained stone-faced and stiff as if showing emotion would compromise their success. I came to realize that the success of this case jeopardizes relationships within the community as the case represents only 82 community members. The remaining community members, who are also victims of
the armed conflict, chose not to denounce the crimes committed against them due to fear, and will not have a chance for justice. This has divided the community creating jealousy and conflict. The sense of accomplishment they must have felt that day had to be subdued because any outward display might cause heartbreak for a neighbour or even a brother.

The division within Chichupac runs deeper than the petition, and threatens the peace in the community. The National Reparations Program (PNR), a state-run program responsible for issuing material and economic reparations for the victims of human rights violations, has shown to be corrupt, and faulty. In my opinion, the program is another war tactic in which the government keeps its hands clean, yet acts to divide and conquer leaving community members to destroy the Mayan soul. In
Chichupac, the PNR has offered 30 houses to be constructed when approximately 160 were destroyed during the armed conflict. The economic reparations are so small in comparison to their loss it serves only to add insult to injury. Furthermore, the victims have the burden of proof, they are responsible to provide documentation of their losses, a burden that revictimizes, and traumatizes the individuals. The
fight for justice has been compounded with struggles and violence, and the Chichupac community is only an example of the difficulties standing up to the government provide.

The Bufete has recognized the injustice of the PNR and are defending the citizen´s right to compensation, adding another dimension to the case of Chichupac. The Bufete is applying for a public hearing in March in Washington. If this is successful they will demand a reform of the program and an extension of its services. Although an opportunity such as a thematic hearing in the Commission would bring attention to the shortcomings of the PNR, the common analogy of David vs. Goliath is appropriate.
With Guatemala acting under impunity, it is almost impossible to make it worthwhile for the state to make changes to the program. The Bufete will continue its fight nonetheless.

It seems to me that in Guatemala any success comes with two additional hurdles, any joy is trumped with distress, and justice comes at a price. The Bufete is all too familiar with this reality, yet continues to move forward with their fight for justice. I have been privileged to be a part of their struggle, and am
filled with pride by their devotion to their cause.

29 YEARS LATER - STILL SEEKING JUSTICE FOR THE RIO NEGRO MASSACRES:

2011-01-07T15:24:00.000-08:00

The amazing persistence and dignity of Guatemalan massacre and genocide victims

On November 30, 2010, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (Commission) advised ADIVIMA (Association for the Integral Development of Maya-Achi Victims) that the Rio Negro massacre case (petition #12,649) had been forwarded by the Commission to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Court).

This may be the last step in a 29 year process of seeking justice for the March 13, 1982 massacre of 177 women and children in the remote Maya-Achi village of Rio Negro. The process before the Court could also take a few more years, unless the government of Guatemala admits its responsibility and allows the Court to determine, unobstructed, what compensation and reparations the government of Guatemala must make to the surviving victims.

As in the case of so many struggles in Guatemala to overcome the deeply entrenched and on-going impunity of the wealthy and powerful sectors, one can only admire and be in awe of the courage and dignity of the surviving victims of the Rio Negro massacre who are the real heroes and protagonists of efforts to construct a just and fair society and country, one based on real democracy and an actually functioning legal system.

Below, one can read two articles (from 1993 and 1995) that provide background information about the March 13, 1982 Rio Negro massacre, one of four Rio Negro massacres that killed over 440 villagers.

From the date of the first mass grave exhumation in Rio Negro in 1993, surviving victims have been pursuing legal justice against the 'material' and 'intellectual' authors of the Rio Negro massacre. While a few of the lowest ranking "civil defense patrollers" (material authors of the March 13 1982 massacre under orders of heavily armed soldiers) have been jailed, the intellectual authors, ranking officers up through the chain of command in the Armed Forces, remain free today in Guatemala, 29 years later.

The Rio Negro surviving victims - that formed themselves into ADIVIMA - filed their petition with the Inter-American Commission, once they realized the Guatemala legal system was simply not going to allow justice to be done against the intellectual authors. For years, the Commission tried to come to a "friendly solution" between the Government of Guatemala and the Rio Negro surviving victims, that was not possible; thus, the case has been sent by the Commission to the Court.

While this is an extremely important step forward, it is important to clarify that the Court cannot and will not individualize responsibility for the Rio Negro massacre. Again, the intellectual authors will be left untouched. More impunity.

CHIXOY DAM REPARATIONS CAMPAIGN

As set out in the articles below, the general context of the Rio Negro massacres was the State terrorism and genocide that the Guatemala military and oligarchy were carrying out against their own population - mainly Mayan people. This extreme repression was carried on in the name of the U.S. & western-back 'war on communism', that peaked (in Guatemala) from 1978-1983.

However, the specific context of the Rio Negro massacres, set out in the articles below, was the Chixoy hydro-electric dam project, a billion-dollar "development" project of the World Bank (WB) and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

At the same time as the Rio Negro massacres case has worked its way painfully through the dysfunctional Guatemalan courts, to the Commission and now to the Court, the Chixoy Dam Reparations Campaign has been seeking compensation and reparations from the Guatemalan government, WB and IDB, for the widespread losses and harms caused against 32 Maya-Achi villages (including Rio Negro) that were illegally and forcibly evicted or otherwise harmed to make way for the Chixoy Dam.

Both the WB and the IDB profited from their investments in this "development" bank; to date, 29 years later, neither has paid any money in the form of compensation or reparations for all the loss of life, land, home, community and livelihood.

La lucha sigue; the struggle continues for the surviving victims of the Rio Negro massacres, and for all the villages displaced and harmed by the Chixoy dam project.

Rights Action, Grahame Russell (info@rightsaction.org), Annie Bird (annie@rightsaction.org).

* * * * * * *

"RIO NEGRO", STORY OF A MASSACRE THAT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN

By Grahame Russell, 1993

In the aldea of Rio Negro (municipality of Rabinal, department of Baja Verapaz) there is a small cement cross, stuck in the ground, on top of a "clandestine" grave, on which is written: "On March 13, 70 women and 107 children were massacred by the repressive forces of Lucas and the Judicial from Xocol. Rio Negro, 1982."

"Lucas" refers to then military leader General Romeo Lucas Garcia; the "Judicial" are today the "voluntary" armed civil defense patrols (PACs), responsible for tens of thousands of human rights violations, including murders, disappearances, torture, rape, illegal detentions, etc.

In November, 1993, exhumations were initiated at Rio Negro by surviving family members and human rights organizations, Rio Negro being the place where the 177 women and children were dumped that March 13, 1982.

As in other countries throughout the Americas, where massacres have been carried out against civilian populations, Guatemalan survivors and family members of victims of massacres have an overwhelming need to find where their murdered loved ones were dumped, dig them up, give them a proper burial, and initiate some sort of process for justice.

At the 'dig' site, after the bodies have been dug up one by one by the Guatemalan Forensic Team (EAFG), the work of identifying the remains begins. Anthropologists place bits of clothing on sheets of plastic, asking the surviving family members to try and identify them. Men and women mill about, in semi-trance states, turning bits of clothing over in their hands, speaking in hushed tones in different Mayan languages, openly crying. A Dominican priest offered a service for the dead.

DE-MYSTIFYING MASSACRES

This article aims to de-mystify the Rio Negro massacre, a need that comes from the fact that Guatemalan human rights atrocities receive little international press coverage. When covered, they are presented in a 'snap-shot' fashion, leaving the reader stunned about one more horror that took place in a 'third' world country.

There is nothing surprising about this massacre; massive human rights violations have been commonplace in Guatemala.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

In 1954 the CIA and the United Fruit Company conspired and collaborated with sectors of the Guatemalan military and elite economic sectors to carry out a coup against a democratically elected government, leaving in place more or less the same military-economic regime that governs Guatemala today.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s the Guatemalan Armed Forces (GAF), with support from successive U.S. administrations, unleashed a wave of violence against all persons and groups demanding respect for human rights, that voiced opposition to the reigning political-economic-military order. The victims of this repression were, according to the government, members or supporters of the URNG armed rebel movement. The victims were called variously communists, marxists, subversives, etc.

Rio Negro was one of hundreds of towns and villages that the GAF and the PAC destroyed during five years (1978-1983) of counter-insurgency military warfare, using "scorched earth" tactics against the civilian, mostly Mayan population. "Scorched earth" military tactics (destroying houses, towns, animals, crops and people) were extensively used by the U.S. in Vietnam, and have been taught by the U.S. to militaries across the Americas.

The GAF and PAC used these tactics to force civilians to evacuate entire regions of the country where guerilla forces are suspected of operating. In the case of Rio Negro, they resorted to four massacres, including the March 13, 1982 massacre of 177 women and children.

WORLD BANK / INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK HYDRO-ELECTRIC DAM PROJECT

Rio Negro was a quiet township of some 225 families of Mayan-Achi people. Though living in poverty, they lived in peace through to the late 1970s, when the GAF began arriving to ask about the "guerilla": "If you don't tell us where the guerilla are, then you are guerilla fighters" was an argument or justification commonly used by the army and civil defense patrollers.

The problems in Rio Negro are historical and complex. One issue that created unsurmountable tension was the government's economic development plan that included the building of the $900 million Chixoy hydro-electric plant, funded by the World Bank and the IDB. This entailed the creation of a reservoir that would inundate dozens of communities, including Rio Negro. The government tried to evict the inhabitants under terms that the communities argued were totally illegal and unfavourable.

As peaceful opposition to the dam grew, the GAF increased its use of repressive tactics, using the excuse of "fighting guerillas" to militarize the area.

One month before March 13, 1982, the GAF ordered the men of the community to present themselves at the Xococ (nearby rural community) military barracks, to receive military training for their "voluntary" participation in the PAC set up by the GAF throughout rural Guatemala to help further military control.

One witness fled back to Rio Negro community (a 3 hour hike along a remote trail) to tell the villagers that soldiers and civil defense patrollers in Xococ were torturing and killing those suspected of being guerilla fighters. On February 12, 1982, approximately 70 Rio Negro community members were brutally murdered in Xococ, that being the first of four massacres.

One month later, on March 13, soldiers and patrollers arrived at Rio Negro at 5am, to find no men there. (After the February 12 Xococ massacre, the men and older boys slept in the hills, everyone thinking that the army and civil defense patrollers were only going to come after the men and boys).

"As you (women and children) don't want to tell us where your husbands and sons are, you will come with us". The soldiers and patrollers forced the entire community to march to a place called "El Palo Conacaste" where the women were ordered to dance with the soldiers, music playing on a stolen tape deck. "How well you dance. You must dance this way with the guerilla", the soldiers and patrollers taunted.

After further forced march, they arrived at "Pacoxom", a low point in the mountain ridge above Rio Negro. The youngest women and oldest girls were separated off and repeatedly raped, before being killed. The other women and children were strangled by slowly turning sticks, with rope attached at either end and wrapped around their necks. Some soldiers killed the smallest children by grabbing their feet and bashing them against trees and rocks. One woman, Maria, and a ten year old child, escaped by jumping down the steep, deep ravine. Though the soldiers shot at them and gave chase, they survived.

Upon finishing the massacre, the soldiers dumped the dead over the edge of the ravine, merely covering their bodies with loose pine branches and brush.

Some days later three surviving men from the community came to the site, placed the cement cross and covered the bodies with earth. Later still, the soldiers returned to Rio Negro, burning all homes and possessions, killing animals and destroying crops.

With the elimination of the Rio Negro people and town, it was easy for the government to advance with its plans to build the Chixoy dam. A member of the Coban Pastoral Group, that accompanies surviving family members to the sites of massacres to exhume the graves, said "the Chixoy dam was built with the blood of the inhabitants of Rio Negro, Rabinal".

After the 1982 massacres, Rio Negro survivors remained in the mountains, living on plant roots, and corn. Some died of diseases, others of hunger, and some were found by the soldiers and killed.

JUSTICE VERSUS IMPUNITY?

It is now up to the Public Ministry to undertake an investigation to determine what everyone knows -- who is responsible for the massacre, who were the military personnel in command in Baja Verapaz at the time, and who were in charge of the 'Judiciales' and the PACs. This is the hard part. It is one thing to get legal permission (and the emotional strength) to dig up the hundreds or thousands of clandestine graves that exist in Guatemala; (between July 1992-July 1993 the Guatemalan Team of Forensic Anthropologists carried out numerous exhumations at four different sites in Guatemala) it is quite another to investigate who are the responsible persons and institutions and see justice done.

In a clear indication of the position of the GAF with respect to dealing with these crimes and massacres of the past, Colonel Alvaro Fabriel Rivas, GAF spokesperson, said with respect to Rio Negro: "It is more important to seek peace for the nation than to look towards the past".

HOW DID THE RIO NEGRO MASSACRE OCCUR?

This massacre - brutal and commonplace - was perpetrated by the GAF and PAC that remain in power today. The question of cause goes deeper. Until recently, it was rare to hear internationally of human rights violations in Guatemala, a faithful western ally during the 'cold war'.

The 'international community', particularly western nations (public and private sectors), supports Guatemala commercially, financially and often militarily, turning a blind eye to the fact that Guatemala has long been one of the most racist and repressive country in the Americas.

It is estimated that there are over 50,000 mainly Mayan people "disappeared" by the security forces, PACs and death squads, and dumped in clandestine graves; this is in addition to the well over 200,000 mainly Mayan persons who were murdered and whose bodies were either found, or also dumped in clandestine graves.

Said one member of the Coban Pastoral Group: "We know of another grave that has 356 bodies buried there, and we know that dozens of bodies were buried under the Chixoy hydro-electric dam. ... In the same Rabinal region as the Chixoy dam, at a community called "Plan de Sanchez" there are approximately 50 graves where there are buried 100s men and women".

HUMAN RIGHTS QUESTIONS

Some questions are finally being answered: what happened, where, when, etc. But Rio Negro raises a series of other human rights questions much harder and arguably more important to answer: why did this and so many other massacres occur in Guatemala?; when will the impunity of the GAF, PAC and death squads end?; when will guilty individuals and institutions be put on trial?; why has so little real international pressure been brought to bear on the most repressive country of the Americas?; why do 'first' world governments, banks (including the World Bank and the IDB) and businesses continue to have full relations with Guatemala, helping to keep the reigning political-economic-military literally 'in power'?

The questions are not academic. Violence in Guatemala doesn't occur in a vacuum. This massacre was not an incomprehensible act of violence 'in some third world country where they value life less'. It was a logical and predictable consequence of Guatemalan political, economic and military policies.

It is unlikely that the persons and institutions responsible for Rio Negro massacre will be put on trial without international pressure from the very nations and commercial and financial interests that have kept the GAF and government in power.

(Grahame Russell is co-director of Rights Action, info@rightsaction.org, www.rightsaction.org. Feel free to re-publish this article, citing author and source.)

GUATEMALA UNDER SIEGE - TWO STEPS BACKWARDS:

2011-01-06T12:16:00.000-08:00

A Bus Massacre, A State of Siege in Alta Verapaz and the Parallel Drug State in Guatemala

By Annie Bird, annie@rightsaction.org, January 5, 2011

Guatemalan papers this morning printed the words of a father struggling with how to tell his remaining children that their mother and two siblings were among the seven killed yesterday, January 4, by an incendiary device planted by gangs that set fire to a bus in Guatemala City.

Terror is a constant in everyday life in Guatemala. Reports of tortured bodies and massacres fill the print media and airwaves, everyday. Guatemalans have come to expect increased levels of violence over the holidays and in the months leading up to elections; today Guatemala is facing both.

On Sunday, December 19, President Colom of Guatemala declared a State of Siege for the department of Alta Verapaz "to fight drug traffickers". Military and police forces can now, in Alta Verapaz, detain anyone, without arrest warrants; other fundamental rights like the right to assembly have been suspended.

Social movement organizations in Guatemala live first-hand the terrible violence, and know how desperately Guatemalans want something done to combat violence. However, organizations fear that handing over blanket powers to the very same forces that have shown, incident after incident, that they are pervasively compromised or controlled by organized crime networks, is not the path to turning back the siege of violence in Guatemala.

Community organizations and human rights activists point out that Alta Verapaz has one of the highest levels of agrarian conflict in Guatemala. Much of this conflict is between campesino and indigenous communities and large landholders, often with ties to organized crime that control and manipulate the justice system and the security forces; forces that could take advantage of a State of Siege to repress human rights and community defenders.

It is also significant that over the past several months, municipalities in Alta Verapaz have been carrying out community consultations, expressing their opposition to hydroelectric dam projects that are planned throughout Alta Verapaz, without the consent of affected Qeqchi communities. The State of Siege prohibits assembly, making such consultations impossible.

(One proposed mega-"development" dam project - the Xalala dam - is down river from the infamous Chixoy hydro-electric dam project [1975-1983] that resulted in the illegal, forced eviction of dozens of Mayan Achi communities and the massacring of over 440 men, women and children in the village of Rio Negro. The Chixoy dam project was initiated and funded by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. To date, no compensation or reparations have been given to the victims of the forced evictions and massacres).

Guatemala is living through a complex time, as are many Central and South America nations, as the people struggle to deconstruct authoritarian, corrupt and violent political, economic, legal and repressive structures that were invested with brutal power during the "Cold War," and in turn to construct effective democratic institutions.

ONE STEP FORWARD ... !

The long complex battle to name an Attorney General in Guatemala recently turned out unexpectedly well. Some questions are whether the new AG - a woman - will be able to clean up the institution and to what degree will other key elements of the justice system, like the courts and security forces, remain under the control of organized crime?

The violent experience of neighboring Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, not just that his government was ousted in June 2009 by a military coup, but in the difficulties faced throughout his presidency, demonstrates that simply being President in no way means control of the State.

PARALLEL 'GOVERNANCE' vs. DEMOCRACY

Anyone who lives in Guatemala can tell you that in several departments, not just Alta Verapaz, drug traffickers have gained territorial control over large areas of the country. This means that they control the land, the population and the government in large areas of the country. They do this principally by infiltrating the State, particularly the security forces and the justice system.

Depending on the pervasiveness and influence exercised by these parallel structures of power, organized crime controls to a greater or lesser degree the State.

These 'parallel structures' are nothing new in Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras; and neither is the extreme violence and repression associated with them.

Over the past decade, levels of violence in the three countries have grown to earn the region the distinction of having the highest murder rate in the Americas and possibly the world, surpassing the levels of violence during the "internal armed conflicts" that the nations suffered in the 1970s and 1980s.

It is clear that the parallel networks that control entire regions in Guatemala today are built upon the foundations laid in the 1980s, when the military, police and paramilitary death squads carried out political violence mainly against the civilian population, and also against the small armed revolutionary movements, and at the same time engaged in a range of criminal enterprises, including drug trafficking.

It is also clear that there was nothing "internal" about the conflicts of the 1980s; just as organized crime networks today are by nature transnational, so were the networks in the 1980s. And just as the repressive sectors of the armies, police and death squads of the 1980s, which have morphed into today's organized crime networks, often had a right wing political agenda, it is clear that at least some of today's crime networks maintain a right wing political agenda.

After over ten years of heavy presence by the United Nations in Guatemala, in the form of a technical mission (MINUGUA) dedicated to overseeing the peace process, an innovative commission was created to fight corruption, precisely those parallel networks that have taken over the State.

CICIG (the International Commission Against Impunity), which acts in partnership with the Attorney General's office to investigate and prosecute corruption and organized crime networks in the State, was established in the end of 2007 and its mandate, scheduled to expire in 2011, was recently renewed by President Colom until 2013.

DECEMBER 10 - CLAUDIA PAZ NAMED GUATEMALA'S ATTORNEY GENERAL: A FIRST IN MANY WAYS

On May 25, 2010 President Colom named a Guatemalan attorney, Conrado Reyes, as the nation's new Attorney General. What was a fairly routine political appointment passed unnoticed by most for several weeks, until Carlos Castresana, the renowned Spanish judge that headed up CICIG, resigned in protest.

In a dramatic press conference, he described how in the few weeks since Reyes had taken control of the AG's office, Reyes had set about firing and intimidating honest public prosecutors, destroying ongoing investigations, and demonstrated links to organized crime networks.

Colom fired Reyes, after a June 10 Constitutional Court ruling found flaws in the process by which he was named. In Guatemala, a Postulation Commission - comprised of representatives from law schools and the bar association - receives applications to the position of AG, and selects a list of six candidates that they present to the President.

The President must choose from that list, and by most accounts all of the candidates presented alongside Reyes appeared to have connections to organized crime or reasons to doubt their capacity to serve as AG.

Following Reyes' firing the Postulation Commission came up with the same list of candidates! What followed was a six month struggle to get a new list of candidates, without apparent ties to organized crime, which meant using public shaming to force the institutions that comprise the Postulation Commission to name new representatives.

Finally, on December 10 Colom named Claudia Paz y Paz Bailey, the first woman to serve as AG of Guatemala. Paz is among the founders of the Institute of Penal Sciences of Guatemala, a leading voice for justice reform in Guatemala. She also served on the United Nations-sponsored truth commission in Guatemala. Her appointment has been widely applauded.

THE PEACE ACCORDS CREATED CIVILIAN POLICE: CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES CONTINUED

The cleansing of the police and military has been a constant issue for many, many years. The 1996 Guatemalan Peace Accords mandated the dismantlement of the infamous National Police and Ambulatory Military Police, implicated in massive gross human rights violations, and criminal activities in the 1980s.

Large numbers of demobilized soldiers were recycled into the new National Civil Police force. The Peace Accords mandated the reduction of the size and functions of the military, prohibiting military participation in policing. The size of the Guatemalan military shrunk from almost 55,000 soldiers to approximately 15,000 in 2007.

A similar process happened in neighboring El Salvador, while no reform occurred in Honduras.

Nonetheless, the years that followed the peace processes, in Guatemala and the region, saw incident after incident implicating both police and military in drug trafficking.

Paradoxically, though drug trafficking in Guatemala originated in the military, the military is increasingly being called upon for policing activities, though prohibited by the Peace Accords, as stated above, and despite the fact that there is no indication that powerful sectors of the armed forces do not continue to command drug operations.

Colom's administration was the first since the Peace Process to increase the size of the military, currently slightly over 17,000 troops and expected to grow by 3,000 over the next year.

The two major drug networks operating in Guatemala, the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, are both known to be comprised largely by former military. Though the degree to which current military is involved is not clear, their involvement is in doubt. Incident after incident demonstrates massive corruption within the police; however, the highest levels of drug trafficking began in the military.

CLEANING OUT THE POLICE AND MILITARY: THE KILLINGS OF A GENERAL AND OF A FORMER COLLEAGUE OF OLIVER NORTH

In January 2008, the current president Alvaro Colom assumed office, and two strange killings that year offer a glimpse into the difficulties implicit in cleaning out the military and police forces.

Venezuelan Victor Rivera was fatally shot while driving in Guatemala City on April 7, 2008, one week after his contract as a security advisor to the Guatemalan government was not renewed, a position he had occupied since at least 2000. He came to Guatemala in 1997, fleeing an arrest warrant in El Salvador, where he originally arrived in the early 1980s to work with Oliver North in his illegal Contra support operation, where according to one former DEA agent, Rivera was involved in "drug trafficking, kidnapping and training death squads."

After North's operation was shut down, Rivera, alias "Zacarias," was hired as an advisor to the El Salvadoran Vice Minister of Security Hugo Barrera, where he helped out with the formation of the new Civil Police Force, creating parallel structures, death squads, within the new force. The squad he coordinated was implicated in the 1996 killing of a medical student, and a warrant was issued for Rivera's arrest.

He fled to Guatemala where the new National Civil Police was still in the process of formation. Rivera was hired to advise the Minister of Governance. CICIG's investigations of the activities of death squads in 2006 revealed he apparently again formed death squads.

Then CICIG director Carlos Castresana named a former head of the Gulf Cartel as a suspect in Rivera's death, and characterized the two as long time acquaintances.

Another killing that offers a glimpse into the organized crime, military/ police nexus was that of Guatemalan General Mauro Antonio Jacinto Carrillo, alias "Geronimo." According to Guatemala's most recognized newspaper editor, Jose Ruben Zamora, Jacinto Carrillo in August 2008 explained that for four years he had coordinated an informal group of military officers who met with and advised then presidential hopeful Alvaro Colom about the infiltration of the military by organized crime networks.

Early in Colom's administration Jacinto Carrillo was rumored to be Colom's favored candidate for Minister of Defense. By July 2008, when Jacinto Carrillo in despair and fear met with Ruben Zamora, he reported that the same old actors implicated in organized crime still controlled the highest levels of the Ministries of Defense and Governance.

A few weeks later, shortly after reporting all of this to the US Embassy at Zamorra's insistence, Jacinto Carrilles was gruesomely tortured and killed.

Over the past six months renowned human rights advocate Helen Mack has worked to bring life to a commission for police reform, but she publically denounced the lack of political will within the Congress to provide the budget necessary to implement her plan to clean up the police. Organized crime's influence within the Congress has been repeatedly demonstrated. In October, the Colom administration approached the UNDP with requests for the necessary funds to support efforts to bring life to this commission.

THE 1980s IN CENTRAL AMERICA: DRUG SMUGGLING AND THE WAR AGAINST "COMMUNISM"

While the people of Central America and Mexico suffer the excruciating consequences of drug trafficking, the US people and government do not fully and truthfully address our role and responsibility. The United States provides not only the massive drug market and sets the policy agenda in framing the "War of Drugs", with all the repression and violence that implies, but also has not come to terms with the role that agencies and agents of the US government have played and possibly continue to play in drug trafficking.

The history of US government involvement with drug trafficking networks in Central America in the 1980s has been amply documented through Department of Justice, Central Intelligence Agency and US Congress investigations and published in reports that demonstrate, along with declassified documents, that CIA operatives and other high level government officials, tolerated and even apparently promoted drug trafficking by their allies in the Contra forces that attacked the Sandinista government in Nicaragua from neighboring countries (Honduras and Costa Rica), and promoted the investment of drug money in the Contras, especially with the Medellin cartel, which shared an anti-communist political agenda along with the United States.

A National Archives report released this month, "Hitler Shadow," confirms that Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie was employed by the US army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) to spy on German communist organizations in the wake of World War II, and that the CIC then facilitated his escape to Bolivia. His later role in helping coordinate an alliance between drug traffickers and right wing military to perpetrate the bloody 1980 Cocaine Coup in Bolivia has been documented.

Investigator Robert Parry points to the 1980 coup in Bolivia as critical to first securing a large scale, constant flow of coca paste to Colombia to be processed into cocaine by the Medellin cartel, propelling the Medellin operation to large scale trafficking.

He also cites testimony to the US congress by an Argentine military officer who collaborated with Bolivia's right wing coup government, as implicating the Cocaine Coup government in the investment of more than $30 million dollars in right wing paramilitary operations in Latin America, including funds to get the Contra operations started with money laundered in Miami.

The Argentine military first provided support for the Contra operation, and then the CIA took over. United States support of the Contra was coordinated by Oliver North, with the help of Victor Rivera, the security advisor to the Guatemalan government whose 2008 killing CICIG linked to the Gulf Cartel.

(It is interesting and important to note that Nicaragua, where security forces were dismantled by the Sandanista government in 1979, today does not suffer from the high levels of violence and repression that its neighbors suffer, nor the same levels of penetration of the State by drug networks, where - in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras - drug trafficking took root among the security forces involved in "anti communist" and "counter insurgency" operations in the 1980s.)

Generalized terror in Guatemala, and in El Salvador and Honduras, is overwhelming and ... normal. Organized crime controls, to significant degrees, many elements of the State in each country, and they have done so, to varying degrees, for a long time.

Policies and actions of the United States have contributed decisively to the existence of these 'parallel states', and to the generalized state of terror, historically and currently. If the United States in truth wishes to help stop the terror, it must begin with a truthful examination of its role in entrenching organized crime in power in Guatemala, but also Honduras and El Salvador.

(Annie Bird is co-director of Rights Action, annie@rightsaction.org, www.rightsaction.org. Feel free to re-publish this article, citing authors & source)

States of siege wrack Guatemala - Features - Al Jazeera English

2011-01-04T12:53:00.000-08:00

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/01/2011141174178915.html
- by Chris Arseneault

Coban, Guatemala – Despite a "state of siege" declared by Guatemala's government under the auspices of fighting drug cartels, the state of Alta Verapaz in the country's north feels fairly calm.

As night falls, the central square in Coban, the region's main city, bustles with activity. Tortilla vendors serve up steaming plates from roadside stalls and young couples canoodle, as crowds mill about in cool mountain air.

Occasionally, a pick-up truck packed with police squatting in the back rolls by, but residents in the city centre don't seem perturbed by recent presidential declarations allowing for warrantless detention, prohibitions on public gatherings and control over the local news media.

The government of president Alvaro Colom declared a state of siege for at least 30 days, beginning December 19, arguing that Mexican drug cartels, specifically the ultra-violent Los Zetas organisation, had taken control over much of Alta Verapaz.

Police have arrested at least 22 "traffickers" and confiscated five small planes, 239 assault weapons, 28 vehicles and explosives in a series of raids, officials say.

Covert repression?

No one disputes the power, corrupting influence or horrific violence projected by the cartels. "You could see them walking in the mall [in Coban] before the siege," says Cesar Bol, a leading activist with the National Indigenous and Campiseno Coordination Organisation (CONIC).

"They openly carried pistols on their belts, wore brand new clothes, drove brand new trucks and spoke with Mexican accents."

But in farming villages, church halls and independent research offices, there is deep scepticism about the government's actions.

"The state of siege is a strategy of the government to attack social movements," says Carlos Morales, who works for farmers' rights with the Union of Campiseno Organisations of Verapaz.

At least two activists, Chabil Utzaj and Pablo Sacrab, have been arrested in Alta Verapaz under the pre-text of the siege, another farmers' rights groups says.

Sitting beside bags of fertiliser and posters of the revolutionary Che Guevara in a warehouse-turned-office, Morales says the Zetas don't live in his municipality of Santa Cruz, a 15-minute drive from Coban.

He thinks the siege is staged and simply an excuse for repression, rather than a legitimate attempt to battle traffickers.

"There are agrarian conflicts in much of Alta Verapaz," he says. "The government is trying to silence groups organising for land reform and against mega-projects like hydro-electric dams and palm oil plantations."

While many urban Guatemalans do not share Morales's analysis, there is scepticism about why a state of emergency would be declared in Alta Verapaz, as it is not the country's most violent area.

Guatemala has one of the highest murder rates in the Americas, with 52 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, compared with 14 in Mexico and 5.4 in the US.

Strange intentions

Haroldo Shetemul, a columnist with Prensa Libre newspaper, Guatemala's largest daily, notes that 57.7 per cent of the country's murders in 2010 happened in the region around Guatemala City, the capital.

If stopping violence and protecting average people is the goal of the siege, he writes, then Alta Verapaz "wasn't necessarily a priority".

The siege declaration didn't "exactly have the aim of protecting the population as a whole, but instead was a response to particular interests."

Even the Mayor of Coban, whose position would normally guarantee support for increased security, is somewhat critical of the siege.

Al Jazeera caught up with a sweaty Leonel Chacón after he finished a 10 kilometre fun-run through the city on New Year's Eve.

"If the government would have had a plan that they had carried out since the beginning of their term, we wouldn't have arrived at this," says Chacón, who does not belong to president Colom's governing National Union of Hope (UNE) party, which is considered left-leaning.

"If there were better policies, we wouldn't have to use this last resort," the Mayor says.

Poverty and police

Endemic poverty, police corruption, social exclusion, weak institutions, a history of violence, and a porous border with neighbouring Mexico - home-base for most cartels - are just some of the policy failures that must be addressed.

More than half of Guatemalans live below the nationally defined poverty line, with 15 per cent facing extreme poverty, according to figures from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Indigenous people, representing more than one third of the population, are the hardest hit group, with 43 per cent of children under five facing chronic malnourishment, one of the worst records in the world.

"Because of the poverty, they [drug traffickers] can easily recruit youth in rural communities," says Bol, the indigenous rights activist.

But young men looking for a fast escape from poverty aren't the only ones susceptible to narco-gold.

Ronaldo Robles, a government spokesman, said police in Alta Verapaz had been "totally infiltrated by the Zetas" and moved some local officers out of the area to other states.

"Moving police out of the region could go either way," says Cesar Bol. "It could bring in clean cops. Or new recruits could be working for corrupt high-ranking officials."

The army option

Mexico attempted to circumvent corrupt police by sending the army and navy to fight drug cartels. But Guatemala's history with military dictatorships makes that option politically unpalatable.

After the US sponsored a coup against the democratically elected government of Jacob Arbenz in 1954, various military strongmen ran the country until 1996.

The American CIA justified their intervention by accusing Arbenz of initiating "an intensely nationalistic program of progress coloured by the touchy, anti-foreign inferiority complex of the 'Banana Republic'", declassified documents reveal.

During the era of dictatorships, the military committed mass human rights violations, killing an estimated 100,000 people, although exact numbers remain unknown.

"After 36 years of war, there is a lot of nervousness among the population," says Carlos Morales. "People are going back into the mind-frame of terror."

And, more importantly than popular distrust of major military operations, the strategy of sending in the army has not been effective in Mexico, as evidenced by more than 30,000 dead bodies since that country's president declared all out war on the cartels in 2006.

An open border

Standing at the border between Mexico and Guatemala, it is hard to imagine that a declaration of siege in one state will stem the flow of contraband between the two nations.

At a formal border crossing, people move freely between the two states, lifting a small bar to pass through. Black market money-changers hold wads of cash on either side, exchanging Guatemalan Quetzals for Mexican Pesos with no formal oversight.

Nobody seems to be checking the cars, motorbikes, people and animals that move freely and frequently between the two countries.

"It's like dealing with cockroaches," says Isain Mandujano, a journalist with Proceso magazine in southern Mexico, in discussing the state of siege and the movement of drug gangs between Guatemala and Mexico. "If you clean your house, they move to the neighbour's house.

"And they can always come back."

14 Years Since Signing of Peace Accords in Guatemala...

2010-12-29T10:23:00.000-08:00

Let 2011 be a year of truth and justice...

Guatemala Truth Commission
http://www.usip.org/publications/truth-commission-guatemala

February 1997 | Truth Commission

Truth Commission: Commission for Historical Clarification (Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico)

Dates of Operation: February 1997 - February 1999 (2 years)

Background: From the mid-1950s through the 1970s Guatemala was characterized by increasing state repression against citizens in response to rising unrest by various militia groups. In 1982 the Guatemalan military conducted a scorched earth campaign against the newly formed Revolutionary National Unity of Guatemala (URNG), resulting in the a high number of deaths.

In 1987, the first government-URNG talks were hosted in Spain, yet URNG continued subversive activities during this time further weakening the government. The parties returned to peace talks facilitated by the United Nations in 1993, which were ultimately successful. The Commission for Historical Clarification was established on June 23, 1994, as a part of a peace agreement between the Guatemalan government and the URNG, and the Accord for Firm and Lasting Peace was signed in 1996.

Charter: Agreement on the establishment of the Commission to clarify past human rights violations and acts of violence that have caused the Guatemalan population to suffer (PDF-95KB), June 23, 1994

Mandate: The Commission for Historical Clarification was created to clarify human rights violations related to the thirty-six year internal conflict from 1960 to the United Nation's brokered peace agreement of 1996, and to foster tolerance and preserve memory of the victims.

Commissioners and Structure: There were three commissioners, two men and one woman (of Maya descent), including two Guatemalans. German law professor, Christian Tomuschat, of Berlin's Humboldt University, chaired the commission. The chair (“moderator”) of the commission was appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The mandate stipulated that one member had to be a Guatemalan of irreproachable conduct, appointed by the chair with the agreement of the parties to the peace agreement. The other member had to be an academic selected by the moderator, with the agreement of the parties, from a list proposed by the University presidents.

Report: The Commission presented its final report, Guatemala: Memory of Silence (Guatemala: Memoria del Silencio), in Spanish to representatives of the Guatemalan government, Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), and the U.N. Secretary General on February 25, 1999. The report is also available in English on the American Association for the Advancement of Science website.

Findings:

Conclusions

* The commission found that repressive practices were perpetrated by institutions within the state, in particular the judiciary, and were not simply a response of the armed forces. The report stated that in the four regions most affected by the violence, “agents of the state committed acts of genocide against groups of Mayan people”(Final Report, English Version, para. 122).
* In total, the Commission conducted 7,200 interviews with 11,000 persons cataloging the interviews in a database. Declassified information from the U.S. government was included in the data.
* The total number of people killed was over 200,000; 83% of the victims were Mayan and 17% were Ladino.
* "State forces and related paramilitary groups were responsible for 93% of the violations documented" (Final Report, English Version, para. 15).
* "Insurgent actions produced 3% of the human rights violations and acts of violence” (Final Report, English Version, para. 21).
* Social mobilization was at its peak from 1978 to 1982 and so too was the rate of killings and human rights abuses.

Recommendations

* The commission was not allowed to name names and did not include names of perpetrators or a call for prosecution in its report.
* Reparations were recommended such as the erection of monuments, dedication of public parks or buildings, reclamation of Mayan sites and financial assistance for exhumations.
* It also called for structural reform, mainly in the military and judiciary and encouraged a culture of mutual respect and the strengthening of the democratic process.

Subsequent Developments:

Reforms

* Without announcing any follow-up measures, Guatemala's President Arzu apologized for the role of the government in past abuses when he received the commission’s report.
* The U.S. government reacted coolly to allegations of its role in the Guatemalan civil war that were strongly condemned by the report.

Prosecutions

* There has been very limited success in prosecuting perpetrators. Only one Guatemalan officer has been convicted of human rights violations related to the report. However, in 2010 additional trials began against former military officials. Three former soldiers are accused of crimes committed in the 1982 massacre in Dos Erres in Northern Guatemala.
* The commission’s final report was used in a case filed by Rigoberta Menchú Tum against the president of Congress in Guatemala, José Efraín Ríoas Montt and seven other militaries for their involvement in atrocities. On July 7, 2006, a Spanish judge ordered Efrain Rios Montt and his co-defendants to be taken into detention, and an international arrest warrant was issued. Since 2001, the case has also been investigated by the Guatemalan judiciary.
* In an agreement between the United Nations and the government of Guatemala, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) was set up and entered into force in September 2007. The CICIG is mandated to conduct independent investigations, present criminal complaints to Guatemala’s Public Prosecutor and take part in criminal proceedings as a complementary prosecutor. It also promotes legal and institutional reform and publishes periodic reports.
* In 2009, a retired colonel and three former paramilitaries were convicted for the forced disappearance of peasants during the civil war. After a civilian was sentenced to 150 years in prison earlier in 2009, this was the first successful prosecution of an army officer in connection with disappearances.

Reparations

* A National Reparations Commission was established in 2005, but decisions about policies and process have been slow.

Special Notes: Subsequent to the commission's work, a "Diario militar" (military logbook) was found that had registered the names and data of persons unlawfully arrested, tortured, and put to death by a unit of the security forces. The Forensic Anthropological Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG) continues to exhume mass graves contributing valuable information for further investigations.

Sources:

* Chapman, Audrey R. and Patrick Ball. "The Truth of Truth Commissions: Comparative Lessons from Haiti, South Africa, and Guatemala." Human Rights Quarterly 23, (2001): 1-43.
* Fundación de Antropología Forense. Available at http://www.fafg.org/ (accessed July 1, 2008).
* Grainger, Sarah. " First soldier convicted in Guatemala disappearances." Reuters, December 4, 2009. Available at http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE5B30MT20091204 (accessed January 14, 2010).
* Grainger, Sarah. "Guatemalan ex-soldiers on trial in landmark war case." Reuters, September 8, 2010. Available at http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N08148249.htm (accessed September 16, 2010).
* Hayner, Priscilla B. Unspeakable Truths: Facing the Challenge of Truth Commissions. New York: Routledge, 2002.
* Peterson, Trudy Huskamp. Final Acts: A Guide to Preserving the Records of Truth Commissions. Washington, D.C.; Baltimore: Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. Available at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/press/peterson_finalacts.pdf (accessed July 1, 2008).
* Rother, Larry. "Searing Indictment." New York Times, February 27, 1999. Available at http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E5D6143CF934A15751C0A96F958260 (accessed July 1, 2008).
* Tomuschat, Christian. "Clarification Commission in Guatemala." Human Rights Quarterly 23, (2001): 233-258.
* Trial Watch. "Efrain Rios Montt." Track Impunity Always (TRIAL). Available at http://www.trial-ch.org/en/trial-watch/profile/db/legal-procedures/efrain_rios-montt_260.html (accessed August 7, 2008).

BTS Applauds Appoitment of Dr. Claudia Paz y Paz as Attorney General of Guatemala

2010-12-10T09:31:00.000-08:00

The Maritimes Guatemala Breaking the Silence Solidarity Network, member of the Coordination for International Accompaniment in Guatemala (CAIG-ACOGUATE), congratulates Dr. Claudia Paz y Paz Bailey on her appointment as Attorney General and Head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Guatemala. Dr. Paz y Paz has worked tirelessly for Human Rights and particularly for Women’s Rights, as an academic, activist and lawyer. She was the Director of the UN High Commission for Refugees Legal Office and as the National Consultant for the UN Mission for Guatemala.

Dr. Paz y Paz also served as Director of the ICCPG, the Institute for Comparative Studies in Criminal Sciences in Guatemala. The ICCPG is an academic institution in the field of criminal policy and human rights, developing processes of investigation, training, advisory and divulging information to contribute to the construction of a movement of ideas and actions to influence through:

- The decrease of state and social violence through the promotion of alternative methods of resolution of conflicts and the recognition of the juridical pluralism in Guatemala.

- The strengthening of the agencies that administer justice.

- The strengthening of civil society's participation in the construction of a democratic criminal policy.

- The enforcement of the democratic State or right and the effective protection of human rights

We applaud the appointment of Dr. Paz y Paz, an extremely qualified and committed candidate and urge the Guatemalan State to create a safe working environment that fosters justice and an end to impunity in Guatemala, enabling Dr. Paz y Paz and the Public Prosecutor’s Office to go forward and make advances in their work.

Guatemala, December 10, 2010

International Day for Human Rights

BTS Condemns the Murder of Emilia Quan Stackmaann

2010-12-09T13:49:00.000-08:00

The Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Solidarity Network joins in the admonition of the kidnapping, torture and murder of Emilia Margarita Quan Stackmaann, who was found dead the morning of Wednesday, December 8, 2010, 24 hours after she went missing. Emilia was a sociologist working with CEDFOG, the Research and Documentation Centre of the Western Border of Guatemala and was en route to the municipality of Chiantla, Huehuetenango, when the crime occurred the morning of December 7.

According to CEDFOG, at 6:20am on December 7, the CEDFOG vehicle was intercepted by strongly armed men who kidnapped Emilia and the driver of the vehicle, Víctor López. Later, Mr. López was found abandoned, beaten, gagged with his hands and feet tied up and Emilia remained missing. That same day, at 8:30am, a vehicle of the Social Ministry Program of the Catholic Diocese was also intercepted a few meters from its offices located in San José. Inside was the Program’s Accountant, Manual Mendez, who was kidnapped and then abandoned in the community Naranjo, Huehuetenango.

The following day, December 8, Emilia Quan was found dead in the community of Cruz Canelish, between the municipalities of Chiantla and San Juan Ixcoy.

We join others in expressing our grave concern that these violence acts are related to the work of Emilia and CEDFOG, an organization that promotes human rights through social, cultural, political and economic research.

Along with national and international organizations, BTS demands that the Guatemalan State:
• Undertake a thorough investigation to find those intellectually responsible for the murder of Emilia and clarify the facts surrounding her murder
• Ensure an effective criminal investigation into the facts without hindering the investigation of all possible scenarios of what happened to help to clarify the facts.
• Ensure the safety of social and human rights organizations in Huehuetenango and all of Guatemala who work for development, security and justice.

We extend our most sincere and heartfelt condolences to the family of Emilia Margarita Quan Stackmaann. Her spirit and example will live on for those who continue to struggle for justice and a world where truth may be spoken freely.

Thank you, Emilia, for your gift of friendship, your example of justice and commitment to making this a better world. May you rest in peace. December 9, 2010

CHOC V. HUDBAY MINERALS

2010-12-08T15:49:00.000-08:00

GIVE THE GIFT OF JUSTICE & ACCOUNTABLITY

THIS YEAR-END & CHRISTMAS

CHOC v. HUDBAY MINERALS

A Precedent-setting Lawsuit in Canada Against Nickel Mining Giant

Dear friends:

Please consider donating funds for this hugely important and (hopefully) precedent-setting lawsuit and struggle that Rights Action is involved with, to hold accountable a Canadian nickel company - HudBay Minerals - for the killing of Adolfo Ich, a Mayan-Qeqchi (kek-chi, phonetically) man in Guatemala.
* TO MAKE A TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION OR GRANT: See below
* MORE INFORMATION about this struggle for justice and indigenous rights: Grahame Russell, co-director, info@rightsaction.org

Thank-you for your trust and support.

Grahame Russell & Annie Bird, co-directors
* * * * * * *
CHOC v. HUDBAY MINERALS

Precedent-setting Lawsuit in Canada Against Nickel Mining Giant

BACKGROUND

On December 1, 2010, I participated in a press conference in Toronto, along with Murray Klippenstein, lead counsel for Klippensteins Barristers & Solicitors. There was a simultaneous press conference in Guatemala. Here, I summarize from the Klippensteins press release:

* * *
LAWSUIT IN CANADA AGAINST MINING COMPANY RELATING TO KILLING OF MAYAN LEADER

For immediate release: December 1, 2010

Toronto, Canada and Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Angelica Choc and her lawyers announced today a lawsuit against Canadian mining company HudBay Minerals Inc. relating to the killing of her husband, Adolfo Ich Chamán.

On September 27, 2009, Adolfo Ich, a respected Mayan Q'eqchi' (Kek-chi, phonetically) community leader and an outspoken critic of environmental and health harms and other human rights violations caused by mining activities in his community, was hacked and shot to death by security forces employed at HudBay Minerals' "Fenix" Mining Project in an unprovoked attack near the town of El Estor, Guatemala.

Adolfo's widow has brought a lawsuit in Ontario courts to seek accountability for his death. The lawsuit claims $2 million in general damages and $10 million in punitive damages and is brought against Canadian companies HudBay Minerals Inc. and HMI Nickel Inc., as well as their Guatemalan subsidiary, Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel ("CGN").

Adolfo's murder was brutal. Mining security forces recognized Adolfo as a community leader, surrounded him, beat him and hacked at him with machetes before shooting him in the head at close range.

"I believe my husband was killed because he spoke out about the rights violations caused by Canadian mining in Guatemala" said Adolfo Ich's widow, Angelica Choc. "I believe he was killed because he was encouraging communities to stay united against the harmful practices of the mining company."

Angelica Choc has brought the lawsuit in Canada because of the strong connections between the mining project and Canada. "The bullet that killed Adolfo was shot in Guatemala" said Murray Klippenstein, lawyer for Angelica Choc. "But the decisions that ultimately led to Adolfo's death were made in Canada. HudBay Minerals' head office is a mere five blocks away from the Canadian court where the case will be heard."

Because Guatemala suffers from very high rates of impunity, there is little chance that Angelica Choc could get justice in Guatemala. In 2005, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Execution stated that "Guatemala is a good place to commit a murder, because you will almost certainly get away with it." In 2009, CICIG (the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala) reported that "the impunity rate in Guatemala amounted to some 98 per cent, with only 2 out of every 100 cases actually going to court".

The claim represents assertions that have not yet been proven in court. All defendants will have the opportunity to respond in these proceedings. For more information, see www.chocversushudbay.com

* * *
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT THIS STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE

Please view background films that Rights Action has supported and/or worked on:

* El Estor eviction 10 minute film, by Steven Schnoor: http://rightsaction.org/video/elestor/index.htm
* CTV's W5 special "Lost Paradise": http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/WFive/20100415/w5_paradise_lost_100415/

Please read:

* Rights Action's December 2 release: http://rightsaction.org/articles/Guate_Choc_vs_HudBay_120310.html

* Rights Action's December 6 release: http://rightsaction.org/articles/ChocVHudBay_media_coverage_120610.html

* "Formal Complaint", submitted by the University of Northern British Columbia and Rights Action to the Canadian government: http://rightsaction.org/articles/Complaint_HR_&Guate_Mining.html

RIGHTS ACTION & MINING-RELATED STRUGGLES

Since 2004, Rights Action has been funding and supporting a number of community development, human rights and environmental protection projects related to the harmful operations of international (mainly Canadian) mining companies in Guatemala and Honduras, and to a lesser extent in El Salvador and Chiapas.

These are struggles in favour of community controlled development, in favour of protecting the local environment and watershed regions, in favour of indigenous and human rights, while trying to stop, remedy and repair environmental and health harms and other human rights violations caused directly and indirectly by:

* HudBay Minerals' "Fenix" mine in Guatemala

* Goldcorp Inc's "Marlin" gold mine in Guatemala

* Goldcorp Inc's "San Martin" mine in Honduras

* Pacific Rim's planned gold mine in El Salvador; and

* Blackfire Exploration's barite mine in Chiapas

Most of our work is concentrated in the mining-harmed communities of Guatemala and Honduras.

IMPUNITY, NORTH & SOUTH

Each of these mining related struggles is characterized by impunity. No legal justice has been done in Guatemala or Honduras for any of the harms and violations. This is not due to a lack of legislation in Guatemala or Honduras; it is due to the historically entrenched and well documented impunity that characterizes Guatemala and Honduras.

No legal justice has been done in Canada, home to Goldcorp and HudBay (as well as Pacific Rim and Blackfire). This is due, significantly, to a lack of applicable criminal and civil legislation, and to a lack of political will. In large part, Canadian companies operate mines in countries like Guatemala and Honduras with immunity from criminal or civil prosecution and accountability in Canada.

CHALLENING IMPUNITY

Klippensteins is one of a few Canadian law firms trying to break the wall of immunity from prosecution in Canada, seeking ways to file suits in Canada against mining companies for harms and violations that their operations cause in other countries. At this time, they are also involved in a (hopefully) precedent-setting case concerning harms and violations linked to a Canadian mining company in Ecuador.

CHOC v. HUDBAY MINERALS

This case is important for the family of Adolfo Ich. Because of Guatemala's historic impunity, there is virtually no chance the family will achieve justice or remedy in Guatemalan courts. Angelica Choc's family deserves justice and remedy for their terrible loss.

This case is important for other Mayan-Qeqchi communities in the El Estor region that have historically, and on-going today, suffered human rights violations (including gang rapes, killings and forced evictions) at the behest of, or in the interests of Canadian nickel companies, including INCO, Skye Resources and now HudBay Minerals.

The case is also important with respect to all international mining companies operating in Guatemala, Honduras and elsewhere. Over the past 10 years, there has been growing awareness in Canada and the USA about the serious harms and violations caused by North American companies operating mines in many countries. And there is growing awareness about the lack of legal remedy available in Canada for harms and violations caused by Canadian companies.

There are important debates in Canada, right now, about Bills C-300 and C-354 that would provide varying degrees of long overdue administrative and/or civil law remedies. Bill C-300 was recently defeated in Parliament, and Bill C-354 is working its way, at a snail's pace, through the parliamentary bill reading process.

Thus, today in Canada, there are neither criminal nor civil laws that can be used. But, there are civil remedies that Common Law offers. This is the route that Klippenstein's is using in this case.

Comunidades de Población en Resistencia / Urbana Guatemalteca

2010-12-08T15:36:00.000-08:00

Photos and Stories of Guatemala's Women in Resistance...

http://cpr-urbana.blogspot.com/

Local Voices Unite in Music, Justice, Equality and Peace

2010-11-29T10:39:00.000-08:00

Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network launches holiday "Singing Solidarity" CD fundraiser

HALIFAX, NOVEMBER 2010 - Maritime artists are notorious for their generosity to their communities. "Singing Solidarity," a CD in support of the work of the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network (BTS), highlights Maritime artists' generosity to the global community, and to the people who are working locally to build a network of support and strength between Atlantic Canadians and Latin Americans.

"This CD not only supports the work of a local organization, but is also a beautiful collection of songs to have around for the holidays," says Kathryn Anderson of BTS. BTS is launching the CD in time for the holidays, in hopes that Maritimers will take the opportunity to support good work while shopping for friends and family this time of year.

"Singing Solidarity" features the voices of Lennie Gallant, Tara MacLean, Scott Parsons and Nancy White from Prince Edward Island; Coco Love Alcorn, Wilf Bean, Four the Moment, Cheryl Gaudet, Shauntay Grant, and Old Man Leudecke from Nova Scotia; Border Crossing, Cesar Morales and RA Lautenschlager from New Brunswick; and Carolyn McDade whose sings with performers from all over Canada and the US.

The CD is a compilation of songs and spoken word pieces from these artists, all of whom have donated a recording to the project. The voices speak of the love of a land and its rivers, and the rending and violence of a people separated from their land and water. They speak of individual and collective resistance, solidarity, dignity, hope and affirmation, and they evoke a commitment to justice, equality and peace.

“Contributing to this CD is an important way for me to say we are all connected as citizens in the world," says Wilf Bean. "In many ways, Guatemala is not very far away. We all need to be aware of how our actions affect those less powerful. It is also a way of celebrating while we work in solidarity for a more just, caring and sustainable world!”

All proceeds from sales of this CD will contribute to BTS's solidarity work. The CD is available a the Tatamagouche Centre gift shop (902-657-2231) and can be ordered by contacting Corrie Melanson in Halifax (corrie.melanson@bellaliant.net), Margie Loo in PEI (loomargie@gmail.com) and Tracy Glynn in Fredericton (tracy@jatam.org). The BTS network encourages those who want to buy the CD to get their orders in early to avoid holiday mail.

Stay tuned for "Singing Solidarity" launches in your community!

Urgent Action: Trade Unionist Mateo López Shot

2010-11-26T14:24:00.001-08:00

A Guatemalan trade unionist, Mateo López, was shot on 28 October in Catarina, San Marcos province, north-western Guatemala. He has now left the hospital, but remains at risk of further attacks. It is believed that he was targeted due to his trade union activities.

Mateo López is Secretary General of the local branch of the Health Trade Union (Sindicato de Salud) and a member of the coalition, National Front for the Struggle (Frente Nacional de Lucha - FNL). Since January 2010, he has been very active in denouncing corruption in the health service.

On 28 October, at 2am, Mateo López left his house to take a bus to Guatemala City, the capital of the country, in order to attend a general assembly of the Health Trade Union. In the agenda of the meeting, there was a talk on a corruption case which he campaigned against.

While walking towards a bus stop, a red motorbike with two men on it approached him. The man riding passenger shot him five times. Mateo López received a shot in the stomach, two shots grazed him over the right shoulder, and the final two shots grazed him in the knees. Mateo López fell to the ground. The men were about to shoot him once more, but people in neighbouring houses started to turn on their lights and make noise. The attackers escaped.

The Health Trade Union campaigns for access to public health services, while the FNL campaigns on broader themes like access to better standards of public services at affordable costs. The FNL has promoted campaigns against the high costs of electricity. In the last year, eight trade unionists belonging to the FNL have been killed. Those killings have not yet resulted in any convictions.

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in Spanish or your own language.
* Call for an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into the incident against Mateo López, with the results made public and those responsible brought to justice.
* Urge that the authorities take immediate steps to provide appropriate protection to Mateo López and his family, in accordance with their wishes.

DIRECT YOUR APPEALS TO:

Acting Attorney General:

Licda. Maria Encarnación Mejía García de Contreras
Fiscal General de la República Interina
15ª Avenida 15-16, Zona 1, Barrio Gerona
Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala
Fax: 011 502 2411 9124
Salutation: Dear Attorney General / Estimada Sra. Fiscal General

Ministry of Interior:

Lic. Carlos Menocal
Ministro de Gobernación
6ª Avenida 13-71, Zona 1
Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala
Fax: 011 502 2413 8658
Salutation: Dear Minister / Estimado Sr. Ministro

AND COPIES TO:

His Excellency Georges De La Roche Plihal
Ambassador for the Republic of Guatemala
130 Albert Street, Suite 1010
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5G4
Fax: (613) 233-0135
Email : consular@embaguate-canada.com

Unidad de protección a defensores y defensoras de derechos humanos, the Unit that protects human rights defenders:

UDEFEGUA
1 Calle 7-45 zona 1, Oficina 2-b
Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala
E-mail: udefegua@yahoo.com

"I WANTED HIM BACK ALIVE." AN ACCOUNT OF EDGAR FERNANDO GARCÍA'S CASE FROM INSIDE TRIBUNALS TOWER

2010-11-13T10:21:00.000-08:00

October 26, 2010, by Kate Doyle

http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2010/10/26/i-wanted-him-back-alive-%e2%80%9d-an-account-of-edgar-fernando-garcias-case-from-inside-tribunals-tower/#more-2110

Edgar Fernando García was 26 years old, an engineering student, labor activist and member of the clandestine Guatemalan Workers' Party (PGT) when he was seized by police agents off a street in Guatemala City and taken away forever. His disappearance left his young wife, Nineth Montenegro de García, and an 18-month-old daughter behind. It was February 18, 1984.

On October 18, 2010, the trial of two policemen accused of participating in Fernando García's abduction began inside a crowded courtroom on the 14th floor of the "Tribunals Tower" in downtown Guatemala City.

By 9:00 a.m., when the proceedings got underway, people had filled the fifty seats available in the spectators' gallery, with those unlucky enough to have arrived late lining the walls and crowding each other in the room's single doorway.

Behind a wooden barrier separating the audience from the court, three judges sat at a table on a raised dais overlooking the scene. To their right sat the defendants and their attorneys. To their left sat the prosecution, including the García family's choice for "querellante adhesivo," or "private prosecutor": attorney Alejandra García, Fernando's daughter.

The trial is extraordinary in several ways.

First, the indictments against Héctor Roderico Ramírez Ríos and Abraham Lancerio Gómez - as well as two other former policemen, Alfonso Guillermo de León and Hugo Rolando Gómez Osorio, both fugitives - were the first to be based on evidence found by investigators among records inside the Historical Archive of the National Police.

Second, if the court rules against the defendants and it is upheld by the Constitutional Court, it will be the third conviction in Guatemala for forced disappearance - after the landmark Aug. 31, 2009 Choatalum decision and the El Jute ruling on Dec. 3, 2009 - and thus would establish a lasting precedent for future cases.

That means that appeals would no longer be able to be made on the grounds that "forced disappearance" is not a valid or legitimate grounds for criminal charges.

FERNANDO GARCÍA IN THE DIARIO MILITAR

But the most interesting and groundbreaking aspect of the trial only became evident as the proceedings unfolded. Witnesses who had been called to testify about their relationship with Fernando García and events surrounding his disappearance spoke openly about his - and their own - militancy in the Guatemalan insurgent movement.

It was the first time that people willingly exposed their links to the political opposition that was the target for state repression during the country's 36-year internal armed conflict.

I joined four other expert witnesses on behalf of the prosecution. Over two days (Oct. 18-19), the experts and six witnesses presented testimony and answered questions posed by government lawyers and attorneys for the defense.

Although the men currently on trial are the agents who carried out the initial capture of Fernando García, the experts coincided strongly in their conclusions about the National Police's centralized chain of command at the time of his disappearance, as well as the key role played by the Army high command in launching the operation and coordinating their forces with the police.

"GOVERNMENTAL SECURITY SERVICES HAVE EMPLOYED ASSASSINATION..."

My own testimony was based on U.S. declassified records produced at the time of García's disappearance by the State Department and the U.S. embassy in Guatemala (some of them have been posted on the National Security Archive's Web site).

They describe a planned campaign on the part of the Guatemalan government to kidnap and kill trade union activists and student leaders linked to the opposition. In a secret analysis written on February 23, 1984, for example, the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research reported a "new wave of violence" launched by military and police under head of state General Oscar Mejía Víctores, targeting a broad swath of Guatemala's legal and clandestine opposition.

"Government security services have employed assassination to eliminate persons suspected of involvement with the guerrillas or who are otherwise left-wing in orientation," wrote U.S. officials, pointing in particular to the army's "notorious presidential intelligence service (archivos)" and the National Police, "who have traditionally considered labor activists to be communists."

This and other U.S. documents provide context for Fernando García's kidnapping as well as describe a pattern and practice on the part of Guatemalan security forces to use forced disappearance in their war against their political opponents.

Daniel Guzmán, a statistician from the Human Rights Data Analysis Group of California-based Benetech, followed me as an expert witness, introducing the records contained in the Historical Archive of the National Police with a statistical analysis of the quantity and movement of documents found in the collection.

According to Guzmán, documents concerning the Fernando García case flowed between entities high in the chain of police command (such as the Director's office, the Police Corps commanders and the Joint Operations Center) at twice the rate that occurred within the estimated 31 million records produced by the National Police between 1960 and 1996, the years of the armed civil conflict.

His conclusions helped define the universe of police records consulted in the investigation into the crime and offered supporting evidence of the involvement of senior police and military structures in the planning, design, orders and oversight of the operation that resulted in García's abduction.

The most extensive and important expert testimony of the day, however, came from the Police Archive's own investigator, Velia Muralles Bautista. Muralles described and displayed on a screen set up inside the courtroom images of some of the key records found in the police archive related to the crime. Her presentation provided chilling bureaucratic details behind the "cleansing operation" (operación de limpieza) launched by the army high command and National Police on the day of Fernando García's kidnapping.

As Muralles walked the judges through dozens of records leading up to and including the day of the disappearance, everyone present was able to examine projections of the surveillance files tracking García's movements beginning in 1978; intelligence reports describing CAVISA, the trade union he belonged to, as a subversive organization; orders sent by the army general staff to prepare for the operation in January and February 1984; records from the Joint Operations Center (Centro de Operaciones Conjuntas: COC) commanding which units would be involved; and a hand-drawn map of Guatemala City, with Zone 11 - the area where García and his companion, Danilo Chinchilla, were captured - assigned to the Fourth Corps of the National Police.

The document with the most immediate impact on the proceedings was a recommendation from the National Police hierarchy that the defendants - Ramírez Ríos, Lancerio Gómez, and the two fugitive police agents - be considered for a medal for their heroic actions on the day, at the time, and in the place of the capture of Edgar Fernando García and Danilo Chinchilla: "On February 18, 1984, at 11:00 a.m., while carrying out an Operation in the Guard's Market, Zone 11, they were attacked by two subversives, from whom they seized subversive propaganda and firearms."

The testimony given by Muralles was extraordinary in the depth of its analysis, and established beyond doubt the firm control in the hands of the most senior officers of Guatemala's army and police institutions of the operation that ended with Fernando García's disappearance.

In addition to the experts, six witnesses gave heartrending testimony about their relationship to García and their knowledge of the crime. Nineth Montenegro de García, today a representative in the Guatemalan Congress, spoke about her last day with her husband and described how the terrible realization that he had disappeared dawned on her and his relatives as night fell and he failed to show up for a family party.

Her reaction was to mobilize and begin combing the city for Fernando. "I filed a habeas corpus request the next day. I spoke to Héctor Bol de la Cruz, Director of the National Police. I spoke with the commanders of the police corps. I looked in jails, I spoke to firemen [famous in Guatemala for retrieving bodies from the city's streets], I visited institutions for the disabled. I contacted Mejía Víctores directly. So many other friends and colleagues had been disappeared under his government. I went to Mejía Víctores with my daughter in my arms and I begged him to help me. I went to the United Nations. I wanted him back alive."

Montenegro went on to found the Mutual Support Group (Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo: GAM), Guatemala's first human rights organization.

Another of GAM's co-founders, Doña Amelia García, Fernando's 83-year-old mother, also appeared as a witness. After waiting patiently for hours for her turn, Doña Amelia gave the court a glimpse of the suffering endured by the families of the disappeared. "I feel a mother's pain in waiting for news about her son every day, every week, every year - and still living with hope. I wait for a response from the people who took him. But I have never received a response from anyone."

Marina Villagrán gave a moving psycho-social evaluation of the "lingering anguish" of forced disappearance on the families left behind, and specifically addressed its impact on the relatives of Fernando García.

She explained that the target of the disappearance is society: "it creates an enormous fear and mistrust within society. One thinks, 'if this could happen to him, it could happen to me.' And that produces in turn an absolute paralysis on political participation."

Ana Lucrecia Molina Theissen, whose 14-year-old brother was disappeared in 1981, was the person Fernado and Danilo Chinchilla were on their way to meet when they were seized by police. It was Molina Theissen who first told the court of García's militancy: "We were members of the Guatemalan Workers' Party (Partido Guatemalteco de Trabajadores: PGT)."

Her testimony was an astonishingly brave and open acknowledgement of the political activities that she, García and Chinchilla were involved in. To a hushed courtroom, she recounted how she arrived late to her planned rendezvous with the two men and found them gone. It was only the next day that she learned what had happened. "It was a very hard blow," she told the judges.

When asked by the prosecution what the objectives of the PGT were, she explained simply that "The goals of the party were to construct a just, supportive and democratic society, in which all would share in the benefits of the country."

"Did you ever consider yourself to be a combatant?" asked the government lawyer. "Combatant, that means armed, participating in an armed group. No. We were militants." Molina Theissen explained how she and her companions were targeted by the State as "internal enemies": "in the sense that the State considered anyone who criticized the government an internal enemy. To oppose the government was an illegal act for the State."

Other witnesses contributed their accounts of García's political work. Ruth del Valle, current President of the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission, talked about how PGT members operated in small, clandestine groups to organize people. "We believed we could achieve justice and create a Guatemala in which all could live in peace in a socialist nation - because we embraced the socialist ideology. Despite the persecution and despite all the colleagues we had lost, we remained convinced that this was possible."

Bethy Palacios, a friend of Fernando's and fellow PGT member, told of working with Nineth after his kidnapping to investigate the crime. "Even then we ran the risk of being targeted as terrorists or subversives for the work we were doing. It wasn't like today; you couldn't express yourself freely as you can now."

Witnesses Iduvina Hernández and Aura Elena Farfán described a missing piece of the puzzle of that day in telling of the fate of Fernando's companion, Danilo Chinchilla. Although both men were shot by police when they tried to flee the marketplace, Fernando was spirited away in an unmarked car while Danilo was taken by ambulance to a local hospital.

Hernández played for the court an audio tape of an interview conducted with Chinchilla days after incident. In it, he recounts in minute detail how the operation unfolded, as police agents and armed men in civilian clothing swarmed around the two in the middle of the crowded street. After Chinchilla was transported to Hospital Roosevelt, he lay wounded in a bed surrounded by his captors.

In fear for his life, he managed to smuggle out a note to a companion begging to be rescued. The nurse who carried the note for him was Farfán. She gave it to her brother, Ruben Amilcar, who successfully organized a rescue operation with the help of some of the hospital staff. Ruben himself was disappeared months later, on May 15.

Danilo, who survived his first encounter with the police, was recaptured and killed later that year, along with his companion.

After ten hours of wrenching testimony, the judges called a recess until the following day. We reassembled in the courtroom on Tuesday to hear the final two experts, Rember Larios - a former member of the National Police who added his own assessment of the police records and their implications for the senior tier of police and military officials involved in the crime - and Fernando López, who gave his expert analysis of habeas corpus law at the time of García's disappearance.

Thus ended the first phase of the Fernando García trial. The trial resumes this morning with the last witnesses to present and the lawyers' arguments. Stay tuned.

Human Rights Accompaniment Training: June 2011

2010-11-07T17:18:00.000-08:00

We will be hosting our next accompanier training, June 11-14, 2011 at the
Tatamagouche Centre, NS and we are eager to get the word out and recruit for
the new round of accompanier applicants.

Our best recruiters and 'word-spreaders' have been the BTS network, so
please consider flyering for us at your local schools, universities,
cooperatives, collectives, bookstores, etc. Please see the attached poster to
print and post; and please forward this e-mail far and wide to your networks.

The deadline for EXPRESSION OF INTEREST is March 31, 2011. You can find
the application information here: http://www.breaking-the-silence.ca/accompaniment.htm (see Become An Accompanier link on the right).

Please forward on (or check out the info yourself!) to those who may be
interested.

*** Some background information:

Currently, BTS accompaniers support ACOGUATE as they accompany individuals and organizations in several regions of the country whose work encompasses themes around impunity, security and justice, land rights and self-determination. This includes the on-going accompaniment of the members of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), who are witnesses to the massacres and violence of the genocidal period of the late 70s and early 80s, community organizations struggling against mining and hydroelectric projects on their land and human rights organizations challenging endemic impunity and corruption within the Guatemalan state. The requests for accompaniment from these groups are evaluated and responded to by ACOGUATE’s Guatemala City-based accompaniment team which represents 10 different international solidarity and human rights organizations from North America and Europe.

BTS accompaniers have provided human rights accompaniment to the witnesses
and human rights organizations working on the genocide cases since their
inception in 2000. It is extremely important to continue this work. If you
are interested in becoming an accompanier or taking the human rights
accompaniment training which is an excellent training for anyone interested
in human rights work, please contact Janelle the BTS accompaniment
coordinator: btsaccompaniment@gmail.com

“Have a Fair Trade Christmas” campaign launched

2010-11-07T17:12:00.001-08:00

Two local social justice groups have joined forces to launch the province’s first Fair Trade Christmas campaign.

The “Have a Fair Trade Christmas” campaign is aimed at encouraging shoppers to consider gifts that are ethically produced, environmental sustainable, and the workers receive fair wages for their work.

Rick McDaniel is director of International programming at the YMCA and founder of Culture’s Boutique - the city’s first fair trade store, located in downtown Fredericton.

“What sets Culture’s Boutique apart is not just the unique products from around the world, but that we ensure that the artisans are paid fairly and that labor conditions are safe and non-exploitative,” said McDaniel. “The purchases by Cultures are also guided by the principle that the raw materials used to make the items sold are harvested in a sustainable and environmentally responsible manner. “

Culture’s Boutique has teamed up with the local Chapter of the Martime-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network (BTS) for the campaign. In 2001, BTS launched its own of brand of Breaking the Silence coffee, to support a cooperative of small farmers in Guatemala by creating a market in the Maritimes for their dark roast, organic coffee. The coffee is roasted by Just Us coffee in Nova Scotia.

“It has been a difficult year for our partners in Guatemala because of severe flooding and landslides. Many families have lost their homes and community buildings,” says BTS member Valerie Kilfoil. “One of the ways we can all make a difference is by using our buying power to support fair trade. Our partners in Guatemala do not want hand outs. They want a sustainable livelihood based on fairness and respect. That is what fair trade is based on.”

Kilfoil said the idea for the “Have a Fair Trade Christmas campaign” came about because of the current situation of their partners in Guatemala. “The situation is quite desperate in some areas where they need rebuild their communities. So the more coffee we sell, the more they earn. And this coffee is not only delicious, but it makes really great stocking stuffers or Christmas gifts for those hard to buy for people.”

Teaming up with Culture’s Boutique, which also has its own Honduran Solidarity Blend of coffee roasted by Just Us, offers shoppers a wide selection of fair trade projects. Culture’s offers unique jewellery, clothing, decorations, handicrafts and other gift ideas from around the world

The two organizations have set up a FairtradeNB Facebook site where different products and special offers will be featured between now and Christmas. BTS will be offering a special $10 Christmas gift bag of one 12 oz bag of Breaking the Silence organic, dark roast coffee (ground or beans) and one fair trade chocolate bar (organic dark or milk chocolate).

Please visit the Facebook site for more information!

BTS COFFEE FOR SALE!

2010-11-07T17:05:00.000-08:00

Glorious, delicious BTS coffee (ground and whole bean) for sale!

$10 a bag... that beats the store price these days and over $3 per bag goes to human rights accompaniment.

So how can you go wrong? With the chilly days of fall here, birthdays, work parties, and the holidays just around the corner order your "Justice in a Cup" coffee as soon as possible!

Please e-mail directly: btsaccompaniment@gmail.com

Guatemala’s New Civil Conflict: The Case of Ramiro Choc

2010-11-01T06:26:00.001-07:00

https://nacla.org/node/6706

Aug 30 2010
Susan Fitzpatrick-Behrens

On February 14, 2008 six police officers pulled community leader Ramiro Choc from a public bus to Guatemala City, detained him, and took him to an unknown location. In the seconds before the police reached him, Choc had called his lawyer — a call he believed saved his life. Choc, a Q’eqchi’ community leader, has been fighting for indigenous people’s land rights in Guatemala’s volatile departments of Alta Verapaz and Izabal since the 1990s. His story illustrates both the tension and boisterous mobilization of the people around land and natural resource issues in this area of Guatemala. To this mobilization, the Guatemalan government is responding by criminalizing peasant leaders, militarizing regions slated for development projects, and using environmental “protected areas” to exclude indigenous people. This combination of ingredients has become the core of Guatemala’s new civil conflict.

The federal government arrested Choc on trumped up charges of occupying and stealing land, aggravated robbery, and illegal detention. He has now been sentenced to six years in prison in a case in which Guatemala’s National Police provided most of the testimony against him. The accusations came after he mediated a land dispute between an indigenous community and a powerful landowner, when called in by the governor of the department of Izabal as a moral authority. Most likely, however, it wasn’t Choc’s mediation skills that landed him in prison, it was his years of community activism.

This is nothing new for Guatemala’s indigenous leaders, who systematically face harassment and criminalization when they fight to protect their land, resources, and way of life. The Unidad de Defensores/as de Derechos Humanos en Guatemala (UDEFGUA) reports 592 cases of criminalization of defenders of human rights between 2004 and 2009. In 2004, a law established “aggravated usurpation [of land]” as a criminal offense punishable by two to six years in prison, opening the door for these cases. Since the passage of the 2004 law, large landowners have worked with national and multinational corporations and local political authorities to denounce “invaders,” which almost always are people from indigenous, rural, and economically poor communities, and then work in concert to displace these communities from their land. This is how Guatemala’s new resource conflict is executed.

Alta Verapaz and Izabal, where Choc has been working actively for the past two decades to restore land to indigenous communities, together represent nearly half of these cases. These departments are at the core of inextricably linked development projects that include the construction of the Franja Transversal del Norte (FTN) a highway that, when its construction is finished, will run from Mexico to Colombia, traversing the region where mining, petroleum, and hydroelectric dams are concentrated in Guatemala. The FTN also will run through the Technological Corridor Project (CTG) a $12 billion private initiative supported by USAID to link Guatemala’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts through two new ports in Izabal and Jutiapa, a four-lane highway, cargo rail, an international airport, and inter-oceanic oil and gas pipelines. (Business News Americas Feb. 12, 2010) Although the government presents these transportation innovations as means to benefit the indigenous communities that dominate these regions, they are principally designed to provide transport for the products of the rising number of mega-projects being developed along the FTN.

In Alta Verapaz and Izabal these mega-projects include hydroelectric dams, petroleum exploitation, mining, and export agriculture. Choc is only one of the thousands of Q’eqchi’ people in these departments actively mobilizing to stop or delay “development projects.” The successes have been important and startling, and most likely are the motive behind new governmental strategies used against activist communities.

In the Ixcán, 144 communities came together in 2007 for a non-binding popular consultation regarding Xalalá, a hydroelectric dam central to Guatemala’s development programs. Nineteen thousand of the 21,155 who took part in the consultation opposed the dam, leading to the withdrawal of international funding in 2008 and a hold on the project. In San Marcos, indigenous communities with the support of national unions and environmental groups engaged in massive protest and an appeal to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (CIDH) in order to stop Canadian Gold Corp/Marlin Mines from mining exploitation. The CIDH supported their appeal and this month, the government conceded and stopped mining operations, which have grossly contaminated water, land, and air, leading to birth defects and illness among Maya residents of the municipalities of Sipacapa y San Miguel Ixtahuacán. In San Juan Sacatepequez, Maya communities are providing to “Cementos Progreso,” a private company that has a monopoly on the manufacture of cement in Guatemala, which is working to establish a cement factory in the area. The factory would have a devastating environmental impact, primarily dust pollution.

Indigenous communities have been so successful at organizing, that CGN, a Nickel Mining subsidiary of Canadian HudBay Resources, whose Fenix Project dominates the department of Izabal, has included a statement in its annual report to shareholders asserting that “uncertain land tenure for many indigenous people, could have adverse effects on the Fenix Project. Such adverse effects could result from the local populations encroaching on Fenix Project land, challenging the boundaries of such land, impeding Fenix Project activities through roadblocks or other public manifestations or attacking Fenix Project assets or personnel.” (Hudbay Minerals Annual Information Form, March 31, 2009 at http://www.sedar.com) In other words, these mobilizations have become a threat to foreign investment, and the Guatemalan government is aware of this.

In July, Guatemala’s president Alvaro Colom renewed a 15-year petroleum-extraction contract for Perenco, a French company drilling in the center of the Laguna del Tigre national park, a protected area in Guatemala’s northern jungles in the Petén. Ominously, the contract included the condition that the company provide $5 million to support six newly established military bases of “Green Batallions” in the Petén to guard the “protected areas” by ensuring that they contained no “illegal settlements.” The “illegal settlements” are often indigenous communities that have been declared “invaders” and expelled because of the “environmental degradation” they might cause.

In addition to re-establishing military bases in the Petén, Colom’s government has announced plans to re-establish military bases in the Ixcán, San Marcos, Izabal, and Rabinal,Baja Verapaz. These are the very regions devastated by military repression and massacres during Guatemala’s thirty-six year armed conflict (1960-1996). Opening military bases in a country where a civil war killed 200,000 people (93% attributed to the army) seems to be a strong political statement with implicit threats. Significantly, these are the regions where the new mega-projects associated with the FTN are being established. The government argues that it is responding to community demands for protection against “delinquency,” but indigenous leaders argue that those appeals come from the ladino-dominated urban centers of the departments with ties to political and economic interests, while most rural Maya communities oppose re-militarization.

Militarized zones, like the “Green Batallions” in the Petén, strengthen the government’s ability to expel “invaders.” In Livingston, Izabal, the site of the conflict that led to Ramiro Choc’s imprisonment, the situation is especially acute. Powerful national and multinational companies (including Perenco), large local landowners, politicians, and drug traffickers all seek to control land.

Choc’s situation illustrates the risks of activism in Guatemala. He has been intimately involved in these struggles working with the Committee for Campesino Unity (CUC), the Coordinadora Nacional Indigena y Campesina (CONIC), the Catholic Church, and later with a group called Campesino Encounter to help indigenous communities restore legal control over their land in Izabal and Alta Verapaz. Guatemala’s El Periódico reports that of the 132 land conflicts in Izabal, authorities identify 15 as “illegal occupation.” Campesino Encounter is engaged in five of those 15 cases, and has been less willing to “settle” when landed interests demand that Q’eqchi’ communities abandon their ancestral lands.

If Choc is forced to complete his prison term of six years, his experience of the land he has devoted his life to defending will be reduced to tending the Jacaranda and Chico trees that he has been allowed to cultivate in his prison Section’s “courtyard.” As Sergio Manfredo Beltetón, an attorney for CUC representing Choc, concluded, Ramiro Choc is identified as a political prisoner for the simple reason that if he were not a leader, he would not be in prison. One method the government is using to resolve peasant conflicts with powerful economic interests, concluded Beltetón, is through criminal prosecution. It is the “criminalization of the peasant struggle.”

Carmen Mejia is at risk because she campaigns to protect human rights threatened by a mining company

2010-10-25T05:38:00.000-07:00

http://www.amnesty.ca/atrisk/index.php/carmen-mejia/?utm_source=speakout&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AtRisk

Carmen's Story

Carmen Mejía is from a Mayan community in Guatemala. Her life is at risk because she is campaigning against impacts of mining on her community's human rights.

“You shouldn’t defend human rights, or you’ll be killed.”

Carmen received this warning several times in June. Carmen works for a development organization that represents members of Indigenous communities seeking to protect their right to water, land, housing, freedom of expression and cultural identity. She has spoken at public meetings about her concerns about the Marlin Mine, which is owned by a subsidiary of Canadian mining company Goldcorp.

In July, a month after Carmen received death threats, someone shot her fellow grassroots activist, Deodora Hernandez, in the eye at close range. At the time, Deodora was speaking out about the impact of a mine on her community's water supply. She was seriously wounded, but she survived. The attempt on Deodora’s life underscores how seriously we must take the threats made against Carmen Mejía.

TAKE ACTION: Please add your name to Amnesty's petition to the Guatemalan authorities calling on them to respect the rights of Carmen Mejía and other community activists seeking to protect their right to water, land, housing, freedom of expression and cultural identity. IT ONLY TAKES A MINUTE TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT:

http://www.amnesty.ca/atrisk/index.php/carmen-mejia/?utm_source=speakout&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AtRisk#take-action

Open Letter to President of Simon Fraser University upon receipt of multi-million dollar donation from Goldcorp Inc.

2010-10-08T12:47:00.000-07:00

Simon Fraser University
President Andrew Petter
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, BC, Canada, V5A-1S6
petter@sfu.ca, 250.721.8183, 778.782.4641, 778.782.4860

Dear Mr. Petter,

First let me congratulate you, belatedly, on your appointment as president of Simon Fraser University.

Although we have never met, I cherish your family. Mrs. Petter, your dear mother, was my ballet teacher in Nelson in the 70s, and once she even came to our house and made authentic Austrian apple strudel with my mother. Your sister, Marion, Miss Petter to me then and forever, was one of the most important persons in my life.

When I was in grade two, Nelson was a narrow place. I was a weird child, obsessed with reading and writing. I had decided to discard my given name, Maureen, and adopt the much more poetic, Emilie. Life was hard and people, especially boys, were mean. Your sister released me from this constricting environment, and quite literally opened the world up, affirming my right to be me, fierce and different. She told me to read my head off, and to write, write, write.

Miss Petter's gift is the reason I find myself here, in the high, cold mountains of Guatemala. I am an Anglican priest, and a theologian, and a writer. Here I have found myself in the midst of the swirling debate around Canadian mining interests, which are prowling the country, and digging up a huge mess, just to the west of me, under the banner of Goldcorp, Inc.

We Canadians are considered in these lands to be the new conquistadores. We have come to pillage and to steal, and to leave nothing behind in our wake, but a few shaky schools, a road or two, and communities polluted and divided.

So distraught was I a few years ago to discover that Canadians are heading these rapacious and devastating practices that I pulled up short half-way through my master's degree, changed my thesis topic, and researched and wrote about Maya concepts of Sacred Land.

That is why I was shocked and horrified to read that our beloved Simon Fraser University has accepted a pay-off of $10 million dollars from Goldcorp, ostensibly to fund its new Arts Centre in Vancouver's downtown eastside.

Let me tell you a few things I have learned about Goldcorp during my five years of engagement with this topic:

Goldcorp Inc. has stained these sacred hills where I live. Their controversial Marlin mine, built without proper community consultation, on the treasured land of the Maya-Mam and Maya-Sipakapense peoples, has caused untold strife and divisions in the area. Water sources have been contaminated, and the sheer quantity of water-used in the open-pit, cyanide-leaching process - six million litres a day - is inconceivable in a region where housewives and farmers have struggled with extreme water shortages.

There have been two murders of community activists protesting the mine, and just this past July, Diodora Hernandez, a neighbour and vocal opponent to the mine, was shot in the face by unknown gunmen. Miraculously, she survived.

The communities of Sipakapa, and San Miguel Ixtahuacan, where the mine is located, have held referendums rejecting mining, elected anti-mining mayors and councils, have visited the World Bank (who proportioned a $45 million loan to set up the "low-cost" Marlin mine). They have undertaken countless actions to defend their land.

On May 20th of this year, the Organization of American States, through their Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, issued precautionary measures to the Guatemalan government ordering the closure of the mine. In June, the UN Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Rights, James Anaya, declared after a visit to the mining region, his particular concern with the way Goldcorp has ignored the community consultation process. On June 26th the weak and ineffectual Guatemalan government asked Goldcorp to pretty-please shut down.

The mine has churned away, their Guatemalan and Canadian directors willfully ignoring these directives, from the highest to the most humble sources.

Goldcorp has made me ashamed to be Canadian. If people here ask where I'm from, I answer, truthfully, that I was born in Argentina. In truth, I have dedicated myself in these hills to manifesting a different kind of Canadian. One who bases her actions on listening and respect.

My region, Santa Cruz del Quiche, is gearing up this coming month to hold its consulta comunitaria de buena fe. Eighty-seven villages in the municipality will raise their hands and decide - are they going to permit the introduction of mining in their territory, on their sacred land?

The Maya have suffered - and survived - the original Spanish invasion, then the most brutal genocide when between 1978 - 1985 more than 200,000 were murdered by state forces. A Maya compadre told me that the difference between the Maya before the genocide and now, is that now the communities know and understand about their rights -- their nationally and internationally-recognised rights to be who they are, to act and to think differently from the dominant culture.

Goldcorp sees the mountain, and dollar signs glow in their eyes. The Maya are in love with their treasured Mother Earth, they know how to tend to her, to care for her, to coax her time and again to share her abundance with her often ungrateful children.

Now then, dear Mr. Petter, I ask you in the name of all Guatemalans hurt now by the Marlin mine and its horrendous practices, and those who will be damaged in the future, to say no thank you to Goldcorp's blood money. And next time you see Miss Petter, please tell her that her gift to me, the gift of free and responsible thinking to a seven-year old, has never been forgotten.

Emilie

Wrenching Testimony and a Historic Sentence: US Court Convicts Dos Erres Perpetrator for Lying about Role in Massacre.

2010-10-08T09:29:00.000-07:00

http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/wrenching-testimony-and-a-historic-sentence-us-court-convicts-dos-erres-perpetrator-for-lying-about-role-in-massacre/#more-1926

September 17, 2010
by Kate Doyle

History was made yesterday when a U.S. District Court Judge in Southern Florida, William J. Zloch, sentenced former Guatemalan special forces soldier Gilberto Jordán to ten years in federal prison. Jordán was convicted of lying on his citizenship application to hide his role in the 1982 massacre of hundreds of unarmed civilians in Dos Erres, Guatemala. In condemning Jordán to the maximum time allowed by law for naturalization fraud, Judge Zloch made clear that he intended the ruling to send a clear message that “those who commit egregious human rights violations abroad” cannot find “safe haven from prosecution” in the United States. The sentence marks the first time that any of the dozens of Kaibil special forces who carried out the murders almost 28 years ago has been prosecuted.

The Dos Erres massacre took place as the most intense phase of the Guatemalan government’s scorched earth policies was winding down in December 1982. According to witness testimony, and corroborated through U.S. declassified archives, the Kaibiles entered the town of Dos Erres on the morning of December 6, 1982, and separated the men from women and children. They started torturing the men and raping the women and by the afternoon they had killed almost the entire community, including the children. More than 250 people are believed to have died, their bodies thrown into a dry well or left in nearby fields.

Jordán, who was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at his home in Delray, Florida, on May 5, confessed to throwing a baby down the well at the start of the massacre and bringing dozens of other men, women and children to the well to be killed. His crime in the United States, however, was lying on the form he filled out in 1996 when he applied to become a United States citizen. On the form, he did not reveal his 12-year service in the Guatemalan Army, and he failed to check the box asking “Have you ever committed a crime or offense for which you were not arrested?”

Normally, sentencing guidelines recommend 0-6 months followed by deportation for naturalization fraud. The U.S. criminal code allows for a sentence outside the suggested range, however, if “there exists an aggravated or mitigating circumstance of any kind… not taken into consideration by the Sentencing Commission…” In his Fort Lauderdale courtroom yesterday, Judge Zloch called the crimes committed by Jordán by participating in the massacre “unprecedented,” noting that there was no example in previous cases of a defendant having lied about “participating in mass murder.”

The sentencing hearing began on September 15, when Jordán was led by a U.S. marshal into the courtroom wearing a beige prison uniform, his ankles shackled and hands cuffed before him. He hobbled to the defense table and was given headphones so that he could listen to the proceedings in Spanish through an interpreter. Behind him sat his wife and other members of his family, including a son in a U.S. Marines uniform.

Also present was Ramiro Osorio Cristales, now 33 years old, who was five when his family was killed during the massacre. Ramiro – who took the stand for the government as one of the only two known surviving witnesses of the Dos Erres massacre – described watching as his mother, younger brother and baby sister were murdered by the Kaibil soldiers. He saw the bodies of his father and four more brothers in the ruins of the village as he was led away once the killing was over. Ramiro survived because one of the Kaibles responsible for the slaughter of his family decided to adopt him.

In asking for an increased sentence, government attorney Hillary Davidson argued that the “atrocities” committed by Jordán and his fellow Kaibiles were “inextricably intertwined with the lie Jordán told” to gain citizenship. Though Jordán’s defense lawyer Robin Rosen-Evans pointed out that Jordán had lived peacefully in the United States for more than twenty years and urged the judge to consider only the “act of concealment” in his sentencing decision, Davidson countered that the hearing was not about “a paradigmatic naturalization fraud case where the crime is shoplifting,” but concerned acts of mass murder that “wiped an entire village off the face of this earth.”

The judge agreed, and appeared incredulous at some of the arguments made by the defense. When Rosen-Evans asked the court to recognize that Jordán had been acting during the massacre under orders from his superiors, Judge Zloch shot back: “Well, if that’s the case then individuals on trial at Nuremberg would not have been convicted.”

The hearing ended following the lawyers’ final arguments and resumed the next day with Judge Zloch’s decision. Calling the crime “reprehensible,” the judge stated that he was “unaware of a more serious basis of immigration fraud than the mass murder of innocent civilians.” He pointed out that by achieving citizenship Jordán hid his brutal past from the United States government and from “his neighbors,” and avoided justice in Guatemala. In calling for the maximum of ten years, Zloch said, “Anything less would be totally inadequate as just punishment for this crime.”

The ruling was the result of an innovative collaboration between the Department of Justice and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the working level. Lawyers, analysts and agents worked together for more than a year to identify Jordán and three other former Kaibiles allegedly involved in the massacre, now living in the United States. Jordán is the first of the four cases to go to trial.

Despite Judge Zloch’s suggestion that Jordán has evaded Guatemalan justice by living in the United States, there has been no conviction in Guatemala for the terrible massacre. Although the government opened a criminal investigation in 1994 with the first exhumation of bodies from the well, the case has been pending for 16 years and only recently appeared to take on new life. On September 8, a judge in Guatemala ruled that three of 17 former Kaibiles accused of taking part in the massacre can now be tried. The trial is expected to start within days. Among the evidence the prosecution will seek to introduce are declassified U.S. documents provided by the National Security Archive. The documents reveal shortly after the Kaibil operation, U.S. officials investigated the massacre and concluded that the Army was the only force capable of such an organized atrocity. The National Security Archive obtained the documents through Freedom of Information requests sent on behalf of our Guatemala Documentation Project in 1995.

Sorry: US Apologizes for Syphilis and Gonorrhea Experiments on Guatemalans

2010-10-02T11:01:00.000-07:00

US researchers infected patients with STDs without their consent in the 1940s

by Robert Bazell

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/10/01-6

US government medical researchers intentionally infected hundreds of people in Guatemala, including institutionalized mental patients, with gonorrhea and syphilis without their knowledge or permission more than 60 years ago.

US Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius apologized for the United States Friday for funding a 1940s study in which hundreds of Guatemalans were deliberately infected with syphilis and gonorrhea without their consent. Many of those infected were encouraged to pass the infection onto others as part of the study.

About one third of those who were infected never got adequate treatment.

On Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius offered extensive apologies for actions taken by the U.S. Public Health Service.

"The sexually transmitted disease inoculation study conducted from 1946-1948 in Guatemala was clearly unethical," according to the joint statement from Clinton and Sebelius. "Although these events occurred more than 64 years ago, we are outraged that such reprehensible research could have occurred under the guise of public health. We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices."

The apology was directed to Guatemala and to Hispanic residents of the United States, according to officials.

A telebriefing with Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health and Arturo Valenzuela, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Affairs is expected around 11 a.m. ET.

The episode raises inevitable comparisons to the infamous Tuskegee experiment, the Alabama study where hundreds of African-American men were told they were being treated for syphilis, but in fact were denied treatment. That U.S. government study lasted from 1932 until press reports revealed it in 1972.

The Guatemala experiments, which were conducted between 1946 and 1948, never provided any useful information and the records were hidden.

They were discovered by Susan Reverby, a professor of women's studies at Wellesley College, and was posted on her website.

According to Reverby's report, the Guatemalan project was co-sponsored by the U.S. Public Health Service, the NIH, the Pan-American Health Sanitary Bureau (now the Pan American Health Organization) and the Guatemalan government. The experiments involved 696 subjects - male prisoners and female patients in the National Mental Health Hospital.

The researchers were trying to determine whether the antibiotic penicillin could prevent early syphilis infection, not just cure it, Reverby writes. After the subjects were infected with the syphilis bacteria - through visits with prostitutes who had the disease and direct inoculations - Reverby notes that it is unclear whether they were later cured or given proper treatment.

Reverby, who has written extensively about the Tuskegee experiments, found the evidence while conducting further research on the Alabama syphilis study.

Guatemala landslides bury hundreds - Americas - Al Jazeera English

2010-09-07T03:37:00.000-07:00

Guatemala landslides bury hundreds - Americas - Al Jazeera English

Honouring their Sacrifices

2010-08-25T05:21:00.000-07:00

The following post is an update from Patrick Chasse, who has been working as a Breaking the Silence volunteer with the CCDA:

Outside of Santiago de Atitlan there is a park. It isn't much to look at, mossy flag stones and dying flowers laid at the edge of weatherworn stones. But these stones were once the walls of a repressive military garrison that oversaw hundreds of forced disappearances and murders in the Santiago region during the 1980s. On December 1st, 1990 rowdy troops took to harassing local women in Santiago. In a brave act of defiance, some villagers began throwing stones at the soldiers and the soldiers responded by firing on the crowd, killing one person. The whole community rallied in outrage and marched the gates of the military garrison, but the army responded with further violence and opened fire. Eleven were killed and forty injured in the pre-dawn shootings. Soon reporters arrived from the tourist town of Panajachel and took damning pictures of bodies lying in front of the military base. With international pressure and local organization, the community of Santiago Atitlan was able to force the military to leave their community. In the 1990s, when the military still exercised power in the country, this was a considerable feat that allowed people to begin contemplating an end to the civil war in the country.

Today, the peace park is flanked by coffee and corn and sits astride of a disused road. An uninformed tourist would hardly spare it a second glance; not that casual tourists would pass by this stretch of highway that connects the culturally vibrant Santiago with the hippie drug hub of San Pedro de la Laguna. It's faster and easier for tourists to jump on one of the frequent boats that ferry passengers between these two towns. It's also safer. In one of Guatemala's sad ironies, Santiago's peace park happens to sit on a stretch of road well know for robberies and assaults. There are many such roads in the rugged mountains of Guatemala as any isolated stretch can be quickly turned into a trap for unwary drivers.

On the nauseating mountain road between Santa Cruz del Quiche and Chichicastenango there is another site marred by violence, locals call it El Molino. Here there are no flag stones and no flowers; this site is remembered and honoured only in the cobwebbed spaces of collective memory. A few nights ago I was returning to Quixaya from Quiche after an evening meeting. It was dark and spitting rain, and despite the brisk air the black road seemed to covered in a blanket of white steam. Our car rounded bend after bend, each time descending further into the valley below. For each curve we had to slow the car down to a crawl and make a wide turn to clear the hairpin bend. So for a moment the pine forest loomed in front of us, and then was quickly forgotten as we speed down to the next turn. Just after we cleared one of these turns, Leocadio spoke up. It was that spot, he said, that spot we just passed where the outspoken journalist Jorge Carpio Nicolle was murdered on his way back from Quiche in 1993. On July 3, his car was assaulted by 30 masked men and he was killed, along with three political allies riding in the same car. No one knew exactly why, but many suspected that he was killed in a political-military move to intimidate his cousin who had just become President a month earlier after a failed self-coup by President Jorge Serrano Elias. Carpio Nicolle himself was an outspoken critic of the right-wing groups that maintained a firm, if discreet, control of Guatemalan politics. In his editorials he vocally rejected that military figures and civilians involved in the self coup should be allowed any sort of amnesty. The government of the day maintained that his murder was the act of common criminals. This quick, offhand memory tinged the dark night roads with suspicion and made for a tense drive back home broken only by occasional jibes and jokes that were borne of friendship. Once again, I amazed by the Guatemalan ability to live and laugh even in the shadow of repression.

This hazily remembered stretch of road and Santiago's peace park are both wilting monuments to Guatemala's 36 year civil war. These sites and hundreds more are remembered in edifice and memory as sites of state crime and organized repression. On paper, Guatemala's civil war ended in 1996 with the signing of the Peace Accords; but fourteen years have passed and only a few war crimes have been prosecuted. Those few who choose to investigate or testify as to their experiences during the war years are hounded by death threats. Most criminals, especially wealthy ones, bask in impunity knowing full well that the justice system in Guatemala is paralysed by corruption, underfunding, and political influence.

Violence thrives in this post-conflict era, with murders, assassinations and tales of extortion filling the front pages of the newspapers. In 2009 there were 6, 500 people murdered in Guatemala, that's double the rate of murders per capita than in neighbouring Mexico and higher than the murder rate during the civil war. A recent report from the Interational Crisis Group sums up the situation neatly.

Guatemala has become a paradise for criminals, who have little to fear from prosecutors owing to high levels of impunity. An overhaul of the security forces in the wake of the peace accords created an ineffective and deeply corrupt police. High-profile assassinations and the government’s inability to reduce murders have produced paralysing fear, a sense of helplessness and frustration. In the past few years, the security environment has deteriorated further, and the population has turned to vigilantism as a brutal and extra-institutional way of combating crime. (IGC, “Guatemala: Squeezed Between Crime and Impunity” 22 June, 2010)

It would be simplistic and unfair to reach the conclusion that things were better during the war. A recent report by the Alliance for the Protection of Defenders of Human Rights in Guatemalan (UDEFEGUA) notes that little by little grassroots social movements are successfully pushing for changes in Guatemala's political and economic system. Nevertheless, I have heard many express grudgingly that during the war there was terror, but terror had its rules. The military brought a diabolically order to the country that many yearn for in today's climate of seemingly random violence. A recent report by the Vanderbilt University based Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) asked if a military coup was justified in view of crime, 53% of the population polled said yes.

Yet crime in Guatemala is not so random as it seems; much of it is tied to illicit criminal activity, political corruption, and private industry. Years after the signing of the Peace Accords, human rights defenders are increasing using their freedom of expression to denounce endemic state corruption, racial and sexual discrimination, and the unjust distribution of land in Guatemala. But these same human rights defenders often become targets of a campaign of disinformation and criminalization that seeks to discredit or co-opt them. UDEFEGUA notes that years after the end of the war, human rights defenders continue to be smeared as “guerrilleros” (guerillas), “terroristas” (terrorists), “pajeros”, “desestabilizadores” (destabilizers) y “defensores de delincuentes. (defenders of delinquents)”. These personal attacks often pave the way for eventual prosecution in the courts. One key observation of the UDEFEGUA report is that intimidation and criminalization intensified when human rights defenders threaten the interests of private companies. But I suppose that this is hardly a surprise for any of us familiar with Goldcorp's activities in defence of the Marlin Mine.

In a telling reflection on how little has changed in Guatemala since the 1954 overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz, agrarian conflicts between private companies and indigenous-campesinos remain among the most contentious issues in the country. Between 2004 and 2009, 323 human rights defenders were criminalized or threatened in their fight for a more equitable distribution of land in Guatemala. During this period, about 98 human rights defenders were criminalized in their fight for indigenous rights and 70 union leaders were also attacked for criticizing Guatemala's terrible labour standards. In this context Leocadio Juracan of the CCDA, a vocal indigenous-campesino leader fighting for equitable distribution of land and better labour standards, is a particularly vulnerable target for criminalization and threats.

In this country, political intimidation can't easily be linked back to political interests, military factions or private companies. Instead, shadowy networks of gangs, social cleansing groups, ex-military members, and narco traffickers have all become perpetrators of violence. In a sea of unchecked criminality, it's incredibly difficult to understand where death threats might be coming from and even more difficult to push the government to investigate and prosecute cases of intimidation and outright murder. Perhaps this is why the newspapers are consumed with daily machinations of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala. In recent months they have been able to break a number of high level cases of political corruption implicating high level officials in money laundering, drug running, the assassination of prisoners, etc. But while the internationally funded CICIG has made headway in investigating high level cases of political crime and corruption, it has done very little to investigate the dizzying numbers of threats and murders facing human rights defenders in Guatemala. For change to happen, for peace to truly blossom human rights defenders need to be given room to express themselves without living in a constant state of fear. While CICIG helps to clean up Guate's government they ignore the social sector; in doing so they ignore the systemic reasons for raging corruption and violence in this beautiful country. That is the organized intimidation of and discrimination against indigenous and campesino leaders who are fighting for a more equitable distribution of land and basic labor standards. Even if overt criminality were purged from the government tomorrow, most Guatemalan's would still live in grinding poverty. The minimum daily wage of 56 Q, for example, only covers about 57% of basic living expenses. What's worse is that most companies only pay 30 to 35 Q, and take extreme measures to avoid paying any sort of benefits. The result is that about 2 million Guatemalan's live in extreme poverty (not being able to afford even basic food, never mind shelter) and about half of Guatemalan's (6.6 million) can't afford basic living expenses like housing, transportation, schooling, etc. In this context, social leaders and community groups ought to be able to advocate for real and substantive changes in this country without fearing for their lives.

I end where I began, on the roads ringing the beautiful Lago Atitlan. I was running errands with the CCDA's driver the other day; picking up wood for the new medical clinic, getting supplies that the workers needed to finish building the second level of the coffee beneficio, and ferrying a Canadian delegation from Santiago to San Lucas. In the afternoon heat of San Lucas, the driver and I waited with windows open for the mechanic to return from his lunch break. We chatted about family, friends, and joked a bit about love and girlfriends. As we chatted, a woman walked by clutching the hand of her small daughter. The driver leaned over to me and told me in hushed tones that her husband—a prominent local doctor—was killed a few weeks ago. I asked why, and he shrugged, shook his head, and told me he didn't know for sure. There were rumours that it was a crime of passion, a jealous act of vengeance perhaps. She passed and we stopped talking. I thought about her and her daughter for some time afterward. I thought about Santiago and the war, about San Lucas and it's current problems with social cleansing and drug trafficking. I'm still thinking about all of this, to be honest. But it seems to me that the peace park in Santiago and the mourning mother in San Lucas represent the old war and the new war, respectively.

Rumours leave no legacies, and few memories. Perhaps this doctor's death had nothing to do with politics, and perhaps it did. But with a paltry 2% of murder cases successfully prosecuted in Guatemala nobody will likely ever know for sure. A 2008 study found that 58% of victims didn't even report crimes to the police, because most felt that it didn't do any good. Since there are few meaningful investigations and prosecutions, grisly headlines in the national dailies serve as the only public legacy of most murders. The newspapers list causes of death that are various and shifting—gangs, narcos, jealousy and delinquency. Most don't mention systemic inequality and spell-binding poverty as the real reason for Guate's surging murder rate and social unrest. Most don't mention that systemic violence and perpetual fear serve the interests of the rich and political elite quite nicely by allowing for the intimidation of labour and indigenous leaders. Leaders who fight to improve the quality of life of their communities so that the poor can live with dignity. So I find myself wondering, if the post-conflict era ever ends who will build a peace park to remember the thousands who are dying in this country every year? Every day dozens of families carry out private ceremonies of grief and remembrance to honour the memories of their dearly beloved. The newspapers treat these deaths as individual tragedies, and so families are isolated in their grief. These are not isolated tragedies but rather the senseless result of a system that feeds on human tragedy and misfortune to enrich a very select elite. How do you remember these deaths and acknowledge that many died—were sacrificed—so that others could profit and live lavishly?

Agatha and the Number Crunchers

2010-08-03T10:42:00.000-07:00

Below is an update from Patrick Chasse, who is currently working as a BTS volunteer with the CCDA:

We had a really great presentation this morning by a woman from CONGCOOP, an NGO that works with NGO's and Co-operatives here in Guatemala. First the scene. The CCDA salon was bursting with people, many of whom had come long distances to hear Zully Morales speak. These were the grassroots representatives of the CCDA, and came from as far away as Coban, Huehue, and Quiche. I'll say a few more words about these rep's later. Mrs. Morales came to talk about the budget of MAGA (the Ministery of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food); a vitally important department in a country of where most people depend on small scale farming. Theoretically, they should be helping small farmers improve their crop yields, get access to land, and thinking about issues like food security. But reality doesn't have much to do with theory in Guate. Looking through the numbers provided by Mrs. Morales it's pretty clear that the current government isn't doing anything but paying lip service to the plight of small farmers. Consider this, the budget of MAGA in 2007 was 1, 305.24 million Quetzales and the department actually spent more, 1 430.41 million. Every year since the budget of the department has been cut, now in 2010, its frozen at 827.58 million. The budget has been cut despite the fact that food security is a major issue facing small food producers in this country. Last year in the Eastern part of Guate was gripped by near famine. With the explosion of Pacaya, the arrival of Agatha and the incessant rains this year looks to be even worse. (see this article in the Atlantic for a good overview of last years food shortage:(http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/08/hungry-in-guatemala/7675/)

The current economic impact of Agatha is pegged at approximately 646.7 million Q, or over half the budget of MAGA. The department currently has a paltry 15.83 million Q assigned to help the production of basic grains. Even if there wasn't a food crisis, this would be a pretty low number for a country where most people depend on subsistence farming to survive. Yet with losses to corn crops reaching over 81.5 million Q by MAGA's own estimates, small scale producers need economic help and they need it fast. Unfortunately, Congress has been dragging its heels and still hasn't approved emergency aid for people affected by Agatha. International funds donated after Agatha have been used to help rebuild bridges and roads instead of helping small producers get back on their feet. To use a local example, growers of Berro in Quixaya used to make around 800 Q monthly on the sale of berro (watercress) and the small snails that lived among the berro. When the river rose it destroyed most of the berro plantations on the river, not to mention bananas, pacaya, etc. Recently the Alcalde of San Lucas came by to offer help in the form of alternative crops; he made the outrageous offer to sell hass avocado plants to locals at around 25 Q a plant (the CCDA sells them for maximum 15Q, or two Canadian dollars a plant).

But it isn't simply a question of underfunding that plagues MAGA. A closer look at the budget shows a consistent trend. The government will approve x amount of dollars for a program, and then quietly spend far less on said program. For example, the Agricultural Development and Food Assistance Program (key for small producers) was cut by 116.95 million Q from 481.94 million Q down to 364.98 million Q. Of that, only 36.53% had been spent by June.

Not only is this trend simply troubling, but it has real social impacts in a country trying to rebuild its infrastructure after Agatha. One program that MAGA manages is Food for Progress. The idea is pretty simple, the government will cover the food costs associated with volunteers working on community projects. CONGCOOP argues that if this program was properly managed it would help clean up Agatha related damages that are affecting many communities. Indeed, the Government increased the Food for Progress budget by 10 million Q to 25 million Q at the start of the year. They may have increased the budget but in six months they spent a paltry 1.09 million Q (4.28%).

These are funding decisions with decisive short term impacts. Yet MAGA has also been stingy in its funding of El Fondo de Tierras (the land fund that is supposed to help campesinos buy unused fincas). Supposedly the Fund is planning to buy 10 fincas this year, and has allotted almost 45 million Q to this. Yet we're at the half way point in the year and the Fund has only bought two fincas. In contrast, the Fund has alloted over double the amount of money (110 Q) to help small farmer lease or rent small plots of land from large land owners (finqueros). The politics of this supposedly social democratic government of Alvaro Colom and UNE are clear: help large landowners and stall small farmers trying to gain land and make slight improvements in their standard of life. Instead, small producers are relegated to perpetual renting and they struggle year upon year to pay for their right to scratch out a meager living. It's a situation that equates pretty readily with medieval serfdom.

If you are still in doubt, consider this. One program in the MAGA budget has seen a substantial increase this year. It's called Secure Food Aid (Apoyo a la seguridad alimentaria) and it's budget was almost doubled this year from 67.12 million Q to 117.17 million Q this year. Oh, and they've already spent almost 80% in just six months. What are they spending this money on? The President's wife, Sandra Colom, is in charge of social assistance programs like Bolsas Solidarias and Mi Familia Progressa (or, as the CCDA staff jokes, mi familia probreza—probreza means poor). Her projects are funded through this MAGA program. As Mrs. Morales pointed out, countries like Nicaragua have similar programs aimed at bridge the gaps between rich and poor in the short term but they received separate funding. So while MAGA slashes its programs that might effect slow but sure systemic changes—improving crop production and incomes for small scale farmers—it increases the amount of money it spends on one time hand outs that feed dependency.

So, the message is simple. Direct international aid to small NGO's like the CCDA is needed. The government should be pushed and bullied into funding small scale farmers trying to recover from Agatha. That's the CCDA's message and they have have a clear vision of their role; I've heard Leocadio say often and insistently we're not here to do the government's job we are here to push the government to do its job. But since effective and responsible government in Guate is still a pipe dream, direct aid through trustworthy NGO's is a desperately needed to help small farmers protect themselves from starvation.

Wants There to be Justice

2010-05-22T08:46:00.000-07:00

Guatemalan human rights activist, Jesús Tecú, received the Roger N. Baldwin Medal this week in New York, in recognition of his humanitarian work.
(Originally posted in Spanish in Prensa Libre: 22/5/2010, translation by Jackie McVicar)

The path towards humanitarian activism began with the loss of his parents and brother, who were assassinated by the military in the massacre of Rio Negro in March 1982, during the internal armed conflict.

How does this award help you in your work?

It strengthens the struggle for human rights and will inject energy amid the society we live in and some threats that I have received; it gives us courage to keep fighting.

Has your work for human rights been difficult since you started?

We support several cases, like that of Rio Negro, and cases like this is where the threats come from.

How are these cases going?

I’m a witness in the Rio Negro case. We have achieved the sentencing of several ex-civil defense patrollers and the warrant for Colonel Antonio Solares is pending. The authorities know where he is, but they don’t want to capture him.

What is your role in these cases?

I’m joint plaintiff in the open case in the Spanish National Court, which is investigating several military in the country for crimes committed during the armed conflict.

How do the threats against you make you feel about the Guatemalan justice system?

We can’t abandon the system we have. Our mission is to strengthen the law and we have done it for several years. We do not seek revenge, nor speak ill of our country.

We want there to be an investigation into the causes through the rule of law, but we know that currently, in a hundred cases in the Public Prosecutor’s office, only three are investigated.

Do you believe that the structures that led to the massacre of Rio Negro, where your family died, still have power in Guatemala?

Yes, because recently what has happened is that they have changed place; they haven’t been deactivated, and many times, they use delinquency to commit crimes and when they are discovered, they are the same ones who run them.

What has been achieved to date in this case?

In Chixoy, there has been a dialogue for the past six years without results and we don’t know when there will be justice.

What is the principle outcome you see from this situation of impunity?

Our grandparents our dying of sadness and of diseases provoked by the armed conflict and no one is concerned for them. I imagine they are waiting for all the victims to die, to avoid compensating the cost of the war.

Canada’s Goldcorp to be tried by the Permanent Peoples Tribunal

2010-05-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

http://intercontinentalcry.org/canadas-goldcorp-to-be-tried-by-the-permanent-peoples-tribunal/

One of Canada's most notorious mining companies, Goldcorp, will be tried this week in Madrid, Spain, by the Permanent Peoples Tribunal (PPT).

A group of NGO's have accused Goldcorp of violating the rights of the Mayan People in San Miguel Ixtahuacan, Guatemala, where the company is operating the Marlin gold mine.

Frente de Defensa Miguelense, Collectif Guatemala (France), Aid of the Norwegian Church and Solidarity Sweden-Latin America, say the company is guilty of violating the Indigenous Peoples' right to self-determination; to posses, use, and administer land and territory, to access water and to protect the environment.

Some of these charges are also the subject of an ongoing investigation led by the International Labor Organization (ILO). The ILO recently asked the Guatemala government to temporarily suspend mining activities in the country, including Goldcorp's controversial project, in order for them to complete their investigation. Unfortunately, the formal request fell on deaf ears.

Goldcorp won't be the only one tried by Tribunal, which will be convening from May 14-15, 2010, for its third and final Session on "The European Union and Transnational corporations in Latin America."

Pluspetrol Resource Corporation will also be tried for violating the rights of the Quechua people in Peru; along with GDF-SUEZ, the Portuguese corporation BANIF and the Spanish company SANTANDER for their hydro dam project in Brazil; and British Petroleum (BP) for years of negatively impacting indigenous communities in Tauramena municipality, Colombia.

Other companies that will be tried include Telefonica, Nestle, Repsol YPF, Perenco, AngloAmerican, Rio Blanco-Majaz, Glencore, Bayer, Stora Enso, Pfizer and DuPont.

The Permanent Peoples Tribunal was founded in 1979 as a successor to the Russell Tribunal–the International War Crimes Tribunal which held two sessions in 1967 to expose the war crimes committed against the People of Vietnam.

Since then, the independent non-governmental body has rendered more than 30 judgments for crimes committed in Tibet, the Philippines, Algeria, Armenia, and Bhopal, India. They've also tried the World Bank, among other international institutions and transnational corporations (TNCs) known for violating human rights and the rights of Mother Earth.

In 2006, the tribunal convened in Vienna for its first session on "The European Union and Transnational corporations in Latin America," and once more in Lima, Peru in 2008.

Both sessions focused on exposing "the violations of human rights, labour rights and environmental standards committed by more than 25 multinational companies... in Latin America and the Caribbean."

According to this preliminary programme overview (PDF), the third and final Session in Madrid, "while bringing this work to a culmination will also open a new phase of work. It will be a moment to give visibility to the process and experiences accumulated in Vienna and Lima and other instances of PPT Hearings. This session of the Tribunal will focus not only on the TNCs but also on the European institutions, policies and actors who are complicit in creating an architecture of impunity for the operations of TNCs. In addition, the Tribunal will hear denunciations against the impunity of European TNCs and the impacts of their operations on the Rights of Peoples. The Tribunal will also initiate the debate on TNCs human rights violations in terms of 'crimes against humanity.'"

"The evidence gathered, the experience of campaigns and cumulative conceptual advances during the process of the various Tribunals organized between May 2006 and May 2010, will be the basis to move forward towards new articulations and strategies that seek to dismantle the power of transnational corporations. In this way the protection of people and the planet will be affirmed and moved towards practices of "living well" with a vision of collective well-being and global co-existence."

Thanks to Real World Radio.

Canadian Ambassador Sued for Defaming Documentary Film Maker steven schnoor

2010-04-28T07:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.schnoorversuscanada.ca/contact.html

New Video About Canadian Mining Companies in Guatemala Now Available!

2010-04-20T09:19:00.001-07:00

"The Business of Gold in Guatemala: Tale of a Conflict Foretold"

Since the 1996 Peace Accords were signed, the Guatemalan Government has pushed forward a policy to attract transnational extractive companies to indigenous territories in the country. This policy violates the rights of these populations, who are organizing to defend their lands.

This documentary is about the community resistance against the transnationals and Guatemala's neoliberal policies. Specifically, it focuses on resistance of the people of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, against the Canadian multinational company, Goldcorp Inc.

The documentary (50 mins) tells the story of mining in indigenous territories in Guatemala, and especially highlights Canadian mining company Goldcorp and the community resistance in San Miguel Ixtahuacan.

Copies are $20 plus shipping. If you are purchasing this documentary other than for personal use, a larger contribution would be appreciated to help support the production of the documentary and the communities affected by the mine.

Send your name and complete mailing address to:
Jackie McVicar at jmcvicar@gmail.com