Rights Action has just sent out some news that Skye Resources, the same Canadian mining company that ordered the evictions earlier this year, has recently ordered another eviction. This one, directed at the Mayan Q’eqchi’ community of La Paz.
From Rights Action - Residents of the Mayan Q’eqchi’ community of La Paz (municipality of Panzos, department of Alta Verapaz) are facing yet another eviction, which also threatens neighbouring community Lote 8, along with both Barrio Revolución and Barrio La Unión of the municipality of El Estor, department of Izabal.
The eviction order, filed in court case number 1745 in Cobán, was originally scheduled to take place on June 27, 2007; however, due to a substitution of the regional public prosecutor, the eviction has been rescheduled for August. While the judicial system has yet to issue an official notification of the date, local organizations indicate that August 14th is currently being considered.
The requested eviction order is based on the highly contested Cahaboncito Norte land title covering the aforementioned indigenous Q’eqchi’ communities who have struggled for decades for the recognition of their ancestral land rights in the region. While the company has repeatedly refused to reveal its purported land documentation to communities, Skye Resources’ claim to the land is based on the land rights granted to the International Nickel Company (INCO) by a repressive military dictatorship in the 1960s.
Many community members echo the words of a community leader from Barrio Revolución: “We know that many here say that we are invaders. But we are not invading the land. We are recuperating the land that belongs to us.”
The previous widely denounced evictions of January 2007 saw hundreds of heavily armed police officers and soldiers surround the communities, while Skye Resources employees dismantled, destroyed and/or burned the homes of hundreds of indigenous Q’eqchi’ families in five communities. (Rights Action has extensive information concerning the January 2007 forced and illegal evictions - www.rightsaction.org)
Since January, the communities have continued to rebuild their houses and communities, tend to their crops, and struggle for their ancestral rights to the land. Extremely alarmed at the prospect of the impending order, community leaders have asked for international support for their attempt to halt the evictions.
Add your voice to those who are calling on Skye Resources to stop the
planned evictions of La Paz and neighbouring communities. Send urgent
emails, phone calls and faxes to:
* Ian Austin, CEO, Skye Resources, info@skyeresources.com, tel:
604-602-9500, fax:604-602-9510
* CVRD-INCO, nco@inco.com, investor@inco.com, media@inco.com
* Kenneth Cook, Canadian Ambassador to Guatemala, gtmla@international.gc.ca, gtmla-td@international.gc.ca
GUATEMALAN GOVERNMENTAL AUTHORITIES:
* Lic. Oscar Berger Perdomo, President of the Republic of Guatemala, oberger@presidencia.gob.gt, varroyave@presidencia.gob.gt,
mgarcia@presidencia.gob.gt, fax: 502-22383579
* Adela de Torrtebiarte, Minister of the Interior, gobernacion@mingob.gob.gt
* Lic. Juan Luis Florido, Attorney General, fiscalgeneral@mp.lex.gob.gt, fax: 502-22512218
* Dr. Sergio Fernando Morales Alvarado, Guatemalan Human Rights Attorney’s
Office (PDH), opdhg@intelnet.net.gt, fax: 502-77755475
SEND COPIES TO:
* Your local & national media
* Your local & national governmental representatives
* Defensoria Q’eqchi’, defqeqchi@intelnet.net.gt
* CONIC, conic1@c.net.gt
If you had taken the time to contact Skye before repeating the predictably skewed “reporting” by Rights Action you would have been informed that Skye has no plans to evict squatters, although it has every legal right to do so. Instead Skye is seeking to find alternatives for the squatters, showing remarkable patience in the process.
If you would like more complete details on how Rights Action and other self appointed guardians of the indigenous are dooming the impoverished to a life of hopelessness, I welcome your queries and comments at gmg977@emisorasunidas.com
Carlisle Johnson
Good Morning Guatemala
Carlisle, your claim that the people living on the lands in question are mere squatters is not reasonable or accurate.
The land in question IS Mayan Territory, whether or not they were physically absent from it for any given period of time. The fact remains that it’s still their Territory, and that Skye’s privilege to the land is a gross violation of their rights (which I must add, take precedence over the so-called rights of Skye and any other Corporation)
Second, you say Skye has no plans to evict the so-called squatters, but Carlisle, you just admitted to Skye’s eviction process: it is one that ends in the removal of the people, and one which, if the people do not comply to Skye’s ‘reasonable patience’, will be expedited through force (or they’ll be otherwise ‘compelled’ to vacate the land.)
Just because Skye’s being gentlemanly about it, does not change the fact that it’s still an eviction.
Lastly, Carlisle I invite you to comment below, providing us with the “more complete details on how Rights Action and other self appointed guardians of the indigenous are dooming the impoverished to a life of hopelessness” so others can see it too.
Ahni
background Information
The Inter-American Commission orders Guatemala to Adopt Measures to Protect Functionaries of the Defensoría Q’eqchi’
I agree with ahni on many points. To simply refer to these people as squatters is without any justification. They own, live on, and cultivate that land. Even if this canadian nickle company were given the land in the 1960’s as has been claimed, who gave that militant government the authority to do that? The land belongs to the Q’eqchi’ or mayan people of the area. If anyone has the authority to give or sell rights to the land, that authority rests with the Q’eqch’i.
The eviction process should not even be reached in my opinion because the canadian nickle company doesn’t have a legitimate claim to the land in the first place in my opinion.