Courtesy of Rights Action, here’s a story discussing a reparations plan for Genocide survivors and Mayan-Achi people who were massacred and forcibly evicted from their communities in the 1970s and 1980s - to make way for the Inter-American Development Bank- and World Bank-funded Chixoy hydro-electric dam.

CHIXOY DAM AGREEMENT
By Hugo Alvarado, www.prensalibre.com
Translated by Rosalind M. Gill, for Rights Action

The Government and communities affected by the construction of the Chixoy Dam have signed an agreement to set up a reparations plan. Diego Paz, representative of the OEA, Rafael Espada, Vice-president, and Juan …

Well, it turns out the “media release” sent out by Rights Action on Tuesday, April Fools’ Day, was indeed a joke.

I was really hoping it wasn’t. In fact I was eager to applaud the Canadian mining company for pledging to take what would have been an near-unprecedented step… One that may very well have started a trend throughout the so-called business community.

So then, in part, I guess the Joke’s on me and anyone else who believed Goldcorp had the guts. But I don’t we’re the April Fool in this little funny. …

In a curious and surprising turn of events, Goldcorp has announced they are temporarily suspending mining operations in Honduras (the San Martin mine in the Siria Valley) and Guatemala (the Marlin mine in the Mayan territories of San Miguel Ixtahuacan and Sipakapa).

What do you think, folks, is it an April Fools’ joke? Of course, I say that tongue in cheek, but with the way Goldcorp (along with nearly every other mining company in Canada) seems to operate, it honestly wouldn’t surprise me. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.

April 1, 2008. …

Rights Action reports that, after a delegation of indigenous representatives were invited to take part in a workshop to discuss “mining exploration and exploitation in Guatemala,” they learned the workshop was being co-financed by… “Goldcorp (Montana Exploradora de Guatemala), Skye Resources (Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel), the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) and the Prospectors and Developers’ Association of Canada (PDAC).

This prompted the delegation to formally withdraw from the workshop and issue a statement, which you can find below.

Before reading the statement, please note that while this may have been a good …

Thirty-six years of civil war in Guatemala brought the deaths of over 200,000 people, most of them from Indigenous Nations. In the wake of an amnesty signed in 1996, those who took part in armed struggle against the Guatemalan dictatorship were finally able to return to their lives.

It was at this time that one hundred and sixty people, a diverse group of Quiche, Q’eqchi, Mam, Ladino (mixed Spanish and indigenous) and others decided to continue to struggle by creating a self-sustaining agricultural cooperative; a community that could serve as a just and peaceful model for Guatemalan …

photo courtesy of www.paqg.org/

On Tuesday, December 12, the three judge tribunal in San Marcos released the sentence of the 7 seven Mayan farmers who were charged with a barrage of criminal offenses by GoldCorp earlier this year. To my surprise, the judgment was pretty much in favour of the Goldcorp 7! Five were acquitted of all charges, and the other two were put on two years probation and given …

photo courtesy of www.paqg.org/

Rights Action sent out a reminder today about the ongoing legal case against the group of Mayan Farmers known as the GoldCorp 7.

If you’re not familiar with the case—in January, 2007, residents of the communities neighboring Goldcorp’s open pit, cyanide-leeching mine in San Marcos set up a blockade in an effort to start a dialogue with the company. Prior to this, the community repeatedly tried to talk with the …

On January 22, 2006, twenty two Mayan indigenous Community Leaders had charges laid against them by GoldCorp, with arrest warrants being issued for seven of them.

Incidentally, the charges were layed the very same day Goldcorp promised to establish a dialogue with the local Indigenous Population–upon the condition that they lifted the 10-day-old blockade they had set up. The Mayans agreed, and took down the blockade; but then on January 24 Goldcorp shamefully reneged on its commitment; and them on February 13, two of the seven were violently detained. The …

Reports have been coming in that Montana Exploradora, which is owned by Canada’s own Goldcorp, is about to begin spilling sewage water from the waste dam of the Marlin mine (see map) into the Quivichil stream and the Cuilco river, in Guatemala.

As I understand it, the water has been treated so the level of toxins in the water is “below levels of concern,” however, as explored in this assessment report (pdf), numerous assumptions and opinion-based claims are being made with regard to how this dump …

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 …