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. …

Upside Down World has published a notable article by Ramor Ryan entitled “The Last Rebels of the Caribbean: Garifuna Fighting for Their Lives in Honduras,” in which he examines the history, life, culture and ongoing resistance of the Garifuna people in Honduras. Here’s the first quarter…

Garifuna Fighting for Their Lives in Honduras

They hang the man, and flog the woman,
That steals the goose from off the common;
But let the greater villain loose,
That steals the common from the goose.

-Anonymous protest poem from the 17th century

Enclosing the commons – the historical process of fencing off land

…

Earlier this month, the Latin American Water Tribunal (LAWT) gathered in Guadalajara, Mexico to hold a public hearing against the Government of Honduras and Minerales Entre Mares de Honduras, S.A, a subsidiary of Canada’s Goldcorp Inc.

The Siria Valley Regional Environmental Committee submitted a petition to the tribunal charging the government acted illegally to favour of Goldcorp’s open-pit cyanide-leeching mine in the Siria Valley, and that the company itself is responsible for water usurpation and the irrational exploitation and contamination of water which adversely effected the ecosystem as well …

After British and Canadian politicians visited Honduras to have a look at the problems associated with Goldcorp in the region, the Siria Valley Environmental Committee has authored the following open letter—discussing the historical and ongoing damages caused by the open pit gold mine in the Siria Valley (department of Francisco Morazan, Honduras)

Thanks to rights action for sending this out.

OPEN LETTER TO THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA
FROM THE SIRIA VALLEY ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE

We extend our welcome to Alexa McDonough, Canadian Member of Parliament, thanking her for her interest in learning in …

On Tuesday, atleast 12 people were injured and 59 arrested when Honduran police violently cleared several roadblocks set up by protestors
demanding the ratification of a law that would prohibit open pit mining - a process that involves the use of cyanide, mercury, and other heavy metals.

The protesters also called for public meetings to give people the chance to decide whether they even want the mining operations to occur; and additionally for mining companies — among them Goldcorp (formerly Glamis Gold) — to begin carrying out measures to mitigate …

In Los Limones, Honduras there are 74 Peasant families, members of the Tierra Nusetra Peasant movement, who are currently faced with an imminent forced removal from their homes. Since 2005, Tela Railroad Company (A subsidiary of Chiquita) has wanted to remove the families so they can plant Afican Palms.

Tierra Nusetra has so far resisted the forced removal — suffering all kinds of intimidation, violence, and murders by the private security forces hired by the company.

From fian.org - The “Los Limones” community has been living since 1951 on …

Gold, Skin and Bones: Goldcorp’s adventure in Honduras - by Dawn Paley, March 1, 2007

“We’ve been here for seven years,” explains Pedro Rodolfo Arteaga, gesturing at a scattering of plain houses lining a dirt road “and we never thought we would find ourselves in this situation.” A resident of Palo Ralo, in the Siria Valley in central Honduras, Arteaga explains that “the old village was inside the perimeter of where the company wanted to put their machinery, and we were obstacles for them.”

Palo Ralo is a village constructed in 1999 …

The following is some news, as sent out by www.rightsaction.org

AMBUSH OF GARIFUNA YOUTH FROM COMMUNITY OF SAN JUAN TELA

This past April 14 in the entry to the community of San Juan Tela, Durugubuti, young women, Keydi Jorleny Marin, Yerli Isolina Ellis, Yanaira Briyed Lambert, Eusebia Guillen, Joselyn Lizet Rivas were ambushed. The last mentioned is the daughter Jessica Garcia, President of the Patronata (development committee) of the community of Durugubuti, who has been constantly threatened for her position in the defense of her community’s territory.

According to the Preventative …

Protests Mount Against Mining Giant
Stephen Leahy, www.ipsnews.net
February 24, 2007

TORONTO, Feb 24 (Tierramérica) - Dangerous levels of lead and arsenic have been found in the blood of Honduran villagers living downstream from a controversial gold and silver mine owned by Canada’s Goldcorp Inc., the world’s third largest gold mining firm.

According to the ecologists who organised the study, lead and arsenic levels in the blood were higher than the maximum recommended by international standards (70 ug/dl) in a sample of 10 people who live near the San Martín mine, in San Ignacio, a municipality located in the central Siria Valley.

The study, …