Guatemala
A very moving article by Lucrecia Molina about the Rio Negro/Chixoy Dam massacres Hearing that took place June 19-20, 2012, in San Jose, Costa Rica, before the IACHR (Inter-American Court on Human Rights).
We present a series of photographs documenting the reality of life in the Siria Valley, Honduras, where a serious endemic health crisis continues to unfold. The health problems were caused by open-pit mining exploitation carried out by Entremares, a subsidiary of Goldcorp Inc. of Canada, at its "San Martin" mining operation.
We send you this sad update about work we are involved with in Guatemala. Please consider donating 'humanitarian relief' funds for the needs of Yolanda Oqueli, and for the other people and communities mentioned in this article.
A statement from ADIVIMA about a legal hearing, before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, concerning the 1982 Rio Negro / Chixoy Dam massacres (killing over 440 Mayan Achi people from the remote village of Rio Negro.
Dear Yoli: I have no words in my heart or mouth that could possibly express my outrage and grief over what has happened. The harm to your precious sacred person is vile and inexcusable. The intended harm to your soul, your spirit, your struggle, and the struggle of all those, who like you, are in love with the Earth
On June 13, assassins on a motorcycle shot multiple times at Yolanda Oqueli Veliz, a community leader from the municipalities of San José el Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc, just out side of Guatemala City. Yolanda is in critical but stable condition in a Guatemala City Hospital, one bullet still lodged in her body. Humanitarian-emergency relief funds are needed.
Hudbay did not "create better futures for communities" in Guatemala. Rather, Hudbay left a legacy of damage, injury, death and on-going suffering in Guatemala that have not been addressed or remedied.
On July 14-15, an International Health Tribunal will take place in San Miguel Ixtahuacan, Guatemala, in the shadow of Goldcorp's "Marlin" mine. People from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico will give testimony as to the health harms and other human rights violations they have suffered due to the operations of Goldcorp mines in their regions.
Rights Action recommends listening to a very moving 59 minute This American Life (TAL) radio report “What Happened At Dos Erres?” (May 25, 2012http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/465/what-happened-at-dos-erres) that describes a particular massacre in Guatemala – the Dos Erres [Dos–Errez] massacre of some 200 people in 1982; the report describes courageous efforts in Guatemala, since the mid-1990s, to seek truth and justice for this massacre.
A delegation of academics, human rights and labor activists, visited the community of Ahuás in the Department of Gracias a Dios in a region known as La Moskitia. On May 11, 2012 four helicopters conducted an apparent drug interdiction near the town of Ahuas. At least one of the helicopters opened fire on a passenger boat killing two pregnant women, a 14-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man, while seriously injuring at least four more. The purpose of the visit was to inquire into this tragedy.
