Rights Action Newsletter
JUNE 2008
www.rightsaction.org
TRAVELLING A FAR, SO CLOSE TO HOME
In May, I (Grahame Russell) had the privilege of leading a delegation of students from the UNBC (University of Northern British Colombia) on an educational trip in Guatemala. We visited with extraordinary people and communities, fighting huge odds – including repression - to build a better life for their children and communities.
On this trip, students learn about the two main aspects of Rights Action’s work:
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In 2007, Rights Action channeled over $860,000
of your donations and grants
to our partner groups
carrying out their own projects.
In 2008, to date: over $400,000.
* * *
TAX-CHARITABLE DONATIONS
Please help us continue with this work. To support Indigenous and community-based organizations implementing their own development, human rights and environment projects, make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to: UNITED STATES: Box 50887,
Washington DC, 20091-0887; CANADA: 422 Parliament St, Box 82552, Toronto ON, M5A 4N8. Credit-card donations: www.rightsaction.org.
* * *
On this trip, and other such delegations, North Americans learn first hand that many of the underlying problems in Guatemala – poverty, environmental destruction, repression – are linked to American and Canadian economic interests and policies in Central America.
What To Do Back Home? As we travel from community to community, we discuss with Guatemalans and amongst ourselves what education and activism work we can engage in to change policies and practices in the ‘global north’ so as to put an end to exploitative and unjust north-south economic relations.
ITINERARY
An asterisk (*) indicates a project or organization funded by Rights Action.
MONDAY May 5 – GUATEMALA CITY
FAFG (Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Team) *
Since 1992, the FAFG has carried out exhumations across Guatemala, digging up the remains of victims of the State terrorism and genocide, determining – when possible – cause of death and identity. Every exhumation initiates criminal proceedings to determine cause of death and who committed the crime.
(In the FAFG warehouse, students look at boxes that contain the remains of massacre victims. The remains are kept here until the forensic examinations have been done and the prosecutor has released the remains back to their communities and families.
Photo: Catherine Nolin)
Magali Rey Rosa
The group met with Magali, a journalist and environmental/ development activist. She worked for years with Madre Selva (www.madreselva.com), and is the founder of SABIA – Forum for Ecological Thinking. Magali spoke about the environmental and health harms caused by the global mining industry as well as by large-scale hydro-electric dam.
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THREATS AGAINST MEMBERS OF FAFG:
(May 25, 2008) The FAFG writes: Further death threats to Fredy Peccerelli,
his family and the members of the Guatemalan Foundation of Forensic Anthropology (FAFG). Following the death threat received on Monday, 19th May 2008, Fredy Peccerelli, Executive Director of the Guatemalan Foundation of Forensic Anthropology (FAFG), and Omar Bertoni Girón, Director of the FAFG’s Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology and married to Bianka Peccerelli, Fredy Peccerelli’s sister, received an email on the afternoon of Thursday, 22nd May 2008, with the following text:
“Greetings you bastards, how good Bianca looks in pink driving a Jeep along the Avenida Petapa, the first parcel with her parts will be arriving, we hope you’ve said good-bye, your security isn’t worth shit. We haven’t seen your family recently, the next one is Yani. We scared you, you bastards, this time you’ll respect us. Die revolutionaries, take back the charges. FAFG IN MOURNING until we finish with you all.”
The e-mail was sent from the same e-mail address as the previous threat, yax.pedro@yahoo.com, registered under the name of Pedro Yax.
For more info:
Silke Gatermann, cel [Guatemala]: (502) 5917 5772;
silke.gatermann@fafg.org.
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TUESDAY May 6 – GUATEMALA CITY to EL ESTOR
Drove 3 hours to the Indigenous-Xinca Community of Jutiapa where we met with community representatives (from the departments of Jutiapa, Japala and Santa Rosa) whose communities, rivers and lives may soon be negatively affected by large-scale mining, including Goldcorp Inc.’s new Cerro Blanco mine. * Rights Action is supporting a series of popular educational meetings on the environmental, health and development impacts of mining.
Drove 5 hours to El Estor (department of Izabal), where we met with Father Dan Vogt (an American Priest in Izabal since 1987 and co-founder of AEPDI - Association for the Integral Development of El Estor). AEPDI works with Mayan-Q'eqchi’ communities on a range of development, environmental and Indigenous rights issues, including resisting the multiple harms caused by nickel mining in the region. * RA works with AEPDI on a range of land-titling initiatives.
WEDNESDAY May 7 – EL ESTOR
Traveled 1 hour in a 4-wheel drive pickup truck to visit “Lote 9”, an isolated Mayan-Q’eqchi’ community that has been resisting illegal incursions onto their lands by Skye Resources, a Canadian nickel mining company. The Lote 9 inhabitants are the off-spring of a community that lost its land to the Canadian INCO nickel company 25 years ago. * RA provides small general support grants to the community.
(Lote 9 community of Mayan-Q’eqchi’ people,
located on the Sierra de las Minas mountain range
on the north side of Lake Izabal. Photo: Nolin)
(“No Hay Paso”/ No Entry Permitted.
Sign, at entry point to Agua Caliente Lote 9 community,
along the only road (accessible only by 4by4 truck).
This sign was erected to keep Skye Resources geologists
out of their community. Photo: Nolin)
We visited the Mayan-Q’eqchi’ community of Barrio Revoluciòn that, since late 2006, has been illegally and forcibly evicted and burned out 3 times in the interests of Skye Resources’ nickel mining. * RA provides small general support grants to the community.
(Meeting in the Barrio Revolucion community center,
re-built since earlier forced evictions,
burning and destruction of homes. Photo: Nolin)
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EL ESTOR EVICTIONS:
At www.rightsaction.org, see a 9 minute documentary video
about the January 2007 forced evictions of Mayan-Q’eqchi’ communities,
in the department of Izabal (eastern Guatemala),
to make way for the nickel mining interests of Skye Resources,
a Canadian mining company.
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THURSDAY May 8 – EL ESTOR TO RABINAL
Travel 7 hours to Rabinal, Baja Verapaz. * Since 1994, RA has funded and supported a wide range of projects, some of which our group visited with.
The United Nations Truth Commission (1999) concluded that Rabinal was one of the Mayan regions where the U.S. and Western backed Guatemalan military regime planned and carried out genocide against the local Mayan population.
FRIDAY May 9 - RABINAL
All day visits in the town of Rabinal (department of Baja Verapaz):
(Photos of genocide and massacre victims,
Rabinal Community Museum. Photo: Nolin)
In the evening, we met with Fernando Suazo, a former Dominican-Catholic priest. Fernando arrived in Rabinal in 1984, just after the worst years of genocide. Fluent in Achi since 1984, Fernando came to be trusted by the Achi people that survived the genocide. Since 1984, and since 1994 when he left the church and married into an Achi community, Fernando has worked on a wide range of human rights issues in Rabinal and throughout Guatemala – including work with Bishop Gerardi (assassinated in April 1998) and the Catholic Church’s REHMI (Recovery of the Historical Memory) project.
(Meeting with Fernando Suazo,
Hotel San Pablo, Rabinal. Photo: Nolin)
SATURDAY May 10 – RABINAL TO RIO NEGRO
Drove 3 hours to the Chixoy Hydro-electric dam wall, at the now disappeared village of Pueblo Viejo. Then, a 45 minute boat ride, over the flood basin of the Chixoy dam, to the Mayan-Achi village of Rio Negro. * Since the initial Rio Negro exhumation in 1993, RA has supported a number of projects in Rio Negro.
(Chixoy hydro-electric dam wall.
Along the Chixoy river, dividing Baja Verapaz from Quiche,
at the former village of Pueblo Viejo,
the dam wall measures 125 meters high. Photo: Nolin)
In 1982, Rio Negro suffered 4 massacres and the killing of 440 of its villagers, in large part because they opposed being forcibly and illegally displaced by the construction of the Chixoy hydro-electric dam, a US$350,000,000 “development” project of the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank in conjunction with the military regime of Guatemala. * RA is supporting on-going efforts to get compensation and reparations from the WB and IDB.
In Rio Negro, we met with Sebastian Iboy Osorio and other villagers – survivors of the four 1982 massacres.
(Sebastian Iboy Osorio, and his son Nelson – “El Capitan”.
14 members of Sebastian’s family were massacred March 13, 1982,
when 107 children and 70 women
from the Mayan-Achi village of Rio Negro were slaughtered. Photo: Russell)
SUNDAY May 11 – RIO NEGRO TO GUATEMALA CITY
In the early morning, we hiked 2 hours with Sebastian Iboy Osorio up a mountain to the site of the March 13, 1982 massacre of 70 women and 107 children.
(Students take a break, with Sebastian Iboy Osorio,
along the 2 hour hike up from the community of Rio Negro.
This is the same path that 107 children and 70 women
from Rio Negro were forced to march up,
before being slaughtered March 13, 1982
at a place known as Pacoxom. Photo: Nolin)
(Place known as Pacoxom,
above Rio Negro. Photo: Nolin)
(Sebastian Iboy Osorio stands by the first cross
erected at the March 13, 1982 massacre site.
Every year, hundreds of people spend 3 days at this site,
around March 13, to celebrate Mayan and Christian ceremonies
and commemorate the lives of the victims. Photo: Nolin)
MONDAY May 12 – GUATEMALA CITY TO SAN MARCOS
Drove 7 hours to the Mayan Mam municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacan (SMI), San Marcos. We had an evening visit with Javier de Leon, of ADISMI (Association for the Integral Development of San Miguel Ixtahuacan) *.
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POPULAR CONSULTATIONS:
On April 30th, I had the privilege of leading a previous activist-delegation to this Goldcorp mining affected region. We were honored to be present in the Municipal Gym of San Miguel Ixtahuacan (SMI), when the Indigenous leaders of SMI took the courageous decision to hold a legally binding consultation as to whether they want this type of large scale mining in their territory, or not, or under what conditions.
* Since 2005, RA has funded and supported numerous,
legally binding consultations concerning mining, dams and other large scale “development” projects in Guatemala.
(April 30, 2008. Indigenous leaders from 59 villages of San Miguel Ixtahuacan,
Voted unanimously to hold a binding consultation
concerning mining and other “development” projects
in their territory. Photo: Miguel Iriondo)
* * *
Javier spoke about the history of the Mayan-Mam people of SMI, their indigenous vision of “development” and Mother Earth, and of the extensive environmental harms and human rights violations being caused by Goldcorp Inc’s open-pit, cyanide leaching gold mine.
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INVESTING IN CONFLICT:
PUBLIC MONEY, PRIVATE GAIN – GOLDCORP Inc. IN THE AMERICAS
Rights Action is pleased to announce the publication of “Investing in Conflict”. Written by Dawn Paley (dawnpaley@gmail.com), with Mining Watch (www.miningwatch.ca) and Rights Action, and edited by Sakura Saunders, Investing in Conflict is about the “nexus of mining companies, the mainstream media, the Canadian government, International Finance Institutions and bought off NGOs” that are working “hard to keep the reality of large-scale, open pit mines out of picture, keep[ing] community resistance marginalized, and no matter what, to keep talking about “development".”
Focusing on the Goldcorp Inc. mining company, Investing in Conflict brings “hard facts and community perspectives together to help North Americans become more informed about the nature of the mining industry.”
FREE COPY: Go to www.rightsaction.org and read the report on line, or print your own copy. Feel free to print and distribute copies to family and friends, investors and politicians. Copies in print available from Rights Action: info@rightsaction.org.
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TUESDAY May 13 – SAN MIGUEL IXTAHUACAN TO COMITANCILLO
The group had a Goldcorp Inc. company-hosted mine site visit; then the group visited with people whose lives and communities have been negatively impacted or out-right destroyed due to the mining operation.
Amongst other people, we met with a 74 year old Mayan-Mam woman whose body was covered by skin rashes due to air and water contamination caused by the gold mine; a young mother brought us her 6 month infant, his entire body covered by the same rash.
In the afternoon, we drove 3 hours (windy, mountainous roads) to Comitancillo, a Mayan-Mam community resisting the entry of the Goldcorp Inc. mining company into their territory.
WEDNESDAY May 14 – COMITANCILLO TO ANTIGUA
At a breakfast meeting in the local church with a Catholic priest working in Comitancillo since 2003, Father Elio spoke of the community consultation process, from 2004-2005, that firmly rejected mining in their region.
Then we participated in a public march and ceremony in Comitancillo – when municipal leaders and other community leaders re-affirmed the municipality’s 2005 democratic and public decision to prohibit mining in their region.
This is a very conflictive situation given that Goldcorp Inc. – with the full and illegitimate support of Guatemala’s economic and politi8cal elites – has been illegally given yet another license, in nearly 2008, to expand their open pit, cyanide leaching mining into Comitancillo.
(1000s of Mayan-Mam farmers showed up, May 14,
to re-affirm the municipal decision of Comitancillo
not permit mining in their territory. Photo: Otten)
(“We will not permit that a foreign company
come to exploit our resources.” Photo: Otten)
(Photo: Otten)
Then we drove 6 hours to Antigua. There, we had a wrap-up session to address: pending questions about what was learned on the trip; personal reflections about the issues we had the privilege of bearing witness to; what one can and ought to do, when they get home to North America, given that many of the problems suffered in a place called “Guatemala” trace some/ many of their origins back north to political, economic (consumer and investor) and military decisions in the USA and Canada.
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EDUCATIONAL-ACTIVIST DELEGATIONS:
To form your own group to come on such a trip,
or to join a RA delegation, contact Grahame Russell: info@rightsaction.org
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WHAT TO DO
EDUCATIONAL DELEGATION
– HONDURAS, JULY 7-12
Rights Action is leading an educational delegation to Honduras to learn about community-based resistance to the environmental and economic harms and human rights violations caused by Goldcorp Inc’s open pit, cyanide leeching mine; and, to learn about the territorial and human rights struggles of Indigenous/Garifuna peoples: info@rightsaction.org.
2ND HEMISPHERIC GATHERING AGAINST MILITARIZATION
– HONDURAS, OCTOBER 3-5
!Para callar las armas, hablemos los pueblos! (To quiet weapons, the people must speak!) Form your own group and/ or join a Rights Action delegation to come to this Gathering in La Esperanza, Intibucá, Honduras. For more information: www.antimilitarizacion.blogspot.com, antimilitarizacion@gmail.com or info@rightsaction.org.
3RD SOCIAL FORUM OF THE AMERICAS
– GUATEMALA, OCTOBER 7-12
Form your own group and/ or join a Rights Action delegation to come to this Forum. Thousands of people from across the Americas are expected at this gathering to debate and discuss (and enjoy awesome music, art and theater) how Another World Is Possible … And Necessary: info@rightsaction.org.
JOIN: Rights Action’s listserv and newsletter lists.
CREATE YOUR OWN E-MAIL LIST: and re-distribute this and other information.
LISTEN: to the www.democracynow.org news program every day.
READ: Eduardo Galeano’s “Open Veins of Latin America”; Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine”; Paolo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”.
SMILE: And live to make another world is possible, everyday.
TAX-CHARITABLE DONATIONS
Please help us continue with this work. To support Indigenous and community-based organizations implementing their own development, human rights and environment projects, make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to: UNITED STATES: Box 50887,
Washington DC, 20091-0887; CANADA: 422 Parliament St, Box 82552, Toronto ON, M5A 4N8. Credit-card donations: www.rightsaction.org.
CONTACT: Grahame Russell & Annie Bird, co-directors, info@rightsaction.org