Tropical storms, hurricanes and massive rains are the ‘new normal’ in our overheated, over-exploited planet.
Today, Hurricane Julia carves a path of mudslides and flooding, destruction and death across Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
In our deeply unequal global human order, these are not ‘equal opportunity’ climate disasters. They cause much more harm to people living in pre-existing conditions of systemic exploitation and impoverishment, vulnerability and precariousness.
Invariably, these same people are ruled by governments that prioritize the never-ending expansion of the global capitalist economy, while investing little to nothing in the well-being of their own populations or in the protection of the environment and living habitats of other species and lifeforms.
Ensuring “supply lines” of for-export foods and mineral resources to rich nations and wealthier consumer/investor sectors of our human community are prioritized at the expense of the lives of majority populations in many countries, of the living habitats of other species, and of the environment, Mother Earth herself.
Such is the case of the families of 11 Maya Q’eqchi’ women who are plaintiffs in the landmark Hudbay Minerals lawsuits in Canada. First filed in 2010, the women allege that in January 2007 they were raped by Guatemalan soldiers and police, and mining company security guards during the eviction and destruction of Lote 8, their home community in the mountains high above the Polochic and Cahobon rivers that flow into Lake Izabal, in eastern Guatemala.
Nine of the plaintiffs, in Cahoboncito.
Photo: Angelica Choc, October 10, 2022
The allegations have not been proven in court and the lawsuits continue.
What is known is that since the evictions, they have not been able to return to live on their rich mountain-top lands, surrounded by forests and crisscrossed by small rivers. Swiss company Solway Investment Group, current owner of the mountain-top removal mining operation in these Q’eqchi’ territories, still has its eyes on the lands of Lote 8 where it is suspected there is a concentration of nickel ore.
Instead, the Lote 8 women live with their families in thatched-roof and tin-roof huts with dirt floors, in the village of Cahoboncito, and work tiny parcels of land along the Cahobon and Polochic rivers.
In this short clip, filmed by Angelica Choc on October 10, 2022, the women stand above their flooded fields …
Maya Q'eqchi women of Lote 8, El Estor, Guatemala stand above their subsistence crops flooded by Hurricane Julia.
In these ‘new normal’ times of life on our over-heated, over-exploited planet, these rivers overflow and flood more and more regularly. In 2020, Hurricanes ETA and IOTA twice wiped out their subsistence farming crops, along with those of thousands of similarly exploited, impoverished farmers. Now, Julia, once again …
Our response
In this corner of the earth where Rights Action works, we stick with our 2-part approach.
Firstly, we prioritize funding and supporting, as best we can, the people and community defense struggles that we work with, in all their needs, as defined by them.
Secondly, we focus our education and activism work on exposing and working to transform the underlying, local-to-global causes of the harms, destructions and violences that plague and characterize their lives.
The challenges remain similar in Guatemala and across the planet: Directly support people, natural habitats and environments being devastated and harmed by the unjust Nation State system and violent imposition of the exploitative global economic order, and the resultant climate and environmental harms; and, from there, join with millions of people across the planet who continue to chip away at the long-term work of trying to transform how we live together as humans, with all other life-forms on this one planet.
Rights Action is sending small grants to the Hurricane Julia harmed communities of Q’eqchi’ people (including the Lote 8 women), and to other long-term partner groups in the region, as best we can. Funds are being used to provide: food and potable water, clothing, minimal shelter, and medical support for victims of Julia, … before the inevitable re-building work begins once again.
