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Goldcorp trying to leave Guatemala without paying for harms and destruction left behind
~Robbing from the poor, to give to the rich. The global capitalist development” model at work~
- Below: Resistance movement asks for reparations for harms caused by Goldcorp/Montana, by Luis Solano, July 11, 2017, translated by Lori Berenson
(San Miguel Ixtahuacan and Sipakapan community members peacefully blockading entrances to Goldcorp’s “marlin” mine since June 26, including here occupying Goldcorp’s landing strip. Photo @ Aniseto Lopez, FREDEMI)
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Resistance movement asks for reparations for harms caused by Goldcorp/Montana
Luis Solano, July 11, 2017
https://cmiguate.org/movimiento-de-resistencia-en-la-mina-marlin-pide-resarcir-danos-ambientales/
The people of San Miguel Ixtahuacan and Sipakapa formed a resistance movement, blockading the industrial facilities of the Marlin mine, demanding talks with Guatemalan government authorities and executives of the mine owned by Goldcorp Inc. (of Canada) and its subsidiary company Montana Exploradora. After the mine’s closure, the local population is demanding compensation for the harms the mine has caused since 2005. The local population is blocking a landing strip, thereby retaining a plane that belongs to a well-known aviation company.
According to a statement by the Frente de Defensa Miguelense (San Miguel Defense Front – FREDEMI), community members entered the mine through the landing strip on June 26th, initiating protests to ensure compliance with their demands.
The population fears that the company will leave without repairing the harms it caused, now that the mine was officially closed on May 30th. They warned that Goldcorp/Montana “has refused to repair the harms, for which reason last October the communities, alongside the Municipal Mayor of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, formed a Commission to Verify the harms caused by the Marlin Mine”.
The statement explains that a dialogue table was installed in San Marcos’s Departmental Governorship in April 2017 in response to Goldcorp/Montana’s refusal to “repair the harms caused and the Guatemalan state’s complicity”.
FREDEMI notes that on July 4, the governor called a meeting with the participation of government offices (COPREDEH, PDH, PNC, MEM, Army, National Delegate of the Dialogue Commission), the lawyer for the Marlin mine (Goldcorp/Montana), and the Municipal Mayor of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, with the objective of reinitiating talks about the harms caused by Goldcorp/Montana.
They concluded that the talks would resume on July 11, with the presence of the executive of Goldcorp/Montana and all government authorities. Although the governor added the condition to free the small plane that has been retained since the population took over the landing strip.
This was all written up in a public act and with representatives of the population present at the meeting, including the Municipal Mayor of San Miguel. The community reps stated they would not commit to anything until copies of the act were sent to the resisting communities by the Mayor’s office and they had had a chance to respond.
Initially it was agreed that the permanent protest would continue until the 11th, “as long as there is a favorable response to the families who have suffered harms. If that does not occur, then stronger pressure will be exerted.”
Blocked plane
The plane, license plate TG-JCE, is registered under Mesoamérica Air Services, S.A., a company registered as a Panamanian company, an offshore company belonging to the Guatemalan company ARM Aviación, S.A., also known as Aerorutas Maya, S.A.
Mesoamérica Air Services is one of many companies documented in the Panama Papers. It was registered by the Panamanian law office Mossack Fonsaeca, which played a central role in the global criminal scandal about tax havens. The connection with Guatemala is through the Lopez Alvarado law office, also referenced in the Panama Papers and tied to many Guatemalan companies registered in Panama.
The ARM Aviación company was given the commercial names Aéreo Ruta Maya (Aerorutas Maya). ARMSA has the following legal representatives: Richard Steven Callaway Ayau, nephew of the now deceased neoliberal ideologue Manuel Ayau Cordon, founder of the University Francisco Marroquín (UFM). In Panama, the Guatemalan executives are Callaway Ayau, his wife, Ana Patricia González Mastahinich de Callaway and Charles Michael Bickford García, all with companies registered in Panama.
ARM Aviacion, owner of this landing strip in Ixquisis, is an important air service provider for state institutions in Guatemala, principally for the Interior Ministry (MINGOB), with more than Q200 million (quetzals) granted in contracts since 2010, 98.5% of which occurred solely in 2014, in a case investigated in the context of dubious business deals and published in a digital newspaper that involves the retired second pilot, Otto Fernando Gramajo Antonio, of the 94th military promotion in 1977.
In the case of Ana Patricia González Mastahinich de Callaway, she is the sister of Beatriz González Mastahinich, who died in 2004 in an airplane accident in the United States. She had been the owner of Transportes Aéreos de Guatemala (TAG) an aviation company now bequest to and directed by her son, Jonathan Layton Gonzalez.
Goldcorp/Montana linked to the State Cooptation Case
Goldcorp/Montana has ties with the State Cooptation Case, a corruption network led by former president Otto Pérez Molina and former vice president Roxana Baldetti, which has been investigated by the CICIG and is now in the phase of judicial hearings. The link to the case is through the former general manager of Montana Exploradora, Eduardo Villacorta, presently fugitive from justice.
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More info
WANTED: Former Goldcorp Inc. Vice President on bribery charges in Guatemala. Does Goldcorp face criminal liability in Guatemala, Canada or the U.S.?
http://mailchi.mp/rightsaction/wanted-former-goldcorp-inc-vice-president-on-bribery-charges-in-guatemaladoes-goldcorp-face-criminal-liability-in-guatemala-canada-or-the-us
Forthcoming book
Mining Impunity in the Aftermath of Guatemala’s Genocide: The Violence of Contemporary Predatory Mineral Exploitation (provisional title)
Co-edited by Professor Catherine Nolin and Grahame Russell, “Mining Impunity in the Aftermath of Guatemala’s Genocide” (to be published in late 2017, early 2018) will analyze the environmental and health harms, human rights violations and repression linked to Canadian (and U.S.) companies INCO-Hudbay Minerals, Goldcorp Inc, Tahoe Resources, KCA-Radius Gold, and the role of governments and investors (private and pension funds) in promoting the relentless expansion of these companies, while ignoring or denying the systemic harms, violations and repression the mining operations cause, and the endemic conditions of violence, corruption and impunity in Guatemala in which the companies are knowingly operating.
Doc film
Gold Fever
Documents how Canadian mining giant Goldcorp Inc. has been mining relentlessly in Guatemala since 2004, despite well documented repression, human rights violations, environmental destruction, and endemic corruption and impunity. Gold Fever takes the viewer into the homes and communities of courageous Mayan Mam people resisting harms and violations, struggling for justice and a different “development” model. Trailer: http://www.goldfevermovie.com/
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Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)
To support community, human rights and environmental defense organizations in Honduras and Guatemala suffering harms, violations and repression due to their opposition to Goldcorp’s open-pit, cyanide leaching mines in both countries, make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to:
- U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
- Canada: (Box 552) 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8
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Tax Deductible Donations
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