Asunción Mita Municipal Neighborhood Consultation under attack
By Nelton Rivera, Prensa Comunitaria, Sept.25, 2022
https://www.prensacomunitaria.org/2022/09/la-consulta-municipal-de-vecinos-de-asuncion-mita-bajo-ataque/
The Municipal Neighborhood Consultation is considered one of the most profound democratic exercises in Guatemala. Recently, the town of Asunción Mita, Jutiapa, held a consultation on the presence of mining projects in this territory. In a resounding manner, the population went to the polls and voted against mining.
Another Conflict. MEM (Ministry of Energy & Mines):
We do not agree with the Neighborhood Consultation in Asuncion Mita.
The mining company that owns the Cerro Blanco project, the Canadian company [Bluestone Resources, and its subsidiary Elevar Resources], the business sector and the State, attacked the legality of this consultation.
According to several experts, this sector operates illegally in many territories, and wastes resources and time, since the highest constitutional court has recognized the legality and legitimacy of municipal consultations.
The opposition extends to the neighboring country of El Salvador, the mining directly affects both countries.
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The town of Asunción Mita, in the department of Jutiapa, some 123 kilometers from Guatemala City, held a Municipal Consultation of Neighbors on September 18, to decide through direct vote, whether or not mining companies can operate in their territory.
The result of the consultation was overwhelming: 7,481 people voted NO to mining, while 904 voted yes.
This is the Cerro Blanco mining project, owned by the company [Canadian Bluestone Resources (Elevar Resources)]. The company tried to block the consultation process, to such an extent that the neighbors of Mita denounced the bribery of several bus owners hired to provide the service on the day of the consultation, in order to attack the legality of the consultation.
On Saturday night, in the Technical Problems program of Prensa Comunitaria, we talked about the recent attacks against the legality of the Municipal Consultation of Neighbors in Asuncion Mita, Jutiapa.
To learn more about the organizational process of the consultation, held on September 18 in the department of Jutiapa, we interviewed Julio González, activist of the Madre Selva Collective, lawyer Rafael Maldonado and Cidia Cortés, biologist and ecofeminist from El Salvador.
A consultation that sparked anger among the main Guatemalan business chambers that launched several communiqués together with the Ministry of Energy and Mines MEM with the usual rhetoric, asking for "legal certainty" and delegitimizing the legality of the process.
Even the Guatemalan-Canadian Chamber of Commerce (https://www.cancham.org.gt/en/) and AMCHAM (https://www.amchamcanada.ca/) expressed their rejection.
Colectivo Madre Selva is an environmental organization in Guatemala, with more than 20 years of existence. Julio González is part of the team that accompanies the community organization in Asunción Mita to organize and carry out the municipal consultation process.
Julio recounted all the illegalities that the mining company has committed in Asunción Mita, especially how they violated laws in order to operate Cerro Blanco, a mine that was born dead due to the lack of studies, he says.
The rejection of the Cerro Blanco project has been going on for more than 15 years and recently the community organization on the other side of Lake Güija, in El Salvador, has involved environmentalists, communities and women in the defense of water and territory, since the Cerro Blanco mining project directly affects Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
Cidia Cortés, Salvadoran biologist and ecofeminist, spoke about the organizational efforts in that country to contain the advance of the Cerro Blanco mining project, as well as the impact on the people of both nations, their water sources and life. They are also organizing with Honduras for this, as it is a mining project that affects all three countries, due to its presence in the basin of Lake Güija and the Lempa River with Honduras.
Regarding the attacks on the legality of the Municipal Consultation of Neighbors, attorney Rafael Maldonado affirmed that the legality of the process is unquestionable, from the moment the Municipal government made the decision and called for the consultation, the State of Guatemala legitimized the process.
In addition, five rulings of the Constitutional Court on other mining projects generated jurisprudence on the legality of municipal consultations.
We share with you the live program of Problemas Técnicos and the interview with these three environmental professionals about the discussion of the Cerro Blanco mining project, its negative impact, and the legality of the municipal consultation process in Asunción Mita.
(Nelton Rivera is a historian and photojournalist, founder of Prensa Comunitaria and member of the research team Green Blood, Mining Secrets and Colibrí Zurdo).
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