Mining Goes on Trial

At 5am on Saturday July 14, OGG packed up and headed off to San Miguel Ixtahuacàn. There the group joined other international delegations, human rights accompaniers, journalists, and local community members for the first ever International Peoples Health Tribunal.  

Initiated by local stakeholders in San Miguel Ixtahuacàn, the event was coordinated in collaboration with Susana Caxaj, a University of Western graduate student and volunteer with Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN), as well as the local Parrish and FREDEMI (Front in Defense of San Miguel Ixtahuacàn). Also participating were people affected by Goldcorp’s Los Filos mine in Mexico and its San Martín mine in Honduras, as well as representatives from throughout El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama, who provided a regional examination and critique of the resource extraction model and its effects on communities.  

The tribunal was structured to resemble a trial with a panel of 13 judges presiding. For two days they and OGG listened to testimony from scientific experts, human rights organizations, and community leaders directly affected by mining.  Specifically, tribunal heard three cases from three different countries experiencing the (mal)effects of mining operations owned and operated by Canadian gold giant Goldcorp. The tales of contamination, defective and abortive pregnancies, skin malformations, inter and intra community violence, as well as forced evictions and assassinations challenged even the most ardent mining proponent.

The Verdict

After two days of testimony the international panel of distinguished observers which included environmental scientists, psychologists, legal and cultural anthropologists among others delivered a guilty verdict to Goldcorp, the host countries of Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico, as well as the Canadian Government for supporting and promoting in various ways irresponsible mining in Mesoamerica. The verdict read “...we find Goldcorp guilty for its activities in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, which we find to be seriously damaging to the health and the quality of life, the quality of environment, and the right to self-determination of the affected Indigenous and campesino communities.”

“Now we will hear from Izabal”

With that, Raul Caal Coc, a delegate from Chichipate, El Estor, immediately stood up throwing his arms in the air in triumph. For him and the six other delegates from the Department of Izabal in Guatemala’s nickel rich eastern reaches, the opportunity to speak and be heard was a rare victory. On his flank were fellow embattled activists Maria and Angelica Choc. And it was the powerful voices of the two Maya- Q'eqchi women from La Union, El Estor that filled the hall of international judges, expert witnesses, Mesoamerican delegates, and interested onlookers. Their passionate pleas for action also served to punctuate the two days of testimonies from affected communities.   

Angelica began: “we are victims of the Canadian mining companies in our country like many others that are here today… We are Indigenous people, we must protect ourselves.” Angelica Choc is the widow of Adolfo Ich, a prominent community leader from La Union, who in 2009 was gunned down by Mynor Padilla, head of HudBay Nickels security subcontractor. Her and Maria are also the sisters of political prisoner Ramiro Choc, an indigenous and community activist who has been held in federal custody since 2008. Her assured voice continued: “We are defending our mother earth because we know that it is from her that we are able to eat and live… They [the companies] continue to offer projects in our communities... Don’t believe them. The ‘bolsas solidarias’ they offer will not endure over the years but our land, yes, it’s for our children. So we have to defend them now… We are rich… and it is because of that foreign companies have to rob our economic resources, our natural re- sources and everything we have. And how? Violently and without shame. Do you know why they enter? Because they think we are still in the 60’s and 70’s when they massacred our parents and grandparents. They may still have blindfolds on, but today we, our children, our grandchildren no longer have blindfolds on, YES or NO?” the crowd quickly replied “No!”. Angelica then turned her attention to those that had not bothered to attend, those who hide their eyes and cover their ears to the abuses of their corporate citizens. “To the Canadian Government and Canadian authorities” Angelica asked, “hear me in Canada and do not send me back to seek justice in Guatemala. Because in my Guatemala there is no justice.”  

The verdict, read in both Spanish and Mam, inspired cautious smiles and applause from the Izabalense delegation and packed hall. But what now? Raul, Angelica, Maria, Germán, and the women from Lote Ocho would return to Izabal the following day where they will continue to face repression and persecution as local indigenous populations continue the 500 year old fight for land and livelihoods against foreign invasion and corporate dispossession.   

Who is Ramiro Choc?

One delegate notably missing from the Izabalense delegation was Ramiro Choc. Like his sisters, Angelica and Maria Choc, Ramiro is a prominent Q’eqchi’ peasant leader who has dedicated much of his life to the defense of indigenous communities in Eastern and Central Guatemala. But on February 14, 2008 six police officers dragged Ramiro Choc from a public bus en route to Guatemala City and took him to an undisclosed location. There he was unlawfully detained for 5 days and probably would have been made to join the country’s countless disappeared had it not been for a serendipitously timed call to a lawyer — a call Ramiro still believes saved his life. So, instead of suffering the planned disposal, Mr. Choc suddenly reappeared in front of a judge on the trumped up charges of aggravated robbery, land stealing, and kidnapping.   If not so tragic the irony would be comedic. Ramiro and the organizations for whom he worked, the National Indigenous and Peasant Coordinating Committee (CONIC) and Encuentro Campesino, dedicate themselves to defending embattled indigenous communities against the same crimes for which he was accused and subsequently condemned.   Ramiro was in fact convicted for his role in mediating a stand-off between police and an indigenous Garifuna community near Livingston in 2007. Invited by the Department’s Governor, he had travelled to Barrio Buena Vista la Esperanza to help negotiate the release of a group of men forcibly held by the community for trespassing and land theft. But as reward for mediating a nonviolent conclusion to a volatile confrontation - Ramiro was arrested and now, four years later, continues to sleep on a cement floor in the notorious Pavon prison.   Ramiro Choc became eligible for parole in February of 2011 but was unable to pay the extrajudicial fine attached to his sentence making probation and freedom a luxury he simply couldn’t afford. But there is hope. The stubborn determination of his sisters has collided with the dedicated activism of Rights Action and others. And this growing North-South alliance has raised sufficient funds to satisfy the states extortion. But for now, in his cell, Ramiro still waits.

For more information on the International Peoples Health Tribunal and the continuing struggles of San Miguel Ixtahuacàn and Izabal please visit: www.rightsaction.org

In Images...