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
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