Stop the violence: Demand the closure of the Marlin Mine

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Diodora Antonia Hernández Cinto

On May 20, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued an adverse ruling to the Marlin Mine in Guatemala, ordering the project to be shut down. 

The gold and silver mine, operated by the Canadian Goldcorp corporation, has been the cause of enormous social and environmental devastation in the community of Nueva Esperanza, San Miguel Ixtahuacan, since it opened in 2005. 

Several weeks after the order was issued, the government has still not shut down the mine, and community resistance continues to be met with violence. On July 7, Diodora Antonia Hernández Cinto, a local woman who has been resisting the mine, was shot in the eye at her home near the mining site. She remains in a critical condition.

There is widespread rejection of open-pit mining in Guatemala. A recent process of community consultations led to over 600,000 people demanding a stop to open-pit gold mining and the issuing of extraction and exploration licenses to mining companies. These demands have been ignored by the government and the involved transnational mining corporations. In fact, Goldcorp has criminalized the indigenous women who live in extreme poverty and resist the mining taking place on their own lands by promoting their criminal persecution through the Guatemalan judiciary.

The social and environmental damage caused by the mining to local communities has been well documented by the University of Michigan, the Environment and Ecological Pastoral Commission of San Marcos, CEIBA-Friends of the Earth Guatemala. In June, the UN Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples Rights visited Guatemala and met with over 40,000 indigenous community leaders who told him how mining exploitation violates their rights. Based on this report, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ordered the Guatemalan government to close down the operations of Marlin mine in June.

Goldcorp and its subsidiary in Guatemala, Montana Exploradora, have begun a misleading advertising campaign that shows their purported actions for the environment in an open attempt to mislead the Guatemalan public.

The Western Peoples Council* and the resisting residents are demanding the following:

a) the immediate and definite closure of the mine; and
b) compensation for the damages caused to the ecosystem and the communities.

Watch a short video featuring Diodora Antonia Hernández Cinto (in Spanish): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0IIkWlAx20

Please send the letter below to the Guatemalan government, demanding the immediate and definite closure of the Marlin mine as well as compensation for affected peoples.

* The Western Peoples Council defends the territory and the collective rights of indigenous peoples.  It unites the struggles of the native peoples and gathers the representatives from different Western departments to coordinate efforts in response to the common problems faced by the communities in the region.

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