The Nobel Women's Initiative records testimonies from Guatemala women who have been affected by mining.
guatemala
Mayan victims of gang rapes announce lawsuit against Canadian mining company
For immediate release: March 28, 2011
Toronto, Canada and El Estor, Guatemala:
Rosa Elbira Coc Ich and ten other indigenous Mayan Q'eqchi' women filed a lawsuit Monday against Canadian mining companies HMI Nickel, and its corporate owner, HudBay Minerals, regarding mining-related gang-rapes suffered by them near a Canadian-owned mining site in Guatemala.
On January 17, 2007, the eleven women were gang-raped by mining company security personnel, police and military during the forceful expulsion of Mayan Q'eqchi' families from their farms and homes in the community of "Lote Ocho". These armed evictions were sought by HMI Nickel in relation to its Fenix mining project, located on the north shores of Lake Izabal, Guatemala.
Lessons from the Guatemala syphilis experiments
News broke last week that the U.S. government purposefully exposed hundreds of men in Guatemala to syphilis in ghoulish medical experiments conducted during the late 1940s. As soon as the story got out, President Barack Obama phoned President Alvaro Colom of Guatemala to apologize. Colom called the experiments "an incredible violation of human rights." Colom also says his government is studying whether it can bring the case to an international court.
Guatemala women defenders defy Canadian mines and plead for help
GUATEMALA -- The road to San Miguel Ixtahuacán, Guatemala is a descent into a valley along an asphalt road riddled with potholes that could easily swallow your tire. In the chilly pre-dawn of a February day, six of us -- a videographer, human rights activists, a photographer, an interpreter and a driver -- make our way in the dark. We share the road with large and old slatted trucks carrying cattle, rickety brightly-painted school buses packed with sleeping passengers, women in traje, their indigenous dress, walking to town carrying babies across their chests. It's cold and the stars outline the silhouette of the mountains that separate Guatemala from Mexico just an hour and a half to the west.
September 7, 2011 |
By allowing Goldcorp to operate this way in Guatemala, the Canadian government is violating the right to water of the local communities in the regional and river basin where the Marlin mine operates.
Making blood run 'gold': Mining justice organizers take on Goldcorp
"A carrion Death, within whose empty eye / There is a written scroll! I'll read the writing. / All that glitters is not gold."
- Shakespeare
As shareholders in the Canadian mining company Goldcorp met for their annual general meeting (AGM) in Vancouver last Wednesday, a jubilant and diverse crowd of more than 200 -- with some participants festooned in gold glitter -- pushed its way into the Pan Pacific Convention Centre, where the AGM was taking place.
Armed with a 10-metre-long painted banner, a marching band, and giant golden puppets, the demonstrators occupied the building for almost an hour.
