On the 21st I visited Barrio Union of El Estor in Izabal, which is in the 10 minute documentary a few posts below. I met the wife of Adolfo Ich, who was killed by security officers for the CGN/Hud Bay mine, named Anjelica, and her sister Maria Magdelena. We sat in their house which is technically on "private property" of the mining company. However, Maria explained to us very passionately that the land belongs to her father.

Their family has lived and farmed the land for years and years. One day appeared a "private property" sign. They kept off the land for a bit when they realized, What? This is our land. They kept farming and living. People here live in wooden huts with thatched roofs. Eventually they suffered violent evictions off the land, documented in the documentary below.

Maria Magdelena spoke mostly, Angelica was too upset. We were there on the 21st and the next day would have been her husband's 52nd birthday. He was killed in September of last year. His name up above is linked to a report on the day he was murdered. Maria was is an incredible woman. She spoke about land rights, indigenous rights (they are Q'eqchi' people) and the history of her family on that land. When they spoke of Adolfo, their husband and brother-in-law, they wept.

Anjelica said, "We'll never leave now, this land has the blood of my husband on it."

Maria relayed a story that an older woman went to talk to the security officer of the mine, asking to talk to someone about what is going on, a dialogue, but the officer sprayed her in the face with pepper spray. Maria said the mine and the government call the people trouble makers, land grabbers and squatters. The brother of the two women, Ramiro Choc, is currently in jail in Guatemala City for what are considered to be made up charges to keep him from the community, he is a known and respected community leader. The mining company and the government use tactics to divide communities, killing and arresting leaders, giving jobs to some people in the community and not others. Some people would never take a job there, but others just need the work, they need to survive. This is an example of the criminalization of the struggle for justice.

I was struck by Maria's talk, and in proper Colleen fashion, was unable to really say anything to her when we left. I just shook her hand and tried not to move my face too much but tears came streaming down. I couldn't say anything, but I hope she knew I heard her and I'll tell people what happened, and continues to happen, to her and her family.

Returning from El Estor we hit cooler weather again. It was very humid and warm in the Izabal region; the waters of Lake Izabal were like bathwater. A bucket bath was the most relieving from the heat.

In Guatemala City again we rested and the next day, on the 22nd, we went to the office of a foundation that does exhumations at massacre sites in Guatemala, called the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation... an organization funded by international groups and governments. Communities will formally request an exhumation, which is technically the opening of a criminal case, and the FAFG will go out and get testimony from the community then perform the exhumation. At least 200,000 people were killed during the 36 year civil war, with the majority of victims being indigenous and the vast majority of the murders done by the military. They have dug up mass graves and are now part of an ongoing effort to find the responsible parties for what is considered a genocide of the indigenous people. To date, no high ranking military or politician has ever been found guilty. This very recent news article is important:

Guatemala hands over key file in army genocide case

By Sarah Grainger
Reuters
Thursday, April 22, 2010; 7:26 PM

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala's government handed over a military document on Thursday containing evidence soldiers massacred villagers during the country's civil war which could help prosecute top officials for genocide.

A copy of a military file dating from the 1980s, complete with maps, telegrams and hand-written patrol reports about an operation known as "Plan Sofia," was mailed anonymously to President Alvaro Colom last year.

Colom's government verified its authenticity and passed it to the attorney general's office, which has a long-running case against the Central American country's former dictator, Efrain Rios Montt, accusing him of ordering the murder of thousands of civilians.

The document was also turned over for use in a parallel case in Spain, brought by Mayan human rights activist Rigoberta Menchu, which accuses Rios Montt of carrying out genocide during his 1982-83 rule.

Nearly a quarter of a million people, mostly native Mayans, died during the 36-year-long civil war pitting leftist guerrillas against security forces.

Rios Montt, now 83, still serves in Guatemala's Congress.

A U.N.-backed Truth Commission report found the army committed 85 percent of the killings, but this is the first time a military document might be able to link the highest chain of command to human rights violations in a court of law.

"These documents paint a picture of command responsibility," said Andrew Hudson of the Washington-based group Human Rights First. "When put together they show Rios Montt and the top commanders were aware of and were directing a policy which the United Nations says constituted genocide," he told Reuters.

Colom pledged to address war-time abuses after taking office in 2008. His uncle, Manuel Colom Argueta, was a prominent leftist politician killed by a military ambush in 1979 at the height of Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war.

He promised to open sealed military archives that date back to 1954, when a U.S.-backed coup toppled Guatemala's democratically elected president, despite the army's claims that opening the files would threaten national security.

The document reveals details about the military's scorched earth campaign aimed at wiping out guerrilla sympathizers.

"Plan Sofia" was based on a counter-insurgency strategy to attack towns providing food and shelter to guerrilla fighters as a way to "drain the water from the fish," Colom's government said in a statement after making the document public.

Women, children and old people were routinely beaten, raped, tortured and killed by soldiers during these raids, according the country's truth commission.

Visiting the FAFG was very hard. I saw boxes and boxes of bones with communities written on the side of where the bones were exhumed. I saw a worker handling a dirty baseball cap from an exhumation, and bones on the tables. People. I cannot imagine digging up bones with buried pieces of people's clothing, finding "traje" (Mayan traditional clothing), they have found baby bottles and the clothing of children. FAFG does DNA and other testing to find the identities of the people, many times they cannot. Many times the bodies are too mixed up together, hundreds in one pit or well. When they have an identity they can give the body back in a box for reburial, a proper burial, an inhumation. When there is no identity, they still give it all back to the community to bury. It is part of the healing process. Here is a good video about digging up people, the "desaparecidos," and the seeking of justice.




Later we headed out of Guate along the coast to a village of San Lucas Toliman, on Lake Atitlan. We visited a guy named Elvis Morales (best name EVER) who is part of "Comité Campesino de Altiplano" - group of farmers of the highlands. We talked about the so-called minimum wage in Guatemala which is 56 quetzales a day, or about $5. Actual wages are more like 20-30 quetzales a day, like $3. Elvis shared with us the affects of NAFTA in Guate, local land struggles, the fact that most land is owned by a handful of wealthy people and most arable land is unused in Guatemala. He said, "Peace and development will come from agrarian reform." This group, CCDA, reclaims land for campesinos (farmers) and works on worker's rights, rejecting and denouncing megaprojects like mining and petroleum, denouncing that most land is used for single crops and for export thereby many campesinos remain landless or limited to subsistence farming, and other efforts.

One of their community and CCDA leaders is currently exiled, permanently residing in Canada until further notice - he is the 7th to have to leave because of threats. They recently suffered a big robbery losing thousands of dollars of coffee. As an organization they have received numerous death threats, some assassinations (7 in 2010 so far), and robbery. Elvis began a sentence with, "Maybe we dream too much, but..." and then said he hopes for rural development and sustainability. Too much to dream? He reminded us that 2% of the Guatemalan population owns 84% of the land. Most of the land that the non-wealthy hold is rocky, mountainous land that is hard to farm on - which is totally evident in the highlands. In Concepcion Huista, people farm on steep mountainsides.

Elvis taught me a thing or two. Indigenous campesinos are often blamed for deforestation and creating mudslides, etc., but I never realized it is because that is all the land they are given. The finca-owners (large farms) are never blamed for deforestation because their land is fertile, flat land - not the forests where indigenous campesinos have been pushed in the last couple hundred years. More and more people are becoming landless as "Fincas" change their production methods, more machinery, etc. Of the usable land in Guatemala, almost 80% is unused. Landowners just hold on to it, or use it for cattle. While thousands and thousands of indigenous campesinos are landless... poverty and malnutrition are rampant in Guatemala, with higher rates than most nations in the Americas.

This information is part of the stories from El Estor, where people are kicked out of their ancestral lands by foreign companies and wealthy land owners. Because most indigenous people don't actually hold "titles" to the land they've lived on, they are evicted or run out for the sake of mines, "national parks," or the cultivation of export crops. They are then hired as workers, often as part-time workers so the companies don't have to pay benefits or minimum wage. This problem has been going on for hundreds of years and continues today.

On the 23rd we went up to San Miguel Ixtahuacan in the department of San Marcos where there is a gold mine operated by GoldCorp, a Canadian company. We arrived to participate in a community meeting which included a number of women, a community leader named Javier, and a nice young chap named Angel. The women were amazing, speaking among themselves in Mam about the court system, news about the mine, the recent Earth Day protests in the capital and in their town, the national and global struggle for justice in communities destroyed by mining. One woman is particularly known. She single-handedly cut off the power to the mine for a period of time. The cables run over her home and she was sick of it. But for that action she has criminal charges. She has been arrested. At this meeting she said she is afraid to go outside, was afraid to participate in the protests the day before against the mine, is afraid she will be arrested again and will lose her family. She was extremely upset and exhausted by the struggle. And not only that, but so very beautiful and poignant and intelligent speaking weaving in and out of Spanish and Mam. She appears in a recent documentary soon to be released called the Price of Gold, or something like that. She stands coyly on a small hill under the cables saying, "... and then I cut off their electricity." But now her bold move has caused her to be persecuted by those in favor of the mine and the mining company. But not only her, also other community members for speaking out against the mine.

In San Miguel, the people were not offered a consultation, which is required by the mining company; they never got the community's permission. They went in and bought land from people without disclosing what they would do with it. Some community members blame those who sold their land for the problems, but people sold without knowing what for -- but found a chance to make money selling land you can hardly farm on anyway. Now that the mine has been there for 5 years there are documented environmental and health problems.






What is extreme about seeing this mine is that houses are right on the outskirts. Not like in El Estor where the mine is somewhat out of town, this mine is RIGHT inside the community. The waste pit is horrifying. I have never seen San Miguel before the mine, but those who have say the mountain is virtually gone now. There used to be a mountain there. In this region the gold is not very dense. For every 7-8 tons of mountain, they get 1 ounce of gold. Yes.

Currently, the mining company says it is giving out bags of fertilizer (right at planting season) AND the bags that would go to people, but who are against the mine, will be given back to the community in money. The mining company is trying to divide the community, create an "US" and "THEM" blaming those against the mine as anti-development, but

Underdevelopment is not a step towards development, but the historic consequence from foreign development. -Eduardo Galeano

One woman at the meeting, Patrocina, said, "We need it [the fertilizer], but we don't want it."

Later that day we visited a village called Salitre, where we met a very funny and dynamic community member named Pedro. Pedro loves cookies. As we all talked and snacks were offered around, I noticed Pedro accepted cookies like the way I accept slices of pizza, like oooh thanks but the eyes say it all, YUM!!! Anyway, he said people didn't know about the mine until it was already there. And that the mining company never said "gold" or talked about what would happen to the land. He also said the mining company would hire local people to come in and talk about the development projects the mine would bring to the community, they would videotape the meetings and call it a "consultation."

People have cracks, big ones, in their homes because of the tunnel mining. The mine is also an open-pit mine, the cheapest and most destructive form of mining. But the company says the houses are cracked because they are poorly constructed, made of bad materials or because people play their music too loud. They also say that about the health problems people are presenting, saying the people are just malnourished and have poor hygiene.

We witnessed an incredible moment however. In this short meeting one of the vice-mayors showed up to open a meeting room for us. A young guy not particularly ready or aware that we were talking about the mine. Pedro and another man, Ambrosio, were already talking to us, denouncing the mine and talking about farm animals dying from drinking river water and the cracks in the houses, when Edgar (this vice-mayor arrives). Edgar does not denounce the mine, in fact he is not saying anything bad..even saying those who sold their land are the ones to blame. Then we start talking about the development promises made by the company, for jobs and schools and a health clinic. Edgar says, "Oh yeah, I turned in a job application twice at the mine and have never heard anything back." We were sitting in a school made by the mining company, although it is just the building, the mining company does not pay for anything more like desks, teacher salaries, books, etc. Edgar admitted, this school is all they have done in 5 years (and it was still under construction --- we're talking about a BILLION dollar company). Then we start talking about health problems and Edgar, still the non-believer, says, "Yeah people have health problems.. I guess...... Like my 3 kids have rashes. But we went to the doctor and he said it is because we dry our clothes outside on the bushes and insects get in them and then they bite us...." And then someone asks, "Has it always been like that?" And Edgar pauses. He says, "Just in the last couple of years."

The light bulb went on for that guy in that moment.

We ended the day at a local development office with a man named Javier, who is an awesome guy and respected community leader. He shared with us that the mining company has created community division, there are more bars now, there is prostitution now, the mining company has paid for bullets and tear gas to be used on the community (this was recently proven in court), there has not been sustainable development. Javier is about to embark on a speaking tour in Canada about mining, then will spend a few weeks resting; the struggle has taken a toll on him and other community members, living in fear of repression for their actions, living in their community now contaminated by the mine.

The delegation is over. I have seen things I never knew existed in Guatemala - or better, I knew they existed, but I didn't quite understand it. Now I have seen the sadness, anger, frustration and both hopelessness and hope in people... I have a better understanding of the true scope of corruption and impunity in Guatemala, as well as the deep, deep roots of land struggle and indigenous rights in Guatemala. I still struggle to find the purpose of my voice in witnessing these tragedies. As citizens of countries that are a big part of these tragedies we have the obligation to denounce these actions, these injustices and abuses of people's rights, and also keep alive the experience and struggles of people like Anjelica, Lote 8, Gregoria, Javier, Pedro and Patrocina... and the thousands out there who have to fight for their land.... Still. Although I can read about these issues in the past, I have seen with my own eyes, and report to you here, that they are not issues of the past.... It is happening right now.