|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Guest post by Jennifer Moore, Institute for Policy Studies, Global Economy Program
Two women delegates from the Xinka Parliament of Guatemala visited Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia, on the unceded traditional territories of the Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations, for a week at the end of May.
Marisol Guerra is President of the Xinka Parliament’s Women’s Commission from Santa Rosa de Lima and Marta Muñoz is from the community of San Antonio Las Flores in the municipality of Mataquescuintla. Both were named by their communities to be delegates during a nearly seven-year long consultation process over the future of the Escobal silver mine that is nearing completion. Shortly prior to their visit, the Xinka Parliament announced their final decision in this process to Guatemalan authorities, denying consent for the restart of the Escobal mine.
Here’s what these two Indigenous leaders had to say:
Solidarity between Indigenous Nations
While in British Columbia, Marisol and Marta found common struggle with First Nations fighting to exercise their self-determination and to defend their territory, lands and Sacred Grandmother Water from mine and energy projects. In well-attended events, meetings and press engagements, they urged Vancouver-based Pan American Silver and the Canadian government to respect the Xinka People’s decision to permanently close the Escobal mine.
During a joint press conference with the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip called on Prime Minister Mark Carney to “Do whatever he can to ensure that Canadian company Pan American Silver is brought to account, respects the inherent land rights of the Xinka people and closes the mine.”
He stated, “Clearly [the mine] represents a detrimental threat to the Xinka People, to their lands. It’s a question of environmental toxicity, of brutal treatment of Indigenous Peoples despite the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act that Prime Minister Carney is responsible to uphold.”
The Act was passed in the B.C. legislature in 2019, the first jurisdiction in Canada to formally adopt into law the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Despite the obligations of governments at all levels in Canada to uphold and respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights to self-determination, federal and provincial governments were busy passing or preparing fast track legislation to facilitate infrastructure, energy and other megaprojects in the so-called “national interest” despite broad opposition from the UBCIC, First Nations and environmental organizations across the country while Marta and Marisol were in Canada.
No means no
When asked by the Northern Miner what it would take for Pan American Silver to reach an agreement with the Xinka People, Marisol insisted: “Even if they offered us 50% or 70% share in the operations, the answer is no, we don’t want any mining company in our territory. We simply want them to go away.”
To arrive at this decision, the Xinka People have been through a very arduous process, including fifteen years of getting informed and standing up to repression and militarization, eight years of roadside resistance, and nearly seven years in a court-ordered consultation process. The consultation process included years of study of the current and potential impacts from the mine, as well as working with a team of experts to receive and analyze information from Guatemalan government offices and from the company itself.
In its 2024 Sustainability Report released on May 29, Pan American Silver calls itself “one of the three key participants” and said that it has acted in good faith throughout the consultation process.
In conversation with The Tyee, Marisol raised concerns about this characterization of the company’s role. “The way the company presents the process, from our point of view, is an act of bad faith and an effort to misinform about what it’s all about, both in Guatemala and internationally,” she said. “The court has been very clear that it’s a process between the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the Xinka People.”
The company’s role in this process is limited to one of an observer with the obligation to present the information that it has about the mine for the Xinka to verify and analyze.
The harms of mining without consent
The risks of pushing forward without the Xinka People’s consent are already clear based on the early years of the Escobal project, which included intense repression, legal persecution of community leaders, and a military state of siege ordered by the government in mid-2013 shortly after the Ministry of Energy and Mines approved the operating permit for the mine.
Marta told Northern Miner, “This project arrived in our territory, violating our rights.” The results she said have been “more poverty, more human-rights violations and deeper social divisions.”
Business In Vancouver recalled in their coverage one of the most notorious acts of violence when company security guards fired on peaceful protesters and injured six when the project was still in the hands of Tahoe Resources, leading to a civil lawsuit in B.C. courts. Pan American settled the case out of court after purchasing the project in 2019 when it was already suspended, but it did not resolve the lasting harm from so much repression. Nor did the threats to Xinka People stop.
Marta underscored multiple times during their visit how threats and harassment have persisted, including shooting attacks and the murder of Noé Gómez. Some, she said, including the past president of the Xinka Parliament have fled the country with their families as recently as late last year to ensure their safety.
In response, she urged Canadian authorities to act on their guidelines in favour of land, territory, and environment defenders, including to refrain from providing political support to the company.
The Xinka People are now waiting on a response from the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
Please show your support and call on Pan American Silver and Canadian authorities to respect the Xinka People’s decision by signing your group, collective, organization, or small business onto the following letter by end-of-day June 23:
