support guatemalan communities resisting mining
Indigenous communities all over Guatemala are fighting to protect their territories from harmful industries that pollute the environment and threaten their livelihoods. For example, the Kaqchiquel community close to the country's capital is protesting military acts related to a controversial foreign cement factory. Please support communities as they take peaceful action to stop polluting industries and help us denounce the repression that they are facing.
In San Marcos, communities are resisting the invasion of large scale foreign mining companies. Mining has already proven to damage their communities breaking the walls of their houses, causing a lack of water in the nearby springs, and exposing local people to a high risk of pollution with cyanide as a result of open pit gold exploitation. Throughout the country, landless peasants are being repressed by wealthy landowners and the national police.
Guatemala suffers one of the highest inequality rates in terms of land ownership, only topped by two other countries in the continent. This has led to the impoverishment of thousands of peasants. The state's response has been to turn a deaf ear to the peasants. This has led hundreds of peasant families to struggle for access to land, exercising their legitimate right to own land, but the government responded with violent evictions and repression.
Throughout Guatemala, indigenous and peasant communities are
holding referendums to decide whether mining companies should enter
their territories to extract cement, gold, and other minerals. In
community after community, people are voting NO to the entry of mining
companies. These companies have responded with misinformation campaigns
and, along with the military and police forces, violent repression.
CEIBA/ Friends of the Earth Guatemala asks for your solidarity with the families of these communities. The communities have become a strong symbol of courage and of collective resistance. They are currently being falsely accused of terrorism; there have been explicit accusations against certain peasant leaders. They need your support right now. If you have not already taken the cyberaction, do so here.
