Maya People of Sipacapa Issue International Call for Solidarity

11th Dec The Maya Peo­ple of Sipaca­pa issued an inter­na­tion­al appeal for sol­i­dar­i­ty this past week­end, in the midst of ongo­ing protests against Gold­corp Inc.’s min­ing activ­i­ties in San Mar­cos, Guatemala.

11th Dec The Maya Peo­ple of Sipaca­pa issued an inter­na­tion­al appeal for sol­i­dar­i­ty this past week­end, in the midst of ongo­ing protests against Gold­corp Inc.’s min­ing activ­i­ties in San Mar­cos, Guatemala.

The Maya began protest­ing with campesino com­mu­ni­ties on Decem­ber 4,2013, set­ting up two sep­a­rate block­ades on the Inter-Amer­i­can High­way — at Kilo­me­ter 170 in San­ta Cata­ri­na Ixtahuacán, Sololá and Kilo­me­ter 242 near Pajapi­ta, San Mar­cos.

Accord­ing to the appeal, issued by The Mayan Coun­cil Of Sipaca­pa on Decem­ber 7, Gold­corp and its sub­sidiary EntreMares de Guatemala are vio­lat­ing a com­mu­ni­ty deci­sion to reject any min­ing exploita­tion in Sipaca­pa.

The Maya are now demand­ing the with­draw­al of both the company’s per­son­nel and its machin­ery from Sipaca­pa, and request­ing ”that cen­tral gov­ern­ment author­i­ties respect the com­mu­ni­ty con­sul­ta­tion car­ried out in 2005.”

They are fur­ther demand­ing an end to any ongo­ing efforts to force them to accept the new mine as well as the pres­ence of var­i­ous gov­ern­ment offi­cials “To resolve this issue, since the only thing we seek is peace”, state the Maya Peo­ple of Sipaca­pa, adding, “The pres­ence of the mine is caus­ing social con­flict, on a fam­i­ly lev­el and on a com­mu­ni­ty lev­el, and it is destroy­ing our social har­mo­ny.”

In addi­tion to their demands, the Maya Peo­ple Of Sipaca­pa are ask­ing “our sis­ters and broth­ers from oth­er nations to accom­pa­ny us in this strug­gle which [is] in ben­e­fit of all.”

Below, please find the Decem­ber 7 Appeal from the The Peo­ple Of Sipaca­pa, in Eng­lish and Span­ish. Eng­lish trans­la­tion by Rights Action.

The Peo­ple Of Sipaca­pa, Via The Mayan Coun­cil Of Sipaca­pa, Informs:

  • To all sis­ter­ly and broth­er­ly peo­ples, nation­al and inter­na­tion­al author­i­ties, nation­al and inter­na­tion­al social and human rights orga­ni­za­tions;
  • To the Min­istry of Ener­gy and Mines, the Min­istry of the Envi­ron­ment and Nat­ur­al Resources, the Min­istry of the Inte­ri­or; and
  • To EntreMares (Gold­corp Inc.):

Sipaca­pa Already Said No To Min­ing Exploita­tion.

“Sipaca­pa Is Not For Sale”

In 2005, the pop­u­la­tion firm­ly reject­ed min­ing explo­ration and exploita­tion in its ter­ri­to­ry, as was doc­u­ment­ed in the acts of the com­mu­ni­ty con­sul­ta­tion car­ried out in good faith on June 18, 2005 in each com­mu­ni­ty of the munic­i­pal­i­ty.

Since that time, the com­mu­ni­ty has con­tin­ued to defend that posi­tion. The pop­u­la­tion does not want its land destroyed by metal­lic min­ing, which only leads to social con­t­a­m­i­na­tion (con­flict), envi­ron­men­tal con­t­a­m­i­na­tion, health prob­lems, dete­ri­o­ra­tion of wildlife and eco­nom­ic injus­tice, as we see in the sis­ter munic­i­pal­i­ty of San Miguel Ixtahuacán, depart­ment of San Mar­cos.

Nev­er­the­less, on April 30, 2012, the Min­istry of Ener­gy and Mines – through its gen­er­al direc­tor of min­ing – issued a min­ing explo­ration license to the com­pa­ny EntreMares de Guatemala (owned by Gold­corp Inc.), called the “Chocoyos” license, to exploit gold, sil­ver, nick­el, cobalt, chromi­um, cop­per, lead, zinc anti­mo­ny and rare earth ele­ments in an area of 23 square kilo­me­ters.

For these rea­sons, we have been protest­ing peace­ful­ly since Decem­ber 4, 2013, to reject the pres­ence of explo­ration machin­ery and per­son­nel from EntreMares/ Gold­corp. We demand the with­draw­al of this machin­ery and the com­pa­ny per­son­nel from the ter­ri­to­ry of Sipaca­pa, and request that cen­tral gov­ern­ment author­i­ties respect the com­mu­ni­ty con­sul­ta­tion car­ried out in 2005.

We request and demand that they cease to force us to accept the pres­ence of the EntreMares/ Gold­corp mine in Sipaca­pa. We con­tin­ue to be intim­i­dat­ed by the pres­ence of the Nation­al Civil­ian Police.

We also demand the pres­ence of the depart­men­tal gov­er­nor, the direc­tor of Ener­gy and Mines, the Min­is­ter of Ener­gy and Mines and the Human Rights Pros­e­cu­tor. We request their pres­ence in our munic­i­pal­i­ty to resolve this issue, since the only thing we seek is peace. The pres­ence of the mine is caus­ing social con­flict, on a fam­i­ly lev­el and on a com­mu­ni­ty lev­el, and it is destroy­ing our social har­mo­ny.

We ask our sis­ters and broth­ers from oth­er nations to accom­pa­ny us in this strug­gle which in ben­e­fit of all. Munic­i­pal author­i­ties should not be pro­mot­ing destruc­tive projects.

Munic­i­pal­i­ty of Sipaca­pa, San Mar­cos

Decem­ber 7, 2013