May 2nd Action against Goldcorp: No More Mining Terrorism Rights Action |
During the months of April and May, 2007, Rights Action organized a series of events throughout Canada and the United States focusing on the negative effects of the mining industry in Central America. Community leaders from Honduras and Guatemala took center stage during these speaking tours across North Americ Carlos Amador (left) from the El Porvenir community, in the Siria Valley region, Honduras, as well as Mario Tema Bautista from the municipality of Sipakapa, state of San Marcos, Guatemala, during a demonstration in Vancouver. Both Central American community leaders are associated by the arrival of mining giant Goldcorp in their respective communities.
Mario Tema Bautista, a recognized authority in Mayan languages,
particularly Sipakapense, has also served as municipal mayor of
Sipakapa in recent memory. During an event in Vancouver�s Simon Fraser
University, Tema Bautista declares: �In Canada and the United States,
cyanide is no longer used [by Goldcorp subsidiaries], but over there
[in Guatemala and Honduras] they still use it... What we need is
solidarity among peoples. We are denouncing these acts in an
international stage because our governments are susceptible to
international criticism.� Tema Bautista concluded: �The mining companies have standards in Canada so they must apply them as well in other countries so as not to evade responsibility. We are denouncing these atrocities because it is not possible that a government and a company develop an agreement to not only destroy nature, but human beings as well.� Carlos
Amador, secretary general of the Regional Environmental Committee of
the Siria Valley declares: �In the Siria Valley, Honduras, the negative
impacts of the San Martin mine are extense. The destruction of the
environment, implicit in open-pit mining methods, continues to affect
our ecosystems... The contamination of several water sources have been
confirmed due to the high content of cyanide and heavy metals... There
are communities that have drunk water with high concentrations of
arsenic, mercury and lead for years... Independent medical brigades
have been documenting the ongoing rise in dermatological, respiratory,
ophthalmologic, gastro-intestinal and other diseases.� (1)
On May 2nd, 2007, during Goldcorp�s annual shareholders meeting, a
demonstration congregated outside the installations in order to
denounce and protest what the Central American leaders have denounced
as �atrocities�. �Honduras
is the western hemisphere's second poorest country and in rural areas
such as the Siria Valley, two hours north of the capital, Tegucigalpa,
people can work in the sun-scorched fields for as little as $2 (�1.07)
a day... Some people in the area say they are pleased for the 200 or so
jobs the mine provides, which typically pay $3 to $4.50 a day.� (2) Such
economic advances, however, if they can truly be considered as such,
are microscopic in comparison to Goldcorp�s record earnings. The
international corporation describes itself as �one of the largest gold
mining companies in the world with... 13 operations and 7 development
projects focused throughout the Americas... [And] record 2006 net
earnings of US$408 million.� (3) Goldcorp�s
Chief Executive Officer, Ian Telfer, received $23 million in earnings
during 2006, according to an April 4, 2007 article by The Globe and Mail. Mario
Tema, Carlos Amador, and Dawn Paley, a Vancouver-based independent
journalist, managed to enter the shareholders meeting in order to
denounce the injustices suffered by the Central American communities.
Unfortunately, reactions by Goldcorp�s executive team and the majority
of shareholders was a shameful one. Carlos Amador states: �The president of the company, Kevin MacArthur, said Mario and I were only there to state lies. It is outrageous to hear the high executives of Goldcorp announce their gigantic profits for 2006, while their earnings have come by sacrificing the environment and our population. Now more than ever we realize that the main interest of these Canadian companies is money, money, money; meanwhile, respecting the human rights is unimportant.� Mario
Tema, to the right of Dawn Paley, incredulously comments that after the
meeting, a shareholder approached him and stated: �I don�t care what
happens to your communities. As long as I�m making great profits, I
don�t care.� Version en Espa�ol aqu�. For more information regarding Mining Activities in the Americas please visit: www.rightsaction.org www.miningwatch.ca www.oxfamamerica.org 1 www.miningwatch.ca/index.php@/Glamis_Gold/Glamis_shareholders 2 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article363616.ece 3 www.goldcorp.com/ |