The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.
Activists travel from Central America to share concerns at Goldcorp AGM
Here in Timmins we are reminded of mining operations everywhere we look. It’s written on the sides of trucks, headframes thrust into the skyline and shafts driven deep into the Earth. Here, mining means life, prosperity and reason.
For some in Central America, however, they claim mining means many other things: Suffering, loss of independence and sickness. Activists blame mining corporations.
“Goldcorp does not operate in Honduras and Guatemala the way it does in Canada,” said Reina Gamora, a Honduran school teacher and activist, who made the 6,000-kilometre trek to appeal to the hearts and minds of those who understand mining. “They operate through utilizing the corrupt government that operates in Honduras. They ignore the human rights and environmental impacts their operations have.”
Gamora and two colleagues made the trip to appeal to the shareholders in Goldcorp at the firm’s annual general meeting in Timmins on Thursday. They want to ensure proper cleanup measures are taken as the San Martin mine undergoes its closure process.
“They began their closing plan three years ago without considering the devastating consequences it will have on the people and the communities surrounding it,” Gamora said.
In Timmins, Goldcorp is a member of the community, a conscientious funding partner of initiatives, a provider of income, well being and security.
“Goldcorp has reaped the benefits of our communities and land while we have reaped the bitter consequences,” Gamora said. “We would like more than anything, to see the company compensate our community and help us re-establish our lives, our homes, and our well being.”
Mining issues are infinitely more complex in the Americas.
“Fifty-four mining licences have been granted in our department just this year,” said Alfonso Morales Jimenez, a member of the department of Hueheutenango in Guatemala. “We have filed unanimous referendums to stop them. We took the necessary legal measures, filed them with the government and they were ignored.”
Shrugged off by the powers that be, said Jimenez, but not by the people.
“We have ancestral Mayan laws,” he said. “Though the government refuses to acknowledge these referendums as binding, we see them as binding.
“The Earth is our mother, and she is not for sale.”
A far cry from the ever-present, always scrutinizing environmental watchdogs here in Canada.
“The rivers surrounding the Marlin Mine are contaminated,” said Jimenez. “Our people are sick, our people are suffering and the government is doing nothing and the mining companies are doing even less.”
Carlos Amador, another Honduran pleading for help, said the region is suffering.
“There are 50 million tonnes of contaminated material surrounding the San Martin mine and this poison is being left there,” he said. “80% of those living close to mine have suffered serious sickness.
“Lead and zinc are being found in high levels in the blood and urine of former workers and the residents of local villages.”
Amador said that once these findings were presented to the courts of Honduras, they refused to deal with them, saying it was a corporate issue. This was followed shortly thereafter by a statement from Goldcorp directing them back to the courts.
For the rest of this article, please go to the Timmins Daily Press website: http://www.thedailypress.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3545489