Guatemala: state of siege declared as Army, police crack down after protests against Canadian-owned
Source: Aljazeera
Guatemala: state of siege declared as Army, police crack down after protests against Canadian-owned mine
Xeni Jardin at 3:10 pm Thu, May 2, 2013
Guatemala declared an emergency in four southeastern towns on Thursday, suspending citizens' constitutional rights in an area where deadly protests over a proposed silver mine have erupted in recent weeks.
Guatemalan president Otto Perez announced the move in an effort to quell protests targeting the mine belonging to Canadian miner Tahoe Resources Inc. Two people have been killed in the demonstrations.
The company's security guards shot and wounded six demonstrators on Saturday, said Mauricio Lopez, Guatemala's security minister.
The next day, protesters, who say the Escobal silver mine near the town of San Rafael Las Flores will contaminate local water supplies, kidnapped 23 police officers, Lopez said.
Read more: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/05/20135321312218166.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Guatemala: state of siege declared as Army, police crack down after protests against Canadian-owned mine
Xeni Jardin at 3:10 pm Thu, May 2, 2013
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Photo: Troops entering the region around a disputed mining site, shortly after the declaration of a State of Siege by the government of Guatemala. Photo: guatemala.gob.gt.
Photo: Carlos Andrino. "Caserío los Lopez. Santa Lucia Xalapan. Jalapa." May 2, 2013, Guatemala.
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[Posted from Guatemala City]
Residents of four towns east of Guatemala's capital woke up to news that their communities had been placed under a 30-day State of Siege by the administration of President Otto Perez Molina, following anti-mining protests that turned violent. One policeman was killed, six civilians were wounded by rubber bullets, and a number of police cars were burned and overturned on roadways. Here is the government's official public announcement. Public gatherings in the area are banned for 30 days.
According to Guatemalan Defense Minister Col. Ulises Giron Anzueto Noah (shown at right, photo today by Carlos Andrino), 3,500 total personnel participated in operations to bring the "estado de sitio" (state of siege) into effect. Some soldiers entered the areas in armored personnel vehicles and tanks. Hundreds of police officers were involved, as were private security officers for the Canadian-owned Escobal mine at the center of the controversy.
The mine at San Rafael Las Flores is known locally as the San Rafael Mine, and has been in conflict for years. It is owned by Tahoe Resources Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia, and is located about 70km (or 40 miles) east of Guatemala City. The communities who live nearby, many from the Xinca ethnic group, have long argued the mining operation threatens to irreversibly contaminate their water sources. The mine is not yet operating, but the Guatemalan government has granted the permits needed to open.
More:
http://boingboing.net/2013/05/02/guatemala-state-of-emergency.html
a little cyanide in your drinking water won't hurt you......
It doesn't matter if you are in a third world country or (especially America) not. If you are a non-elite citizen trying to protect yourself from corporate greed, your "rights" will be suspended, not corporate "rights."
How in the hell can corporations have rights? Oh yeah they are people too...
The silver in the mine belongs to the citizens not the exploiters.
Technology Uplifts Rural Schools (!!)
~snip~
U.S. policy objectives in Guatemala include:
Supporting the institutionalization of democracy and implementation of the peace accords;
Encouraging respect for human rights and the rule of law, and the efficient functioning of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, which was inaugurated in 2008;
Supporting broad-based economic growth and sustainable development and maintaining mutually beneficial trade and commercial relations, including ensuring that benefits of the U.S.-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) reach all sectors of the Guatemalan populace;
Cooperating to combat money laundering, corruption, narcotics trafficking, alien-smuggling, and other transnational crime, including through programs funded under the Central American Regional Security Initiative; and
Supporting Central American integration through support for resolution of border/territorial disputes.
U.S. Assistance to Guatemala
U.S. assistance focuses on improving citizen security and justice, increasing levels of economic growth and social development in the Western Highlands, fostering sustainable management of natural resources, and mitigating the effects of global climate change.
Bilateral Economic Relations
The United States is one of Guatemala's largest trading partners. The two countries are parties to the U.S.-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, which aims to facilitate trade and investment and further regional integration by eliminating tariffs, opening markets, reducing barriers to services, and promoting transparency. CAFTA-DR contains a chapter on investment similar to a bilateral investment treaty with the United States. U.S. exports to Guatemala include oil, agricultural products, articles donated for relief and low-value shipments, and machinery. U.S. imports from Guatemala include agricultural products, apparel, gold, and silver.
Guatemala's Membership in International Organizations
Guatemala and the United States belong to a number of the same international organizations, including the United Nations, Organization of American States, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization.
http://www.usaid.gov/where-we-work/latin-american-and-caribbean/guatemala
Tales of Reagan’s Guatemala Genocide
April 16, 2013
Exclusive: Guatemala is finally putting ex-dictator Efrain Rios Montt on trial for genocide in the extermination of hundreds of Mayan villages in the 1980s, but Ronald Reagan remains an American icon despite new evidence of his complicity in this historic crime, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
The first month of the genocide trial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt has elicited chilling testimony from Mayan survivors who – as children – watched their families slaughtered by a right-wing military that was supported and supplied by U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
As the New York Times reportedon Monday, “In the tortured logic of military planning documents conceived under Mr. Ríos Montt’s 17-month rule during 1982 and 1983, the entire Mayan Ixil population was a military target, children included. Officers wrote that the leftist guerrillas fighting the government had succeeded in indoctrinating the impoverished Ixils and reached ‘100 percent support.’”
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President Ronald Reagan meeting with Guatemalan
dictator Efrain Rios Montt.[/font]
So, everyone was targeted in these scorched-earth campaigns that eradicated more than 600 Indian villages in the Guatemalan highlands. But this genocide was not simply the result of a twisted anticommunist ideology that dominated the Guatemalan military and political elites. This genocide also was endorsed by the Reagan administration.
More:
http://consortiumnews.com/2013/04/16/grichilling-tales-of-reagans-guatemala-genocide/
