Introduction to the Marlin Mine

I have now moved from Antigua to the village of San Miguel, located in the western highlands, with a population of a few hundred.

San Marcos is the regional center in the highlands. The region is sparsely populated, poor, and mostly indigenous. It is also full of mineral resources. When I got to San Marcos, one of the first things I noticed was 2 humvees of US soldiers driving around. I wondered to myself what US soldiers were doing here, when we are fighting 2 wars and supposedly have troop shortages, and as far as anyone knows, we are not at war with Guatemala.

I found out that there are around 1000 of them, and that they are here for "humanitarian reasons". No-one in San Marcos believes this, and it has served to dramatically increase the fear among the people who live here. People have all kinds of guesses about why they are here, none of them good. The Catholic Diocese of San Marcos sent an open letter to President Bush complaining about it, but I doubt anyone ever paid much attention.

From San Marcos I went to Sipicapa, where I spent 2 days. To get to San Marcos, I took a fairly decent bus from Guatemala City, the capital. But to get to Sipicapa, I had to take what folks in Antigua call "chicken buses", but up until this ride I had never seen any chickens on them! The chicken buses are old, beat up, and repainted yellow school buses that get driven down from the US when we are done with them. This ride was packed with people, chickens, and even a small herd of sheep roped to the top. Being the only gringa for hundreds of miles, the conductor let me ride in the front, where I shared a seat made for two, situated over a tire, with a pregnant woman, her toddler, and an old man on crutches. It was a good adventure.

I was dropped off at a crossroads, where the road turned off for Sipicapa, but the bus went another way. There I waited to get picked up. I was not too worried about being found, being the tall gringa in pink (stop laughing).

In Sipicapa I stayed in the parish house with 2 Italians. There are always Italians in every accompaniment...I think I mentioned that before. Anyway, the Italian in charge of parish pastoral work is a lay person, what we would call a lay pastoral coordinaor, or something like that. He has been in Guatemala 11 years,and at this parish for 7, appointed by the bishop. Through his Italian connections he has managed to build a school and formation center, and the school trains teachers to do bilingual education, in Spanish and Sipacapense. The Sipacapenses are a small indigenous community that only live in this one place. Roberto, the Italian in charge of the place, is also heavily involved in diocesan support of the resistance of the indigenous communities to the gold mine next door. The other Italian, Manuel, is teaching at the school.

There are 3 municipalities, what would be a county for us, within the region of San Marcos, that are affected by the mine and are involved in resisting it. They are Sipicapa, Concepcion, and San Miguel. As I mentioned earlier, I am in San Miguel. Sipicapa already has accompaniment, and I think there is no-one doing accompaniment in Concepcion. The diocese is doing awesome work supporting the communities here, putting out a lot of information, educating folks about the mine, etc. Like in Colombia, the Catholic Church is active and on the right side, at least in this diocese. For this they have been called "communists" in the press.

One of the main thing the diocese has been doing is organizing the community consultations that allow the indigenous communities to vote on whether they want the mine or not. So far they have done 14 in all the communities surrounding themine. Only one has voted for it. They still have not done one in San Miguel, whereI am, because San Miguel is the municipality most affected by the mine, and people have received threats and harassment, and so the people are afraid that if they did a consultation, there would be violence.

The mine established itself in San Miguel about 2 years ago, without doing any community consultation, which is contrary to Guatemalan law. So the consultations have taken place after it is already a fact. The reason that people do not want it is because it has caused enormous environmental destruction. It is an open pit gold mine, meaning a huge hole in the ground, that uses cianide as part of its processing. It has caused a huge dust problem, but aside from that, so far 57 houses have been cracked or damaged in some severe way, and people are reporting illness, animal deaths, and contaminated water.

Representatives from the mine came in and bought up property without the people knowing what was going on---ie that there was gold underneath. So they sold their property for a song compared to what it was really worth, and they feel deceived. And the final problem is that the company, based in Canada but with heavy US investment as well, only has to pay 1% taxes to the Guatemalan government, while making hundreds of millions in profits so far. So the people feel that their resources are being exploited in a way that benefits a foreign company, but not in a way that benefits them.

It has created some jobs, but not as many as promised, and not enough to outweigh the disadvantages, according to most people. Many of the best jobs go to foreigners, or to people from outside of the area. And according to the diocese, the mine bribes local officials and organizations to keep them from opposing it. So the indigenous feel they are alone in this, except for the diocese, but are planning on mounting as much of a resistance as they can. And they are very clear about it being non-violent.

There was a big protest in January over some big part being transferred to the mine, and the people blocked roads. The police opened fire, and 20 people were injured, one person killed, and 14 arrested. Soyou can see what they are dealing with.

This is what I have put myself in the middle of. I am helping them by putting together a complete report of what is going on in San Miguel. One exists for Sipicapa, which is more organized, thanks to the Italians, but not for San Miguel. And I am accompanying the indigenous organization that is providing leadership to the resistance in San Miguel. I have told them I can be here a month, and then I need to return to the US. But the reality is that there is enormous potential here for a much larger project, and I am going to have a hard time leaving. I am thinking about the possibilities.