opinion

Guatemalan communities at risk of repression from Reno-based mining company: Jiménez

Tahoe Resources, a Canadian mining company headquartered in Reno, operates in southeastern Guatemala where I and my people — the Xinka — live, together with non-Indigenous communities. Our principal economic activities are agriculturally based, including coffee farming. Since Tahoe bought the Escobal project in 2010, it has tried to undermine our Indigenous identity and numerous local referenda on mining.

More: Mining company tied to Reno faces scrutiny for Guatemala operations

Another view: Heller and Amodei, 'mine' your damn business: Marigny

More: How to submit an opinion column or letter to the editor

The company also pressured the Guatemalan state to militarize the area in order to impose the mine. Tahoe’s presence has provoked violence in the region, including an attack by private security guards against peaceful protesters, which landed the company in British Columbia courts where a case is proceeding for negligence and battery.

Investors and shareholders, as well as Canadian and U.S. officials who the company has lobbied, should not be misled by statements that call us "anti-development" or "outsiders." These misrepresent and obscure the broad opposition to the company’s operations whereas tens of thousands of people have democratically expressed opposition to mining activities in numerous votes organized by municipal and village authorities, as well as during peaceful protests outside the U.S. and Canadian Embassies, and in front of the company’s office in Guatemala. Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in the area of influence of Tahoe’s project are convinced that mining is not an appropriate activity for our territory — and that this should be our decision to make.

Another view: One View: Tahoe Resources cherry-picks support for Escobal mine

Opposing view: One View: Criticism of Tahoe Resources' Escobal mine biased, unfounded

It is for this reason that, since June 7, 2017, citizens of six municipalities surrounding the Escobal mine have maintained a peaceful protest on private property along the main access road, preventing only mine-related traffic from passing. Tahoe calls us "outsiders" because we do not all come from the same town. This distorts the fact that discontent with Tahoe’s operations is regionwide and more organized than the company likes to let on.

One month after the protest began, in July 2017, the Guatemalan Supreme Court ordered the suspension of operations at Tahoe’s mine in response to a suit filed against the Ministry of Energy and Mines for not having obtained the prior consent of the Xinka Indigenous population.

It also found that we were discriminated against when the company and the government negated our existence and treated us as through we were invisible. Only now, after losing millions of dollars, has Tahoe indicated that it will develop an Indigenous People’s Policy. But, even if this policy were in line with international law and fully binding, it is too little, too late.

As we await a final court decision about whether the suspension will continue, we are concerned that Tahoe is using its political influence with the U.S. government to manipulate our justice system. Recently, company CEO Ron Clayton made the troubling assertion that lobbying U.S. officials has made a difference in securing court decisions favorable to the company. Just this week, the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala published a statement calling for the Guatemalan court to make its decision urgently.

Given that the company continues to misrepresent our concerns and express so much disdain for us, we are worried that if the Guatemala court lifts the suspension, we will face further repression and violence. For this reason, it is vitally important that people know the truth about what is going on and join us in urging Tahoe to finally respect our rights, our dignity, and to leave us in peace.

Quelvin Jiménez is an Indigenous Xinka lawyer representing the Xinka Parliament in a lawsuit that resulted in the current, provisional suspension of Tahoe Resources’ Escobal silver mine in southeastern Guatemala.