In Guatemala communities are fighting against mining companies. From organizing protests to mounting legal battles, groups are working to preserve or restore their environment. These photos tell the story of three fights around Guatemala; fights that we are proud to be a part of.
El Sisimite
For more than a year and a half, citizens in the community of San Buenaventu
The company, Generadora Electrica, originally visited San Buenaventu
Since 2014, villagers have maintained a peaceful vigil at the proposed site of the dam, ensuring the company cannot build the dam even if a court order is disregarded. Rotating shifts of ten people continually occupy a makeshift, open-aired structure made of wood, thatch, and corrugated metal. Over time they have outfitted it with foam rubber mattresses for sleeping, a cooking stove, running water, solar-powered lights and a nearby latrine. This provides a powerful visible symbol of their opposition to the project will remain until the company leaves.
Santa Cruz de Chinautla
The Poqomam Mayan village of Santa Cruz de Chinautla sits on the Chinautla River,18 kilometers outside of Guatemala City. The village is downstream from a landfill that serves Guatemala city’s one million residents. This landfill is so poorly constructed that it overflows its banks when it rains, spilling tons of trash into the Chinautla River. The landscape of Santa Cruz de Chinautla is dominated by other peoples’ trash. The river pulls with it a steady barrage of plastic bottles, bags, tires, and countless other waste that rushes along and accumulates on the rocks and trees along the banks.
Efraín Martinez, member of Chinautla’s Community Development Council, has fought a corrupt government and brought in outside funding to dredge out the river and build a wall around the school, which used to flood with trash when heavy rains fell. He says that even human and animal corpses have been washed into their community by the river.
After heavy rains, children come down to the contaminated river to pull out recyclable plastic bottles that can be exchanged for cash. The village of Santa Cruz de Chinautla is cut off from the only road when in 2010 Tropical Storm Agatha led to water levels rising so high that the only bridge was rendered unsafe for vehicles. A corrupt local government has misspent the funds intended to reconstruct the bridge.
La Puya
In March of 2011, residents of the villages of San Pedro Ayampuc and San José del Golfo learned that the Nevada-based Kappes Cassiday & Associates was seeking a permit to build the open-pit El Tambor gold mine. Knowing that the mine will mean contamination of their water sources and destruction of their agriculture, villagers opposed the mine. On March 1, 2012 at a place known as La Puya, local resident, Estela Reyes pulled her car across the road to block equipment from entering the mine. Other community members joined her, beginning a lengthy, peaceful blockade of the mine.
Rotating shifts of villagers maintained the blockade and halted mine construction until May of 2014 when the National Police forcibly evicted them with tear gas and violence, allowing the mine to continue. Twenty people were injured and many more were hospitalized.
The communities have since won a court order for the mine to suspend construction. The company ignored it and operates illegally. While they wait for the Guatemalan government to enforce the ruling, they maintain a constant symbolic presence of resistance at the site of the blockade. The police have set up their own opposing encampment at La Puya, making clear that their mission is to protect the mine.
Community members who aren’t occupying La Puya supply food for the occupiers and for any visitors who come to lend their support and solidarity with the demonstrators.