Testimonio

Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala

Catherine Nolin, Grahame Russell, Catherine Nolin, Grahame Russell

• Publisher: Between the Lines
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781771135627
• eBook ISBN: 9781771135634
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Natural Resource Extraction Industry
• Index: Business

What is land? A resource to be exploited? A commodity to be traded? A home to cherish? In Guatemala, a country still reeling from thirty-six years of US-backed state repression and genocides, dominant Canadian mining interests cash in on the transformation of land into "property," while those responsible act with near-total impunity.

Editors Catherine Nolin and Grahame Russell draw on over thirty years of community-based research and direct community support work in Guatemala to expose the ruthless state machinery that benefits the Canadian mining industry—a staggeringly profitable juggernaut of exploitation, sanctioned and supported every step of the way by the Canadian government.

This edited collection calls on Canadians to hold our government and companies fully to account for their role in enabling and profiting from violence in Guatemala. The text stands apart in featuring a series of unflinching testimonios (testimonies) authored by Indigenous community leaders in Guatemala, as well as wide-ranging contributions from investigative journalists, scholars, lawyers, activists, and documentarians on the ground.

As resources are ripped from the earth and communities and environments ripped apart, the act of standing in solidarity and bearing witness—rather than extracting knowledge—becomes more radical than ever.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Foreword
• Preface: A Story that Cannot Be Buried
• Acknowledgements
• Acronyms
• Timeline of Key Events
• Introduction: Canadian Mining in a Time of Violence, Corruption, and Impunity in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala
• Chapter 1: Genocide’s Legacy on the Land and Dominant Economic Model
• Chapter 2: Mining in the Wake of Genocides
• Chapter 3: Confronting Goldcorp at Every Step of the Destruction and Repression
• Chapter 4: Q’eqchi’ People Fight Back against Hudbay Minerals, in Their Own Words
• Chapter 5: Facing and Resisting KCA / Radius Gold and Tahoe Resources on the Ground
• Chapter 6: Using Law and Democracy to Resist Predatory Mining
• Conclusion: Visions of a Way Forward
• Permissions
• Appendix: List of Resources
• Notes
• Contributors
• Index