Outspoken Community Activist & Teacher Fired from Her Job For Speaking out Against Goldcorp's Operations in Guatemala

Her young son suffers from periodic outbreaks of rashes all over his body.

This interview was done in January 2009 with an indigenous Mayan Mam woman from a community located next to the mine. She is a school teacher and a mother in search of a cure for her baby's rash.

Recently, this community activist & teacher who has spoken out both nationally and internationally about the violations and negative impacts that Canadian mining company, Goldcorp Inc. is causing in her community & the region of Guatemala.

She asked that her name not be published.

WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
I am from another town in San Miguel Ixtahuacán. I live here now, after arriving a few years ago to work in the school.

HOW WAS THE TOWN’S SOCIAL ATMOSPHERE WHEN YOU ARRIVED?
Everything was calm. I arrived at the school. People were very nice and united. When the mine started, everything started to change. Six years ago,no, not that much, maybe three years ago this started… everything changed.

HOW DID EVERYTHING CHANGE?
People became divided. People are more conflictive, rude, and arrogant. Everything has changed. The environment too. Because we would go out for walks in the mountains with the children, we would go see the leaves, plant leaves. Now we don’t see the mountains, only dust that comes from there because the school is very close to the mine.

WHAT CHANGED IN THE ENVIRONMENT?
The environment is hotter, and more so with the dust. Before it wasn’t like this, we would go out for walks in the mountains with the children and we would go by foot because there was no road. We liked to go in the mountains with the children until Salem, it was very humid. There’s only dust.

We don’t take the children out anymore because where would we go with them? Only there inside. We don’t go out for anything. We cannot go walking to other towns, on other paths, because it is private property, danger to cross through, restricted places, we can’t go. We are shut in. We lost inter- school, inter- classroom communication.

AND THE WATER AVAILABILTY CHANGED SINCE THE MINE CAME?
When I arrived there was water. There was even water in the school. We would water with hoses in the classroom. The children washed their hands. But not any more. We go to the school bathroom and there is no water and the sanitary sink is dry. We don’t water anymore. The school does not get water anymore and the children don’t wash. Only sometimes is there water.

ACCORDING TO YOU, HOW MANY CHILDREN HAVE SKIN PROBLEMS IN THE TOWN’S SCHOOL?
15 children between 6 and 14 years of age.

HOW MANY CHILDREN ARE IN THE SCHOOL?
Nearly 180.

IS THIS THE FIRST TIME IN THE TOWN’S RECENT HISTORY THAT ONE HAS OBSERVED SO
MANY CHILDREN ILL OR WITH SKIN PROBLEMS?
Yes, it is the first time in 10 years that one has observed so many.

WHAT DO THE PARENTS OF THESE CHILDREN SAY ABOUT THESE ILLNESSES?
Nothing.

IN YOUR OPINION, WHY NOT?
The important thing is that they have money. We have talked to them but they say: “I treated him, but he does not get better” but who knows… because they don’t want to say anything. The teachers have spoken to some parents and they were told that they don’t want to go to the mine to show their children, “no” they say… until some of them die because a baby has already died.

A BABY DIED?
She is an abandoned mother. Her husband was in the mine and he looked for another woman. She stayed home with her children and did not have a way to treat her baby. She didn’t have money, nor food or anything. She cried and…she didn’t have a way, not even to talk about it. And her baby died.

HOW WOULD QUALIFY YOUR OWN HEALTH LEVEL: EXCELLENT, GOOD, BAD, OR VERY BAD?
Bad, because my son does not get better. He continues with this. He has had this rash for 10 months. He is a year and half old, but he started this when he was 3 months old.

WHERE IS THE RASH ON HIS BODY?
On his entire body from his face to his feet, to the tips of his toes. He had a lot on his feet and now they are on his legs, his face, and his fingers.

DID YOU GO TO A DOCTOR?
I went everywhere. I went to Guatemala City for my son’s rash. I went to San Marcos and Huehuetenango. I used homemade medicines. Now he has the rash on his leg. I went to dermatologists, pediatricians, doctors like that, general medicine.

WAS A BLOOD TEST DONE ON YOUR BABY?
They took a skin sample, a blood test, but they did not tell me if there were heavy metals and they did not give me the results.

WHAT DID YOU DO ATTEMPT TO SOLVE YOUR BABY’S SKIN PROBLEMS?
I already used medicine for scabbies—but it is not scabbies because I had already used soap, creams, lotions, and I even boiled his clothes in water with bleach… and I boiled the water and the clothes were destroyed in the water… yes, I threw away the clothes, but nothing happened!

Because they told me it was due to fleas. But I don’t have any animal. I don’t have a dog, cat, nothing, not even chickens. Because if it were due to dogs-- dogs sometimes give fleas-- I don’t have one. Mosquitoes, they said, but that is not possible.

All the medications and creams she has tried to cure the periodic outbreaks of rashes on her son's body.

Over 6,000 Marchers Kick Off New Year in Honduras - YES TO ALBA

The National Front Against the Coup kicked off the New Year with a march yesterday that brought over 6,000 people into the streets of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

The masses of Hondurans, groups and organizations that participated, marched to condemn the desire of the Congress to remove Honduras from ALBA (The Bolivarian Alliance For the People’s of Our America), an organization proposed by Venezuela to promote social, political and economic cooperation amongst Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Through ALBA, Honduras was receiving various benefits according to resistance movement leader, Rafael Alegria, including heavy machinery, economic support for the agricultural sector, doctors and medical support and teachers specializing in literacy, benefits that favour the poorest sectors of society in the country and region.

According to the National Front Against the Coup, the removal of Honduras from the agreement on the part of the Congress signifies that “the coup was carried out to stop needed social transformation” and “that the privileged groups are trying to destroy the conquests of popular social organizations” in Honduras.

Marchers also condemned the issue of amnesty for the coup government and military, who are responsible for the repression, violence and deaths in the country since June 28th.

The National Congress is scheduled to meet to discuss both the issue of amnesty and Honduras’ participation in ALBA this coming Monday.

Signs reads "Con ALBA, Honduras can become declared a country free of illiteracy"

Resistance continues into 2010 - Events

I'm headed back to Tegucigalpa after spending two weeks in Canada for the holidays.

Many in the resistance movement celebrated Christmas & New Years in front of the barricades blocking entry into the Brazilian Embassy where Zelaya is still located.

There is one upcoming event planned:

- January 7th: A march organized to condemn the coup government from withdrawing from ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America).

For more info on Hondura's participation in ALBA (in spanish): http://www.alternativabolivariana.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5790

Also, on January 27th when Pepe Lobo is set to take power, the resistance movement is planning a large gathering/march. Details still unknown.

MUCA Campesino Movement Maintains Land Occupation to Demand Land Rights and Denounce the Coup

Entrance to MUCA land recuperation action on land of La Esperanza Cooperative in municipality of Tocoa.

On December 8th, campesinos of the Aguán Farmworkers Unification Movement (MUCA) occupied two land plots in Colón, Honduras in an effort to recuperate land illegally obtained by Miguel Facusse, a large land-owner, a major supporter of the coup d’etat and part of the country’s oligarchy.

Now on their 13th day, over 650 campesinos and their families remain camped out at the two plots of land in the municipalities of Tocoa and Trujillo in the department of Colón in northeastern Honduras.

Through various acts of resistance since their lands were illegally taken from the members of MUCA in the ‘90s, the campesino movement gained momentum during President Zelaya’s terms when Zelaya himself signed an agreement with MUCA to clarify the land transactions that had caused the land conflict. (For more history, see article by Sandra Cuffe: http://hondurassolidarity.wordpress.com/)

Exactly 9 days later on June 28th, the coup d’etat was carried out by the Honduran oligarchy and spported by the military, reversing the gains that MUCA had made under the Zelaya administration.

This is why MUCA distinguishes themselves not only as a well established campesino movement but also as part of the national resistance movement against the coup where the land occupation were planned as a way to “resist the consequences of the coup d’etat” particularly how the coup has affected their struggle for land.

According to MUCA leader, who asked not to be identified “We have been accompanying the Resistance movement since the 28th – we did not participate in the elections and we did not vote. We are thankful of the support we received from Zelaya who supported the poor in the country.”

After 13 days and getting ready for more, they have built shelters and set up cooking pits under the palm tress on the plantation

REPRESSION AND INTIMIDATION AS THE OCCUPATIONS CONTINUE

Since both groups began the land occupations, both have received various threats from the private security guards of the company owned by Miguel Facusse and the local military and police.

“We have seen heightened military presence around the area where we are located. Security guards of Facusse and Canales are infiltrating our movement to obtain information, give us false information and make us scared. They are creating a psychological war against us – they want to intimidate us.”

On December 16, the 8th day of the recuperation action, two men, Osman Alexis Ulloa Flores and Mario Rene Ayala were illegally detained by police as they were leaving the occupation site. Although they were freed late in the following day, the illegal detention was an act of intimidation by local police.

One MUCA leader has reported that a pick up truck without license plates is periodically parked outside his house. As well as days after the occupation, local police along with company managers showed up and began taking pictures of participants, “trying to identify the leaders of the movement.”

Since the coup, the country has been heavily militarized and control remains in the hands of the oligarchy, including Miguel Facusse who was once called “the owner of Colón” by a local journalist for all the land he owns in the region and his influence on the local authorities.

“They [the oligarchy] are taking advantage of the situation in the country under the coup regime because there are no repercussions against people like them. They make the decisions and do what they want in the country”

Left to right: two detained campesinos, Osman Alexis Ulloa Flores & Mario Rene Ayala being interviewed by the local press at the police station in Tocoa, Colón, Honduras.

Comunicado de MUCA / Press Release from MUCA

Nosotros los miembros del Movimiento Unificado Campesino del Aguán; hemos retomado las acciones de RESISTENCIA por recuperar la tierra mal comprada por Miguel Facusse, Reynaldo Canales y René Morales que amparándose en leyes hechas para favorecer la oligarquía del país arrebataron estas tierras dejando en ellas pobreza y miseria en esta zona, ante la opinión Pública nacional e internacional estamos denunciando la captura de los compañeros Mario René Ayala Hernández y Osman Alexis Ulloa Flores, quienes al momento de ser capturados por miembros de la DNIC andavan llevando alimentación para el grupo, responsabilizamos al Señor Miguel Facusse Barjum y al gobierno de Facto de Roberto Micheletti por lo que pueda pasarle a estos compañeros y a todos los miembros del moviemiento y Hacemos saber que estamos en esta recuperación de tierras con todas nuestras familias (niños, mujeres, hombres y ancianos) y que por favor no vayan a cometer un acto salvaje como los que han venido haciendo al pueblo Hondureño que resiste a la pobreza y el hombre en que nos tiene Honduras la oligarquía de Honduras.

A la vez denunciamos a la fiscal de Trujillo Abog. Kenia Vanessa García Lara quien amenazó con desalojar con el décimo Quinto Batallón a todo el movimiento.

SOMOS HONDURENOS TODOS Y LUCHAREMOS HASTA EL FINAL, HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE VENCEREMOS.

Tocoa, Colón, 16 de diciembre 2009