Escobal mine protests
The Escobal mine protests are a series of political protests opposing the Escobal mine, a large silver mine developed by Canadian mining company Tahoe Resources in San Rafael Las Flores, Guatemala. Since 2009, various community groups, such as the Xinca people have advocated against the mine, citing risks of environmental damage and the land sovereignty rights of the indigenous Xinca people. These groups have employed nonviolent protest tactics such as blockading mine property and voting in municipal referendums, which found that over 95% of residents in surrounding communities opposed the Escobal mine.
The protests have been met with systematic violence from both state forces and Escobal's private security, including shootings, kidnappings, and an official state of siege declared in May 2013 to suppress public opposition. Escobal opened in 2014 and operated for three years before Tahoe's mining license was suspended by a Guatemalan court for failing to adequately consult with Xinca communities in the area. Several years after the height of the protest, there is still tension. Indigenous leaders have faced arrest, and criminal and civil litigation over attacks on protestoers continues. In the face of this, there have been international expressions of solidarity from other groups, such as the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs.
Background
The Escobal mine is a silver mine in the municipality of San Rafael Las Flores, in the Santa Rosa Department of Guatemala. Its exploitation license was approved in April 2013 and it began operation in January 2014, continuing for three years. Shortly before the exploitation license was granted, the Guatemalan National Security Commission declared the mine a "strategic national resource" in an effort to bypass community opposition. It is the second largest silver mine in the world, producing a record 21.3 million ounces of silver in 2016.Escobal was developed by Canadian mining company Tahoe Resources and its Guatemalan subsidiary Minera San Rafael. Tahoe was in turn created by former executives of previous mining companies such as Goldcorp and Glamis Gold that had already faced opposition in the region, which shaped the community's reaction to the Escobal project. Substantial local capital has also been invested in the mine, including a legal entity composed of twenty-nine Guatemalans as well as a group of local landowners Tahoe has informally turned into shareholders.
Militarization
Since 1998, the surrounding region has seen a drastically increased presence of foreign mining and a corresponding increase in militarization, both state and private. Even with these changes, local elites have maintained significant sway over mining projects. Violence in service of resource extraction has become the norm, serving as a core task of Guatemala's armed forces and a major basis for the country's economy. In particular large mining companies in the area rely heavily on private security, with every mine hiring at least one security firm. To plan and coordinate security for the Escobal mine, Tahoe contracted with International Security and Defense Management, a U.S.-based company specializing in military training, intelligence, and counterintelligence. For security at the mine itself, in 2011 they hired Alfa Uno, a local affiliate of Israeli private security firm Golan Group — which had a prior reputation for human rights abuses.This same time period has seen intensifying conflicts between Canadian mining companies and vulnerable communities across the world. Forty percent of mining companies in Latin America are based in Canada, constituting over 1,500 separate projects. One estimate found that in the early 2010s conflicts over Canadian mining projects in Latin America were responsible for approximately 50 deaths and 300 injuries.
Environmental damage
Mining in Guatemala has also contributed to widespread environmental devastation. Guatemala's Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources requires that mining companies conduct an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment to identify and address any negative effects on the surrounding area, but there is little legal infrastructure for oversight and enforcement. The approval rate of ESIAs is over 90%, and a source at MARN reports high pressure to quickly approve ESIAs without adequate resources to evaluate them. Companies ultimately create their own Corporate Social Responsibility plans without community input.Xinca people
The region surrounding the Escobal mine is home to the indigenous Xinca people. The Xinca people have longstanding roots in Guatemala, and their settlement can be traced back before that of the Maya and Nahua groups. The Xinca people were officially recognized as a distinct ethnic identity under the 1995 Agreement on Identity and Rights of Indigenous People. This agreement established core rights of the Xinca, including the ability to maintain their own language and spiritual practices, govern their own lands, and be legally protected from discrimination. There has been a long history of displacement and genocide of indigenous people in Guatemala, as well as historical practices that identified indigenous groups on the basis of language and clothing in ways that failed to recognize indigenous people in southeastern regions of the country.Mining is a major threat to indigenous land rights in San Rafael Las Flores and the surrounding area. Before a large extraction site like the Escobal mine can be developed in Guatemala, the International Labour Organization’s Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention 169 requires consultation with indigenous people living in the region. The Guatemalan government, however, has been in broad violation of these requirements, and has systematically failed to obtain free, prior, and informed consent from indigenous communities before allowing projects to proceed.
In particular, the Escobal mine project was begun without the required consultation with the Xinca, and has been deficient in its compliance with ESIA requirements. This was criticized in a report by the United Nations General Assembly on racism and violation of indigenous rights in Guatemala, which found evidence of failure to consult with the Xinca, denial of their identity, and criminalization of their attempts to protest. Minera San Rafael flatly denied the existence of the Xinca, releasing radio spots claiming "the Xinca people do not exist." In contrast, a total of 264,167 individuals identified themselves as Xinca in Guatemala's 2018 census.
Protests
Communities around the Escobal mine have been protesting it since 2009, with a substantial increase in activity between 2011 and 2013. Protests especially escalated in July 2013 when more local residents took a stand against the project. The opposition movement has involved a wide range of individuals and organizations: indigenous and non-indigenous, religious and secular, spanning thirty communities, ten municipalities, and three departments in Guatemala. These include the CDP, Communitarian Councils for Development, the Diocese Commission for the Defense of Nature, the Parliament of the Xinca People of Guatemala, the Peaceful Resistance in Casillas, and three local mayors. Escobal has been criticized on a national and international scale. Still, the ability of opposition groups to form into a cohesive national movement has been limited.Protesters have challenged the mine on the basis of its environmental impact, the threats posed to human health and well-being, and the legitimacy of the company's right to build on the land without proper consultations. Long-term demands have included decentralized environmental governance, more meaningful democratic representation, and respect for collective land use rights.
Activists have employed a range of nonviolent protest tactics, including not only public marches and demonstrations, but also using their bodies to form a blockade that prevents access to mine infrastructure and disrupts the routines of mine employees. The blockades in particular have served to draw attention and support from other activist movements, both domestically and abroad. Opponents have also pursued litigation against the mine, sometimes with the support of international NGOs.
The protests have been characterized as persistently peaceful, with a few exceptions. In 2012, attacks against mine security were reported, with protest organizers denying involvement. At the end of 2012 a store and police car were burned. In January 2013, clashes between protesters and miners left three dead and two injured, including two of the mine's security guards. Meanwhile, the Guatemalan Public Ministry identified an espionage network linked to both Escobal's private security and the National Civil Police that surveilled the opposition to the mine and planted false activists in the movement, including one who was on trial for killing a police officer at the time of the discovery.
''Consultas''
As of 2013, governments of five municipalities near Escobal had held consultas, in which over 50,000 residents participated and over 95% voted in opposition the mine. The Consultas consisted of four of the five municipalities and nine communities which voted directly on the mining project.On April 29, mayors of these municipalities thus refused to sign a deal with mining companies coordinated by the Guatemalan government. In seven more municipalities that refused to hold official consultas, votes were organized anyway through the COCODEs, and the populations likewise voted overwhelmingly against the mine.
These votes have been used not only as legal mechanisms but also as forums for mobilizing popular resistance to the mine, a new form of grassroots activism that has changed the landscape of political movements in Guatemala. Widespread consultas have allowed individuals who do not identify as indigenous, or who do not live directly adjacent to the mine, to nonetheless express their opposition and demand an opportunity for democratic participation.