SAN SALVADOR, Feb 21 (IPS) – A battle for the protection of their territories waged by indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’ communities in japanese Guatemala may set a historic precedent for Latin America’s native peoples as a result of it might guarantee not solely their proper to manage their lands but additionally their pure sources, denied for hundreds of years.
This might occur if the Inter-American Court docket of Human Rights primarily based in San José, Costa Rica guidelines in favor of those communities concerned in litigation for the protection of their ancestral territories and for management over their very own future and growth.
The battle is towards a nickel mine operated since 2011 by the Switzerland-based transnational Solway Funding Group on lands in Guatemala that these communities think about their very own, within the municipality of El Estor close to Lake Izabal, within the division of the identical title in japanese Guatemala.
The mine is a personal enterprise over which the native indigenous communities had no say. Moreover, they argue that there’s proof that it’s contaminating the realm’s pure sources, legal professionals and activists informed IPS.
The mine “pollutes the rivers, destroys the hills, with out regard for the lives of the individuals within the municipality,” mentioned activist Abelino Chub of the Maíz de Vida Affiliation, in an interview with IPS from El Estor.
Chub, of the Mayan Q’eqchi indigenous individuals, lives in El Estor and has labored for years in protection of indigenous territories in Izabal, within the face of inroads made by worldwide consortiums within the manufacturing of nickel, bananas, electrical energy and oil, he mentioned.
Due to his involvement in that battle he was arrested and imprisoned in February 2017, as a part of a sample of persecution that different individuals who have fought towards the transnationals have additionally skilled firsthand.
Solway Funding has been working the mine since 2011, after buying it from the Canadian company Hudbay Minerals, which obtained the exploration allow in 2004 and the mining allow in 2006.
Nonetheless, work on the mine got here to a halt when Guatemala’s Constitutional Court docket accepted an attraction for authorized safety from a union of fishermen from Izabal, who alleged that fishing had been damage by air pollution from the mine.
Along with Guatemala, Solway Funding operates in Ukraine, Russia, Macedonia and Indonesia, and in 2019 reported multiple billion {dollars} in whole property, in line with its official web site.
Within the palms of the Court docket
Since 1974, greater than a dozen Q’eqchi’ Mayan communities have been making an attempt to acquire a collective land title from the federal government’s Nationwide Land Fund (Fontierras).
However the authorities of that point and subsequent administrations denied them that proper, although since that yr they’ve met all of the authorized necessities.
In 1985 they even obtained a provisional collective agrarian title, legal professional Leonardo Crippa of the Washington-based Indian Regulation Useful resource Middle (ILRC) informed IPS.
In 2002 the communities met the final of the necessities: the cost to Fontierras of a quota on the worth of the land, Crippa mentioned from the U.S. capital.
However they have been denied their proper to collective title because of obscure authorized maneuvering.
The Basic Property Registry claimed that documentation on the provisional title had been misplaced, and demanded that the communities themselves take some time to interchange it, although by legislation it was the duty of the federal government company.
“The Registry allowed a web page from a doc to be extracted that made the registry entry disappear and that prevented the land titling company from granting the definitive title in due time and kind,” Crippa mentioned.
In consequence, the communities weren’t solely denied their proper to collective possession of their land. As well as, extractive business tasks have been imposed on them of their territory, and in different indigenous communities within the nation, with out finishing up the consultations required by legislation, or with out conducting them correctly.
Within the case of the nickel mine, “they by no means requested the communities, they solely requested the employees to signal some varieties in assist of the supposed session,” mentioned Chub, 39.
The mining actions are carried out on overlapping lands, i.e., the boundaries are unclear and intermingle with these of the indigenous villages, on account of issues within the land registry, and thus far the discrepancy continues to be in place.
These indigenous communities, the place nearly all of the inhabitants speaks solely their ancestral Mayan language, Q’eqchi’, didn’t stand idly by.
In August 2018, following authorized motion in Guatemala, they introduced the case earlier than the Inter-American Fee on Human Rights (IACHR), primarily based in Washington.
The ILRC had been working with them since 2005 and three years later that they had a transparent technique: to deal with one of many 16 communities, often known as Agua Caliente, as a result of it finest represented the indigenous trigger.
Agua Caliente is residence to some 400 individuals, in line with a 2014 census.
In a March 2020 report, the IACHR acknowledged the duty of the State of Guatemala for the violation of the indigenous group’s proper to property, and violation of due course of, amongst different rights protected by the American Conference on Human Rights.
Moreover, the IACHR added that the State doesn’t have a legislation that acknowledges the proper of indigenous peoples in Guatemala to collective possession or dominion of their lands and the sources underneath their possession, as assured by worldwide agreements to which the nation is a signatory.
The IACHR additionally mentioned that the titling process to which Agua Caliente was subjected for greater than 45 years had not been efficient as a result of it didn’t grant a definitive title inside an affordable time period.
As the premise of the litigation nonetheless stays, relating to the overlapping of the Agua Caliente and mine lands, the case has been referred to the Inter-American Court docket of Human Rights, which along with the IACHR make up the inter-American human rights system created by the Group of American States (OAS).
In a Feb. 9 listening to the events have been heard, and closing arguments shall be offered in writing on Mar. 11.
“We hope it is going to be a historic resolution, that the Court docket can determine for the primary time on the everlasting sovereignty of indigenous peoples over their pure sources,” mentioned Crippa. As an Inter-American Court docket verdict, this may have regional results, particularly since its rulings should not topic to attraction and set a authorized precedent.
Authorities persecution of activists
Within the midst of this battle, in October 2021, the State of Guatemala, by way of the Public Prosecutor’s Workplace and police forces, persecuted individuals who led protests towards the federal government for granting the concession, and towards the mine.
The federal government additionally declared a one-month state of siege within the space.
“They did that to scare individuals,” mentioned Chub, who needed to flee as a result of he feared for his life, primarily due to his involvement within the battle towards banana corporations within the space.
He added, nonetheless, that on this space there are a number of main corporations that band collectively to persecute activists no matter whether or not they’re preventing towards mining, oil or banana corporations.
Chub’s residence was raided on Oct. 26, in the course of the state of siege. However he had already fled to a different a part of the nation.
“They broke the lock with a sledgehammer and entered. The one factor they discovered there was water, corn and beans,” he mentioned.
Raúl Ico Pacham, who additionally belongs to the Q’eqchi’ Mayan individuals, needed to depart Guatemala, fleeing persecution by the State. He’s a local of Livingston, one of many municipalities within the division of Izabal, and has been an activist with the Guatemalan Comité Campesino del Altiplano (CCDA).
“My battle was, greater than something, for the restoration of our ancestral lands that had been taken from us way back by landowners and the army,” Pacham, 35, informed IPS in an interview from New York, the place he arrived with out paperwork in April 2021 and has requested political asylum.
In 2016 the activist participated with different members of the affected indigenous communities in a takeover of ancestral lands. However the authorities ordered their eviction, a course of that turned violent in October 2017.
In August of that yr they broke into his home and stole, he mentioned, paperwork from investigations they have been finishing up on the land that had been taken from the indigenous individuals.
“In 2021 I used to be nearly killed, I used to be stabbed and I needed to depart the nation,” he mentioned.
© Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedUnique supply: Inter Press Service
