The Marlin mine in western Guatemala owned by Canadian firm Goldcorp.
Haiti: opposition grows to mega-mining
By World War 4 Report, August 12, 2014
At a July 25 meeting in Port-au-Prince, some 28 Haitian organizations expressed their interest in joining a movement to oppose plans under way for open-pit mining in the north of the country, with a focus on gold mining operations by the Vancouver-based Eurasian Minerals company.
The meeting was organized by the Collective Against Mining, which was formed a year ago by Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen ("Small Haitian Peasants Unity"), the Defenders of the Oppressed (DOP), the Popular Democratic Movement (MODEP), the Haitian Platform of Human Rights Organizations (POHDH), the Haitian Platform Advocating an Alternative Development (PAPDA) and Batay Ouvriye ("Workers' Struggle").
Welcome to Guatemala: gold mine protester beaten and burnt alive
By David Hill, The Guardian, August 12, 2014
Indigenous people speak out against the Marlin mine run by Canadian company Goldcorp
Goldcorp is just one of many Canadian companies currently operating in Latin America amid growing concern about their social and environmental impacts. Earlier this year the IACHR was presented with a report written by more than 30 civil society organizations about 22 large-scale mining projects in nine Latin American countries – Marlin among them – which argues that between 50% and 70% of Latin American mining is now done by Canadian firms and that Canada’s authorities, while aware of the projects mentioned in the report, continue “to provide political, legal and financial support to companies which commit or tolerate human rights abuses.”
“Canadian mining is getting a really bad reputation,” someone in Guatemala, who I won’t name either, told me. “Canada is hell.”