Crucitas at a Crossroads
I’ve been following Canadian mining companies throughout Central America over the past couple of weeks — a big thanks to my Upeace professor Guntra Asitara and entire “Social Movements” class. We’ve been knee deep in mud and neck deep in first hand accounts of the proposed “Las Crucitas Gold Mine” in northern Costa Rica — we spent an afternoon touring the proposed mine on December 5th. After 15 years of struggle between environmentalists and a series of Canadian mining companies, sometime in January the Costa Rican Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision that will determine the fate of the mine.
All smiles. Or are we? This is our delegation from the University for Peace that visited the Crucitas Mine on December 5th. I'm to the far right next to the Infinity Gold administrators.
This post is just a quick overview of Canadian mining in Central America which have operations in Chiapas, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. In fact, there’s probably not a country in the American Hemisphere without a Canadian company digging for something, somewhere.
I’ve been particularly concerned about Guatemala at the Marlin Gold Mine up near San Miguel Ixtauhacán and the Hudbay Nickel Mine in the eastern part of the country. As in so many situations in Guatemala, opposing the mining operations will cost your life. Want to anything and everything on Canadian mining in Central America? Just visit Rights Action, a Canadian-based human rights organization.
People in San Miguel are putting up a fight against the Marlin Gold Mine, accusing them of leaking cyanide into the water and causing quite nasty skin diseases. Be warned, the photos are not pretty. Rights Action has been doing great work informing the world with contacts at the BBC.
I haven’t been to San Miguel, though I did work with many San Miguel migrant workers in Indiantown, Florida, just east of Lake Okeechobee. They were very kind to me as I went to pick green peppers with them in 1987. I was quite a slow picker in the two days I spent with them, so they dubbed me “huevón,” a not-so-flattering term for my lethargic picking skills — but we got along great. As I was traveling by bicycle through Central America, I would occasionally stop to meet interesting people with fascinating stories. Never thought we’d cross paths over a gold mine.
Much more to follow.
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