“En toda América Latina hay resistencia contra las represas” – Gustavo Castro, ecologista

Activista señala que desarrollo continuo de megaproyectos hidroeléctricos agrava el cambio climático.

Por Vinicio Chacón, Semanario Universidad (Costa Rica) | vinicio.chacon@ucr.ac.cr

Sep 21, 2016

Palabras claves: Berta Cáceres; COPINH; criminalización; hidroelectricidad; cambio climático; Protocolo de Kioto; tratados de libre comercio.

El ecologista mexicano Gustavo Castro ganó notoriedad por ser el único testigo del asesinato de la líder indígena y ambientalista hondureña Berta Cáceres, el pasado 2 de marzo [2016].

Castro es dirigente de la organización Otros Mundos – Amigos de la Tierra y con calma pero con contundencia abordó el asesinato y la increíble manipulación del caso que hizo el sistema judicial hondureño, buscando inculpar a activistas del Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras (COPINH).

Desde esa organización, Cáceres lideró la lucha del pueblo indígena lenca contra el proyecto hidroeléctrico (PH) Agua Zarca, de la empresa desarrollos Energéticos S.A. (DESA).

De vista en Costa Rica para participar en el II Congreso Latinoamericano sobre Conflictos Ambientales (COLCA), Gustavo Castro conversó con UNIVERSIDAD en una entrevista coordinada a través de la Federación Conservacionista de Costa Rica (FECON).

¿Cómo despertó su conciencia ecologista?

-Fue un proceso de muchos años de pasar en la participación en cooperativas, trabajé mucho tiempo con refugiados guatemaltecos que habían venido de la guerra. El salto a la lucha ambiental se da en la década de los 90, cuando empiezan a llegar al país muchos proyectos de inversión después del Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte (ALCA), favoreciendo obviamente a las transnacionales y al saqueo del país.

-Eran de la nación el petróleo, el gas, el uso del agua, la electricidad, etc. No es que no habían conflictos, pero cuando pasan a manos de las corporaciones, exigen todavía más condiciones favorables de inversión. Empiezan a modificarse la ley de Aguas y la ley Minera para entregar a las grandes empresas mineras la explotación del oro, de la plata, de minerales estratégicos del país; ahora con la reforma energética, también el petróleo y el gas. Esto de alguna manera empieza a impactar cada vez más el medio ambiente, ahí empieza una lucha con mayor fuerza en torno a la defensa de los territorios; pero también cuando empezamos a ver la deforestación que causa la infraestructura para favorecer las inversiones, no solamente en mi caso, sino también en comunidades campesinas e indígenas empieza a haber una consciencia más grande sobre el impacto ambiental.

¿Cuándo se empiezan a dar los contactos con el COPINH y Berta Cáceres?

-A Berta la conocí en 1999, cuando empezamos a convocar muchos procesos de resistencia, entre ellos la creación de la Convergencia de Movimientos de los Pueblos de las Américas, el Encuentro Hemisférico Contra la Militarización, o el encuentro contra el Plan Puebla Panamá. Organizábamos todos esos encuentros en Chiapas; después los replicábamos en Honduras. Se hizo toda una relación en torno a los procesos de resistencia en los que participábamos no solamente nosotros y el COPINH, sino toda la región en Mesoamérica. Había mucha afinidad en el proceso de construcción del movimiento con Berta y el COPINH desde hace más de quince años.

¿Cuál es la lección más importante que se puede extraer de la historia de Berta Cáceres?

-Se me hace muy difícil decir una sola cosa, porque era una persona muy compleja, en el sentido de que era muy rica, una persona muy coherente que tenía la capacidad de análisis estructural; también podía tener una interlocución muy fuerte tanto con académicos como con congresistas, y al mismo tiempo estaba en la movilización con la gente.

-Fue sumamente respetuosa y muy tenaz, era una mujer muy valiente, siempre estaba al frente de todas las manifestaciones del COPINH. Berta fue muy coherente en su análisis, su discurso y su actitud con los pueblos y con el movimiento.

-Con el asesinato de Berta, su personalidad renace en todos lados. Como decimos, Berta no murió, se multiplicó, su presencia es muy fuerte.

-Fue una persona muy feliz, era muy optimista pese a todas las adversidades, ya que recibió muchas amenazas e intentos de asesinato.

Luego de perpetrado el asesinato y de que los sicarios le dieran a usted por muerto también, ¿qué actitud tuvieron las autoridades?

-Creo que lo primero que sorprende es que hubiera un testigo, que no esperaban. Llegué un día antes a La Esperanza (donde vivía Cáceres), entonces creo que nadie más que el COPINH y Berta sabía que yo iba a estar ahí. Me parece que pretendían que fuese un asesinato limpio, donde ella estaría sola en su casa. Cuando se dan cuenta de que hay un testigo, tienen que modificar el escenario y empezar a inventar ya la forma cómo criminalizar al mismo COPINH. No lo logran, entonces buscan cómo criminalizarme a mí.

-No pudieron presentarle a la familia, al COPINH y tampoco a la comunidad nacional e internacional una versión creíble, cuando había tantos antecedentes y estaba tan claro el origen del problema.

-Es por ello que de alguna manera intentan retenerme de manera ilegal en el país para buscar la forma en cómo imputarme. Al final a los que acaban sacrificando es al gerente de la empresa, al ejército y a los sicarios. Sabemos que no son los únicos que están involucrados.

-El trato que me daban era como de una ficha, como de objeto de prueba, violando mis derechos humanos pero también muchos procedimientos judiciales. Todo el mundo sabe porque en la prensa salió cómo se alteró la escena del crimen. En todos esos primeros días hubo muchísimas irregularidades en el proceso de investigación.

Incluso cuando hace el retrato hablado, el artista dibuja a otra persona.

-Yo no sabía que mientras estaba en el Ministerio Público, habían detenido a un miembro del COPINH a quien intentaban culpar. Efectivamente, mientras yo estaba sin dormir, herido y con toda esa tensión, me traen a la persona que hace el retrato hablado. Yo le decía que así no era, lo borraba y volvía a dibujar lo mismo.

-Me dijeron en varias ocasiones que me podía ir. Yo obviamente estaba dispuesto a ayudar en todas las diligencias, aunque me tuvieran sin comer, sin dormir, sin una frazada si quiera; de cualquier manera yo iba apoyando, dejé mi ropa ensangrentada. Una forma como intentaron imputarme es que me robaron la maleta, que dejé en la casa de Berta, había obviamente la posibilidad de sembrar cualquier cosa que me pudiera inculpar – hasta la fecha no me la han entregado.

-No hicieron ninguna cadena de custodia aunque yo lo reclamé ante a fiscal, el Ministerio Público, la abogada de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos de Honduras, todo el mundo es testigo de que pedía copia de mi declaración ministerial y no me la daban – la copia de mi declaración ante la juez, y no me la daban; pedía que me regresaran mi maleta, igual. Era un cinismo de violación total al Código Procesal, al Código Penal, a los derechos humanos.

-Incluso no había una formalidad en el reconocimiento de las caras. Me pusieron al principio fotografías y videos del COPINH para que dijera si ahí estaba el culpable del asesinato.

-Se dan muchas irregularidades en este proceso y por ello el gobierno decreta que todas esas diligencias ministeriales se mantienen en secreto.

-En el caso del secuestro de Estado en el aeropuerto, me regresan otra vez a que hiciera más careos. Luego estuve en la casa del Embajador de México un mes, hasta el último día, sin que me dieran ninguna explicación de para qué me querían, sin que me entregaran incluso copia de la resolución de la juez donde decretaba mi prohibición de salir del país, y ante la insistencia de la abogada ante tal anomalía jurídica, tal ilegalidad, la juez suspende a mi abogada de su ejercicio profesional.

Posteriormente las autoridades relacionaron a funcionarios de la empresa DESA  y de la institucionalidad militar con el asesinato, pero usted ha dicho que va más allá?

-No lo digo yo, lo dice la prensa, lo dice COPINH, lo dice la familia, incluso hubo un atentado contra un periodista que explicó muchas de las relaciones y vinculaciones de jueces y de políticos en el problema.

Ha afirmado que considerar la energía hidroeléctrica como limpia es una “estúpida idea”, lo cual es un gancho directo a la quijada del orgullo costarricense de producir energía de esa manera.

-No solamente en Costa Rica, sino en toda América Latina, que por décadas asoció siempre las hidroeléctricas con el  desarrollo limpio.

-Si en Costa Rica no lo saben, que sepan que hay una resistencia impresionante en toda América Latina, de cantidad de pueblos que han sido desplazados y asesinados, que no ha habido una experiencia de reubicación adecuada ni tampoco de indemnización. Incluso la misma Comisión Mundial de Represas que financió el Banco Mundial, en el 2000 sacó un informe donde dicen que el 60% de las cuencas del planeta han sido represadas, que el 30% de los peces de agua dulce se han extinguido por causa de las presas que generan el 5% de los gases de efecto invernadero, que se han construido más de 50.000 grandes represas en el mundo, que los países quedaron sumamente endeudados con el Banco Mundial, que el 30%  de las represas en el mundo no han generado la energía que debían generar, que desplazaron a 80 millones de personas en todo el mundo inundando pueblos y ciudad. Eso lo dice toda la evidencia en el mundo y en toda América Latina, en Chile, en Argentina, en Colombia, en Uruguay, en Panamá y en México hay resistencia contra las represas.

-A partir de ese informe el movimiento social contra las represas dijo “tenemos que desarticular ese discurso”, un discurso en donde hidroelectricidad es igual a energía limpia, cuando ha generado todos esos desastres, incluso desaparecido manglares, han desaparecido cuencas enteras por la construcción de represas.

-Con el Protocolo de Kioto vuelven  otra vez a intentar reposicionar a las represas como energía limpia, en el sentido de que los países del Norte, para intentar reducir los gases de efecto invernadero, buscan suplirlo con inversión en energía limpia. Entonces si tengo que eliminar en el Norte diez toneladas de CO2, no lo elimino; mejor construyo una represa que según yo va a eliminar esas diez toneladas, las va a ahorrar en energía limpia.

-Los efectos de las represas en el mundo son desastrosos. ¿Cómo generar entonces otro paradigma de energía limpia? Ese es el gran problema; pero no construyendo, bloqueando más cuencas, desplazando más pueblos, lo que además favorece a las empresas constructoras de represas en todo el mundo. Hay otras formas y mecanismos de generar energía limpia. Incluso en Europa y Estados Unidos están desmantelando represas. Pero sí hay que construirlas en el Sur con la idea de que es energía limpia, sustentable y verde, pero es la energía más sucia que ha generado todos estos impactos socio-ambientales.

¿Están la mentalidad ecologista y ese nuevo paradigma para producir energía que usted menciona perdiendo el pulso contra la ideología extractivista, de la cual la construcción de represas es parte?

-Creo que más bien se está fortaleciendo mucho la resistencia. Incluso ha logrado detener muchos proyectos hidroeléctricos en Brasil, México, en muchos lugares.

-El gran reto que tenemos es cómo las mismas comunidades van construyendo alternativas distintas de desarrollo. Fui al COPINH como invitado para que reflexionáramos sobre otros modelos y mecanismos de generar energía limpia, autónoma, comunitaria que sirva a los pueblos, no inundando los territorios del COPINH para las zonas económicas especiales, para los proyectos mineros. Por ejemplo, la lixiviación del oro puede gastar según el tamaño de la mina, unos dos, tres millones de litros de agua cada hora. Necesitan represas y grandes cantidades de energía.

-El uso de energía y de agua se requiere para monocultivos, para parques industriales, para ciudades modelo, para incluso grandes centros turísticos, grandes hoteles, para la industria automotriz; y al final de cuentas los pueblos son los que pagan el precio de ese supuesto desarrollo.

¿Hasta qué punto todo ese proceso es impulsado por tratados de libre comercio? ¿Es realista esperar que los países denuncien esos tratados y se de espacio a un nuevo paradigma de generación de energía?

-Es un reto. La responsabilidad no es solamente de las poblaciones indígenas y campesinas de advertir y resistir a esto. Ciertamente los tratados de libre comercio aceleran este proceso y no solo los tratados, sino el supuesto Protocolo de Kioto.

-Los tratados de libre comercio abren las puertas a las inversiones: si antes no había diez parques industriales, ahora ya los hay y requieren agua y energía; si antes no había una empresa automotriz europea, japonesa, norteamericana en nuestro país, ahora ya hay tres, cuatro o cinco, y requieren agua y cantidades de energía. Si antes no había plantaciones de monocultivos y ahora sí, como Monsanto en zonas que requieren grandes cantidades de agua, pues ahora ya los hay. Si antes no existían proyectos mineros que requieren grandes cantidades de agua y energía, ahora ya los hay.

-Los tratados de libre comercio aceleran la necesidad de agua y energía, porque aceleran la inversión en todo este tipo de megaproyectos que requieren de estos insumos.

¿Está el acuerdo de París en la misma línea que el protocolo de Kioto?

-Sí, al final de cuentas no tocan de fondo el problema y siguen viendo la manera de cómo seguir dando paliativos, como pasó con el Protocolo de Kioto: quince años después lo aprueban, después de que se anuncia la urgencia, y aceptan reducir 5% el gas efecto invernadero no tras esos quince años, sino de quince años atrás – cosa que se pasa de absurda.

-Luego ese 5% ni siquiera lo voy a reducir; voy a buscar como lo compenso. Sigo produciendo toneladas de CO2 y mejor compro la selva de Costa Rica, los servicios ambientales, que respire diez toneladas. Entonces contaminación igual a cero: acá produzco diez, allá respiro diez; compro para respiración y le ponemos bonos de carbono o muy elegantemente economía verde.

-Lo mismo está pasando con todas las Conferencias de las Partes de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (COP) que ha habido. No ha sido otra cosa más que ir posponiendo y posponiendo sin llegar al fondo del problema.

¿Cuál es el fondo del problema?

-Tenemos que cambiar el paradigma del sistema; tenemos que detener desde el origen el cambio climático y eso implica no solamente este capitalismo atroz, sino la contaminación que generan los países más desarrollados: entre el 60% y el 66% de los gases de efecto invernadero del planeta.

-Tenemos que detenerlo y como decía Berta, ya no hay tiempo. Dijo una frase muy bonita: “despertemos humanidad”. Creo que el problema es sistémico, es planetario y tenemos que tomar consciencia de la necesidad de cambiar este paradigma de desarrollo.

©2015 Semanario Universidad. Derechos reservados. Hecho por 5e Creative Labs, Two y Pandú y Semanario Universidad.

Reproducido aquí con permiso de Vinicio Chacón

Honduras: More Than 100 Children Died of Dengue During 2019

As if Hondurans don’t have enough to suffer with their corrupt narco-trafficking government, some of the world’s highest levels of violence and a complete lack of opportunities, figures show that the country also suffers a constant epidemic of dengue fever. Telesur reported the figures in December.

17 December 2019

Municipal worker fumigates a market to prevent the spread of dengue fever in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, July 25, 2019.
Around 105,513 people have suffered dengue fever in Honduras over the last year.

Honduras’ Health Ministry Tuesday published an epidemiological report revealing that 177 people died from dengue during 2019, a figure which includes 101 cases of children.

The Arbovirosis Surveillance coordinator Gustavo Urbina explained that no more deaths have been confirmed; however, children are still the most affected by the virus. “Fifty-seven percent of the certified deaths are under-15-years cases, 55 percent of which were between the ages of five and nine”.

Over the last week, there were 96 more cases of dengue compared to the previous week, and it is still the northern coast of the country where the highest number of infections is reported.

“We will, unfortunately, end this year with a severe dengue epidemic,” Deputy Health Minister Roberto Cosenza said. “We have not sufficiently lowered the cases despite the multiple measures that have been used and the messages that have been promoted through different media,” he added.

Ver imagen en Twitter
The Health Ministry and PAHO continue to provide training of trainers for the clinical management of dengue in San Pedro Sula.

So far 105,513 people have been reported infected with dengue, 86,313 of whom have been diagnosed with classic, non-fatal dengue, while 19,200 presented the hemorrhagic branch of the disease.

Cosenza also called on the population to take strong measures to avoid the death of more children from dengue and urged to control the vector through the maintenance of clean backyards and open areas, as well as covering the containers where water accumulates.

Epidemiologist Roxana Araujo said that the epidemic will continue to be a threat next year and explained that the re-entry of dengue serotype two into Honduras has made children the most vulnerable group to it.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned that the number of people affected by the disease in Central America has increased to 2,733,635 this year, 1,206 of whom have died.​​​​​​​

Belize: Little Rain; Stagnant; polluted rivers; dengue

Sad state of our Belize rivers.  

Editorial Amandala— 31 August 2019

We are grateful to Amandala, in the form of editor Russell Vellos, for permission to reproduce this editorial piece here. Amandala is a Belizean tabloid newspaper; published twice weekly, it is considered the “most widely circulated newspaper in Belize”. https://www.amandala.com.bz 

On the environment and health fronts, it has not been a good year. We are a little past halfway through 2019 and we are in a drought that’s beginning to compare with 1975:  at least two of our rivers have never been this unhealthy, and we are in the middle of a frightening dengue outbreak. We are also in the midst of making final preparations for that time of year, our nervous annual storm watching season. We normally don’t look favourably at weather systems coming off the west coast of Africa, but this year we might welcome a storm, if it doesn’t reach Category 1, and if it throws some, not too much, water our way.

The big drought of 1975 drove a lot of small farmers backward because, at the encouragement of the Marketing Board and the Ministry of Agriculture, they had taken loans from the DFC to expand their farms using improved technology. Farmers in the Cayo District, especially, borrowed money to bulldoze small parcels, prepare the land with rubber wheel tractors, and purchase fertilizers and seeds. They ended up owing, and many of them never recovered. The interest on their loans ate them up. They would never venture past plantation (milpa) agriculture again.

Grain production has largely been taken over by the Mennonite group, and they have been hard hit by the lack of rain this year. The good news is that many in this group are not as vulnerable as were the small farmers in Cayo back in 1975. It has been a bad season, especially for farmers producing crops in the grass family.

For nearly three decades citizens living along or near the Macal River have been pointing out that the river was in danger. The Macal has been dammed three times, with the Mollejon in the 1990s, the Chalillo in the 2000s, and the Vaca, around 2010.

There were some questions asked when the Mollejon, a run-of-river dam with limited water storage capacity, was built, but when the talk began for the construction of the Chalillo dam, designed to store water to be released to the Mollejon in the dry season, there were major challenges.

Some experts knew that this second dam could seriously impact the Macal River, negatively, and some argued that the impacts would be catastrophic, that the beauty and the quality and the life of the river would be ruined. Many also expressed concerns about the site of the dam. It was argued, some say proven, that claims that the dam was being constructed on granite rock were false.

After successfully navigating through the courts – the challengers to the Chalillo dam took the matter all the way to the Privy Court – another dam to store more water, the Vaca, was constructed on the Macal. The experts might know if it is one, two, or all three that killed the river.

A very famous Belizean said, “Progress Brings Problems.” Many knew the dams would cause problems, and a few of them have never wavered from keeping their concerns in front of the authorities and the Belizean people.

For a long time the leaders for the protection of the Macal River have been George and Candy Gonzalez of BELPO (Belize Institute of Environmental Law and Policy). They were among those who challenged the construction of the Chalillo dam, and they were upfront with their views when the Vaca dam was proposed too.

The website, www.waterpowermagazine.com, in the story, “Vaca dam challenge goes to court”, said that BELPO had “gone to the court for an injunction, as well as a compliance order (or writ mandamus), ordering the Department of the Environment to enforce the country’s environmental laws. The plaintiffs maintain that there should be no talk about building a third dam at Vaca when the environmental compliance plan for the second dam, Chalillo, is not being complied with.”

In a March 29, 2019 letter to the Amandala, “20 Years of Misinformation”, one of many letters that BELPO has sent to this newspaper over the years, the organisation said, “Those who pushed for the deal to build the dams on the Macal River, three politicians and a senator, have no shame as to what their actions have cost the people along the Macal and Belize Rivers.

“The water in the Macal River is polluted and people shouldn’t drink it or swim in it. Many of the fish in the river have high levels of mercury, which affects the central nervous system and is most dangerous to children and pregnant women. There is still no workable dam break early warning system.”

A footnote to the letter pointed out that Dr. Candy Gonzalez was “one of two NGO representatives on the National Environmental Appraisal Committee (NEAC) for over 7 years and was the sole ‘no’ vote in the 10-1 decision to give environmental clearance for the Chalillo Reservoir/Dam.”

The water is behind the dams now, a done deal, and the Macal River has become a stagnant waterway, with the beauty gone, with fish with mercury levels that make them inedible, with water lilies growing in pools of dead water where once there was a vital, flowing stream. All that can be considered at this time are measures to mitigate the damage, as much as possible. This calls for honesty and urgency on the part of our environmental and agricultural scientists, and engineers.

The New River has been spitting up dead fish during the dry season for decades, and everyone knew that there were things going on in that river that were similar to what happens sometimes to the Crooked Tree Lagoon. Whenever rains are below normal, especially in periods that can be considered as drought conditions, there is oxygen starvation and this is evidenced by fish dying.

On the New River it goes a lot deeper than oxygen starvation. The story there is also about serious pollution. When the crocodiles have belly ache you know you have a very serious problem. Dr. Marisa Tellez, the Executive Director of the Crocodile Research Coalition, in a story reported on Channel Seven News, said she has been studying the crocodile population in Belize and what they found with the crocodiles in the New River was disturbing.

Dr. Tellez said, “We were finding crocodiles that were highly lethargic. Their skin was peeling off. Their skin was turning a whitish-bluish tone. We found many young crocodiles with no teeth.”

Most everyone knew there were things going on with the New River that were different from what was going on in the Crooked Tree Lagoon, and the lack of rain this year has forced these issues to the fore. The New River is being assaulted by factory effluent, human waste, and waste from agricultural developments. There is another task here for environmental and agricultural scientists, and engineers.

The problems on the Macal and New rivers are not the only environmental concerns for this country. There are other rivers/creeks that are under siege, there is concern for the quality of the sea in front of Belize’s largest population centre, Belize City, and there is concern that ships coming to our country might not be respecting our environmental laws.  Our authorities have their triumphs, one of them being a far more advanced system for solid waste disposal, but for the most part they seem overwhelmed, and failing.

Another huge problem for Belize at this time is a scary dengue epidemic that is already a horror story. Reports are that we have nearly 2,000 cases this year, far more than double any previous year, and the experts are saying that when the rains come, to help our farmers, we might see an increased incidence of dengue.

Dengue is a debilitating, sometimes fatal disease. The WHO (World Health Organization) says that in 1970, “when Latin America lived largely dengue-free, the region only had the DEN-2 serotype. Then DEN-1 entered the scene in 1977, followed by DEN-4 and a new strain of DEN-2 in 1981, this last virus triggering the Cuban epidemic. DEN-3 was the most recent virus to reappear, after many years absence.

“While infection by one dengue virus provides lifelong immunity to that serotype, it increases the risk of severe illness when an individual is later infected by any of the other dengue serotypes. As a result, hyperendemicity – the circulation of multiple serotypes – produces more DHF cases and more deaths.”

The problems with the Macal and New Rivers, and the dangerous dengue situation, are not going away by themselves. The response of our authorities is wanting.

https://amandala.com.bz/news/rain-stagnant-polluted-rivers-dengue/

Agua Para El Pueblo / Water For The People

I first learned of the Honduran non-governmental organisation (NGO) Agua Para El Pueblo (APP) in 1999 when the Catholic Institute for International Relations (later to become Progressio and even later, 2017, to cease its development work) hired me to make an evaluation of the effects of Hurricane Mitch on its development work programmes in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Amongst other results of that work I wrote a case study about APP for the book ‘Storm Warnings’ (published by the CIIR in 2001).

In essence, APP supports community initiatives and efforts to improve the conditions of life through the provision of clean water and sanitation systems. It does so through a mechanism of community participation and through cooperation with appropriate organisations and institutions that are present in the community. Its ultimate aim is to improve the health of the community.

In 2015, I visited APP again, this time simply to put myself up-to-date with the organisation’s programmes, principles and practices. I do my best not to be overly cynical about development work – yet often I know that I fail in that effort because so many relatively small-scale development initiatives fade and disappear after a few years and changes of personnel, ideas and circumstances. So it was an extremely pleasant surprise to find that APP not only continues to exist, but is also as dynamic and energetic as it had been seventeen years earlier.

One of their most impressive and recent programmes has the title AguaClara which has support from Cornell University in the United States. The programme is briefly described below.

AguaClara

The AguaClara treatment plant is an efficient solution to reduce turbidity and to disinfect water from surface sources in communities which have piped water. The plant:

  • produces clear and disinfected water;
  • does not need electricity or machinery and functions solely with the force of gravity;
  • is built using local materials;
  • generates employment in the community through the post(s) of community operators;
  • is very economical.

Communities selected for participation in the scheme:

  • have a problem of turbidity of their water supply;
  • are motivated to resolve the problem;
  • are disposed to participate in all aspects of the programme from planning and design to measuring and monitoring;
  • must have space enough to build the plant and enough volume and hydraulic pressure to raise the water two meters above the water supply tank;
  • have no alternative supply of clean water;
  • must carry out tests for heavy metals and chemicals in the water.

More details of all aspects of APP can be found on their website at: www.apphonduras.org  and details of the AguaClara  programme can be found at: http://aguaclara.cee.cornell.edu

The AguaClara programme gives an indication of how far APP’s work has developed. Back in 1999, I travelled with Andrew Trevett, a British water and sanitation engineer who worked with Agua Para El Pueblo during Hurricane Mitch in 1998, after which he sought and got funding from the British Embassy to clean out and improve many of the wells in the Honduran departments of Valle and Choluteca.

Andrew explained:

 “The vast majority of the communities in this area around Nacaome especially out in the

campo‚ do depend on community wells. It’s really vital. I go regularly to quite a few communities and they have one well with one hand pump between forty to sixty households. So it has a tremendous load on it. And if the water’s dirty, then it will affect all of them, not just one.

Building a gravity-fed system with a tank and a long pipeline takes a lot longer [than digging a well], and the idea is that every house will have a tap. So it looks like a step up in terms of development. And there’s no doubt that all of these communities in the south [of Honduras] would much rather have that sort of system. But the problem in the south is the lack of readily available water sources. You could certainly build that kind of water system if the community has an electricity supply and can afford a pump system. But very few communities have an electricity supply.”

[Andrew Trevett in interview with Martin Mowforth, 1999.]

APP continues to focus its work on one of the most basic principles of human development, the provision of clean water and effective sanitation systems. Moreover, it continues to be a source of hope for many communities in Honduras.

  • Agua Para El Pueblo: www.apphonduras.org 
  • AguaClara : http://aguaclara.cee.cornell.edu
  • ‘Storm Warnings: Hurricanes Georges and Mitch and the lessons for development’ (2001) by Martin Mowforth, Catholic Institute for International Relations. [Not available in e-book; hard copies available from the author.]

The power that makes pitchers overflow and rivers flood their banks

By Erasto Reyes, an organiser, lawyer and member of Bloque Popular, a national mobilising organisation in Honduras.

Extracts from ‘Changing the Flow: Water Movements in Latin America’, a report by Food and Water Watch, Red Vida, Transnational Institute, The RPR Network and Other Worlds, 2009.

We have been working on water since 2000, when we began our struggle against the privatisation of public services – energy and telecommunications. But water has been our greatest focus. Water ignited our struggles in Latin America: the struggles of the Bolivians, the Argentineans, the Uruguayans; the proposals that come out of Venezuela, the experiences in Brazil. These struggles have filled us with hope, and they are why there has been growing popular mobilisation throughout Central America.

… When Central America makes the news, it’s for serious and nasty issues like drug trafficking or natural disasters like Hurricane Mitch. But it doesn’t appear, for example, when in countries like El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Costa Rica, people are reclaiming the human right to water.

In Central America, we have serious problems with sanitation and water supply. Honduras is one of the countries with the largest water reserves in Central America, but the state has no policies to ensure access to water and sanitation. … Water, from our point of view, is a heritage of humanity just like land.

Water is linked to land, and also linked to health. … You could say that the water wars of South America have arrived at our doorstep. The water war in Bolivia gave us a profound conviction to fight water privatisation. We have gone beyond simply protesting in the streets and are developing alternative proposals to meet the needs of our people. We are expanding the spaces where people can participate politically. … This has allowed the social movement fighting for water to cross borders, to move beyond the limits of our villages and towns. We are seeing this in the determined efforts of every country in South America, in Central America and Mexico, and – why not mention it? – in the United States and other countries as well. The people have governments but, until now, with only a few exceptions, the people do not have power. …

What a law says, what a decree says, what the UN says, or what divine grace says, is not enough. We have to make water a human right. …

The privatization of water in El Salvador

CISPES is the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador and, among other things, it actively supports Salvadorans and Salvadoran organisations in their campaigns to prevent the privatization of water in the country. We are grateful to CISPES for granting us permission to upload their Blogpost of 28th March [2022] to The Violence of Development website.

March 28, 2022

From CISPES: www.cispes.org

 

Key words: El Salvador; CISPES; water privatization; social movements; World Water Day; water management committees; Water Resources Law; water scarcity; Bukele administration.

 

World Water Day: Social Movement Organisations Call for Repeal of Privatizing Water Resources Law

Amid a week of protests, teach-ins, and cultural events to mark World Water Day on 22nd March, social movement organisations marched to the Legislative Assembly on March 22 with flags flying high, signs that read, “Water for the people, not for transnational corporations!” and demands more urgent than ever. As water scarcity intensifies in El Salvador, the movement’s most pressing demand is repeal or reform of the Water Resources Law, recently passed by the Salvadoran legislature that is now dominated by President Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas (New Ideas) party.

El Salvador is the most water-stressed country in Central America, to the extent that widespread water scarcity represents a threat to survival. More than 600,000 families do not have access to drinking water, and hundreds of thousands more have limited or unreliable access. Studies warn that within 80 years, El Salvador could be uninhabitable due to the lack of water. Causes of scarcity include:

  • Monopolized use of the country’s water resources by corporationsand the sugarcane industry, which effectively rob tens of thousands of Salvadoran citizens of water every year;
  • Pollution and contamination of more than 90% of El Salvador’s fresh water supply due to unregulated industrial waste, toxic pesticides, and regional mining;
  • Sprawling urban ‘’mega’ developmentprojects;
  • Environmental degradation and climate change.

The social movement struggle in El Salvador to protect its fragile water resources guarantees the human right to water, and ensures community participation in water management. However, under the Bukele administration, the movement faces aggressive new threats. After shelving the popular movement’s proposed General Water Law in May 2021, effectively erasing more than a decade of legislative advances, the ruling party-controlled Legislative Assembly passed the administration’s own “’Water Resources Law’ in December of 2021. The new law is set to enter into effect in June 2022.

The Water Resources Law has been roundly denounced by the broad coalition of social movement and civil society organisations that make up the National Water Forum and the National Alliance Against the Privatization of Water. In a statement shortly after the bill was introduced, they warned that: “The proposed law, although it nominally incorporates some of the non-negotiable points that social organisations have been proposing since 2006, presents a centralizing, top-down, bureaucratic system of management, without citizen participation at the local, territorial level and without effective control of the water policies.” Likewise, they say, important elements are absent, such as an approach that addresses “water injustice, gender equity, and sustainability, among others.”

In a recent interview with CISPES, a representative from the Water Forum further explained some of the movement’s objections to the law and why, despite the ‘human rights’ rhetoric that Nuevas Ideas legislators have used in discussing the law, they see it as a privatizing endeavour.

  1. It entrenches water injustice by institutionalizing agreements between large corporations and ANDA (El Salvador’s water and sanitation administration). Currently, for example, ANDA grants concessions for up to 25 million litres of water use per day for massive urban housing developments to both the Poma and Dueñas families, two of El Salvador’s richest families. This massive quantity, monopolized for corporate use, exacerbates the already profound problem of water scarcity for nearly half a million people in the greater San Salvador area.

    The law creates a new agency with the power to approve 15-year water use permits to corporations, to provide “certainty to investors,” with no daily limits on the amount corporations can extract in that period, a concession added to the final draft of the bill. Environmentalists and social movement organisations, including University of Central America researcher Andrés McKinley, say that “these volumes of water without extraction limits and with permits of 15 years are a privatization.”

  2. In contrast, local water boards, which supply water to at least 1.4 million people in El Salvador (a quarter of the population, most of whom ANDA’s water systems do not reach), are limited to five-year authorisation permits. The law likewise withholds legal recognition from local water boards as non-profit agencies, which means they will have to pay fees to use water in the way that for-profit corporations do. As the limited revenue of the water boards is used for system maintenance, this is likely to have a destabilizing effect, organisations say, or even lead to bankruptcy. The result would be more than a million people without water. In the meantime, it translates into increased service rates and less access for the people, especially for those living in some of the poorest areas of El Salvador.
  3. It excludes local water boards and other water management committees from decision-making over water management. Given that the water boards are spaces in which women’s, environmental, and family farming organisations have a voice, this exclusion effectively “denies the participation of these sectors,” and is seen by social movement organisations as an attack on local community structuresthemselves, which will be weakened by this aspect of the law.

Therefore, although the law mentions water as a human right and retains some definitions of public management on paper, in practice, it promotes a privatizing spirit, organisations say, because these mechanisms will put water management “in service of the oligarchy and of big corporations.”

With only three months until the new law is set to take effect, organisations mobilized across El Salvador on World Water Day to show their opposition.

In San Salvador, groups gathered at the Legislative Assembly to urge legislators to recognize the years of struggle and deliberation that have already been carried out to create a water law that meets environmental, gender equity, and human rights standards and to demand that the current law be either repealed or reformed to meet these standards. In official correspondence prepared for legislators, they detailed the following non-negotiable standards:

  • water as a public good;
  • the human right to water and sanitation;
  • public control with effective community participation in decision-making;
  • sustainable management of watersheds;
  • and a just and equitable financial and economic framework.

Social movement representatives were not able to deliver their correspondence to legislators, however, as razor-wire barricades and riot police prevented them from entering the plaza outside the Assembly. This exclusion by force, which mirrors the broader climate of militarized repression and intimidation of popular movement activists in El Salvador under the Bukele administration is yet “another indication that the government does not intend to listen to the population,” and that the Legislative Assembly, “which is supposed to represent the people, has been usurped by business interests,” said the National Alliance Against Water Privatization.

In the face of ongoing repression, however, the organisations expressed their commitment to continue pressuring authorities to repeal the Water Resources Law and to formulate a new law that guarantees the human right to water and protects communities from industrial and extractivist projects.

Honduras: Guapinol 8 finally released

Taken from ENCA 84, newsletter of the Environmental Network for Central America (ENCA)

By Jill Powis* 

The eight Honduran water rights defenders, who had been in pre-trial detention for two-and-half years, were finally released in February 2022, after some bizarre legal shenanigans.  They had been accused of crimes against the mining company Inversiones Los Pinares (ILP) in a case condemned as politically motivated by a range of legal and human rights experts.

The Guapinol 8 were arrested after opposing a huge open-cast iron oxide mine which has polluted rivers relied upon by over 42,000 people (see ENCA 75 and 78).  The mine is owned by Lenir Pérez, already notorious for human rights abuses related to his mining explorations in La Nueva Esperanza, Atlantida department, and his wife, Ana Facussé, daughter of the late Miguel Facussé, the palm oil baron associated with the murder and intimidation of land rights defenders (see ENCA 56).

The mine is located in the Bajo Aguán region, in the Montaña de los Botaderos Carlos Escaleras National Park, in Tocoa municipality. Despite the Park being protected territory, the state altered the boundaries of the Park’s no-development (‘nucleus’) zone in 2012 to accommodate the mine, which went ahead without any community consultation, in violation of the law.

On 7 September 2018, during a peaceful demonstration against the mine, one of the protesters was seriously wounded by shots fired from a car reportedly belonging to ILP. This was never investigated, but the authorities brought charges against the protesters for the alleged kidnapping of the ILP’s chief contractor as well as damage to ILP property. The case was condemned because of its many irregularities, such as the fact that the contractor repeatedly changed his testimony, while independent video evidence showing that the protest was largely peaceful was ignored.

At their trial, which finally took place on 9 February 2022, six of the Guapinol 8 were found guilty in a verdict described as “outrageous” by Amnesty International.  Unexpectedly, the next day, the Supreme Court issued a judgment accepting appeals filed months earlier that challenged the constitutionality of the charges and the pre-trial detention. However, it was only 14 days later, with much foot-dragging (and after an additional ruling by the national Court of Appeal closing the case) that the local courts finally released the remaining six.

Honduras’ new president, Xiomara Castro, had called for the Guapinol 8’s release at her inauguration in January, and so the delays by the local courts could be seen a means of showing contempt for her regime.

_________________

* From 2011 to the end of 2013 Jill Powis served as a human rights accompanier with PROAH (Honduras Accompaniment Project) which accompanied a range of threatened organisations in the country including COFADEH and COPINH.

https://hondurasaccompanimentproject.wordpress.com/

https://enca.org.uk

 

Guatemalan Water Defenders Celebrate Ten Years Of Resistance

Articles originally published by Inequality.org can be reproduced under a Creative Commons license, but we are grateful to Inequality.org for specific permission to reproduce here this article by Jen Moore. The original can be found at:

https://inequality.org/research/celebrating-resilient-water-defenders/

By Jen Moore, Inequality.org, March 2, 2022

Key words: Berta CaceresGuatemalaWater Protectors; La Puya; International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID); Honduras; Guapinol Eight

 

An Attempted Assassination, Criminalization, And Violent Eviction In 2014 Didn’t Stop The Peaceful Resistance Of La Puya In Guatemala, Which Won Legal Action Suspending Harmful Mining Activities.

Credit: Jen Moore

In Central America, as in many other parts of the world today, communities are being thrust into life and death struggles up against powerful interests to ensure clean water and health for their future generations. This is often the case where mining companies seek to dig up gold, silver, iron ore or other metals and minerals, disrupting or destroying precious water supplies in the process, and leaving behind massive quantities of toxic waste on the land.

With national and international laws designed to privilege such harmful activities in the name of so-called development and progress, it is vital to celebrate the milestones of people fighting against all odds to protect their lives and lands from such threats.

Today, March 2 [2022], many will honour the life of Berta Cáceres and reaffirm their commitment to the fight for justice for her brutal murder in her home six years ago. Her leadership in the resistance to megaprojects in Honduras, including a hydroelectric dam and mining concessions on Indigenous Lenca territory, continues to inspire many. Today also marks ten years of inspirational, peaceful resistance to gold mining at a place known as La Puya, just north of Guatemala City. The freedom of eight water defenders in Tocoa, Honduras [the Guapinol Eight] is also being celebrated this week where there are important signs that resistance to mining is gaining traction at the national level following the inauguration of President Xiomara Castro.

 

A Decade Of Water Defense In Guatemala

Celebrating ten years of resistance in Guatemala, the Peaceful Resistance ‘La Puya’ began on March 2, 2012 with a 24-hour protest camp in front of the entrance to a gold mine site operated by Nevada-based mining company Kappes, Cassiday & Associates (KCA) just north of Guatemala City. This week, over fifty Guatemalan and international organisations sent their congratulations to La Puya for its tenacious and ongoing struggle.

Over the course of the past decade, as a result of their resistance, members have suffered acts of intimidation, an attempted assassination, criminalization, as well as a violent eviction in May 2014 in order to enable the mine to start operating.

According to Guatemalan courts, KCA’s operations were always illegal. The company never had local support, lacked a construction license to build the mine, and violated environmental regulations. Legal action led to the mine suspension in 2016, upheld by the Constitutional Court in 2020, until which time a consultation has been undertaken with the community.

Despite having failed to respect Guatemalan law and much less the communities’ human rights, KCA is now suing the state of Guatemala for over $400 million dollars at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) under the terms of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. (DR-CAFTA). KCA’s case against the Guatemalan government is part of an increasingly common strategy used by transnational corporations to bully foreign governments into approving projects that lack community support or otherwise extract their profits through compensation.

In its arbitration defense, despite the Guatemalan government having backed the company to get the mine up and operating in 2014, it acknowledges the legitimate resistance of La Puya to protect already scarce water supplies from contamination and depletion. It also argues that the company’s environmental impact study was incomplete, failed to abide by Guatemalan standards, let alone international norms, and never should have been approved. Meanwhile, the Guatemalan government also claims that the company failed to abide by at least 50% of its environmental obligations according to national regulations.

The Guatemalan defense team even goes so far to recognize that the injustice of this case is further evidence of the injustice of the international arbitration system: “The people of Guatemala should not now be asked to pick up the tab for Claimants, if at all that they suffered any business losses. Otherwise, this Tribunal would be rewarding an imprudent investor at the expense of causing doubt on the fairness of the investor-state dispute settlement system.”

It is only the stalwart persistence of the Peaceful Resistance La Puya and their careful documentation of their struggle and the company’s violations that have kept mining out of their communities so far and brought these local and international injustices to light.

 

Hard Fought Freedom For Defenders In Honduras

In Honduras, late the night of February 24th [2022]six water defenders were finally reunited with their families after being illegally held for two and a half years in pre-trial detention. Two other water defenders were released earlier in February.

Their crime? Having participated in peaceful protests against contamination of their rivers from an open-pit iron oxide project operating within a protected area upstream of the water they rely on. After two and a half years of legal work and campaigning to build support for the freedom of the water defenders, including from solidarity groups, faith, environmental and human rights organisations, as well as UN bodies, the men were finally released. They were received with fireworks, applause, and hugs from their family members, supporters and members of the Municipal Committee in Defense of the Commons and Public Goods of Tocoa, recipient of the 2019 Letelier-Moffitt International Human Rights award.

Honduran company Los Pinares Investments holds two mining concessions within the Carlos Escaleras National Park, the headwaters of 34 rivers. In 2013, the limits of the central area of the park were redrawn so that the project would remain within the buffer zone in which such mining is permitted. The company, owned by Honduran elite that enjoyed a cosy relationship with the now former dictatorship of Juan Orlando Hernández – recently arrested for his narcotrafficking ties – has received investment from the large US steel company Nucor. Nucor reported ending its investment in the project in 2019, but two of its executives still appear as directors of a Panamanian subsidiary that is part of the Honduran business group.

The Municipal Committee continues to challenge the illegality of the iron oxide project, which went into operation in 2021. It is possible that with the recent inauguration of Honduras’ first female President Xiomara Castro that their complaints seeking the project’s closure could gain traction.

Notably, prior to being ousted in a military backed coup in 2009, under Castro’s husband and former president Mel Zelaya, a proposed bill was awaiting debate that sought to prohibit open pit mining and put other constraints on this toxic activity. This bill came about as a result of the difficult struggles of movements and mining-affected communities in Honduras, such as in the Siria Valley where communities faced health harms from the San Martín gold mine, owned by Goldcorp (now Newmont).

In echo of this earlier proposal, on February 28, the Honduran Secretary of Energy, Natural Resources and Mines issued a communiqué stating that no further permits will be issued for extractive projects as a result of being a threat to public health, water and natural resources, declaring Honduras free of open pit mining. The statement further indicates that the authority will “proceed with the review, suspension and cancelation of environmental licenses, permits and concessions.”

While applying such measures to existing mining projects and permits in the country is sure to face a fight and require continued organising from Honduran water defenders and their allies, this declaration is potent evidence of the tremendous efforts that have already taken place by land and water defenders on the frontline.

Celebrating water defenders and their long-term struggles is part of learning from one another. While La Puya and many other communities in Guatemala continue to stave off precious metal mining, as Hondurans forge a path to be mining free, and as the Salvadoran people also fight to maintain their ban on metallic mining since March 2017, they remind us about how through collective efforts and tenacity important victories can be won for the health of people and the planet.

 

Access to water and sanitation

By Martin Mowforth for the TVOD website.

Key words: FAO; Unicef; access to water; sanitation; agricultural demand for water; coronavirus.

In March (2021) the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations published a number of studies to mark World Water Day held on 22nd March each year since 1993. World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness of the global water crisis. A core focus of the event is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.

According to one study, access to water in Latin American countries has become more problematic and more urgent as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The problems are felt more urgently in rural areas due to the lack of rains in some areas and the lack of public policies which guarantee safe access to safe water.

According to Tanja Lieuw of the FAO’s department of Climate Change and Environment in Latin America, “The pandemic has increased the urgent need to guarantee the right to water, the major public resource required to prevent illnesses and to contribute to economic recovery and sustainable development.” (El Economista, 22.03.21)

Agriculture uses 70 per cent of the total consumption of water and according to Julio Berdegué, a regional representative of Latin America for the FAO, a 50 per cent increase in agricultural production will be needed to meet the future demand of a growing population. That would require the extraction of 15 per cent more water than current levels of extraction. It will not be easy to balance that growing demand with the need to provide access to water for the 35 per cent of the Latin American and Caribbean population who do not currently have safe access and the even greater numbers who do not have sanitation services.

Berdegué suggested that one of the keys to modernising and improving access to water would be coordination between government ministries, local government departments and different sectors of the economy. In Central American countries, rural areas are often overlooked by different levels of government and their needs are unknown and/or ignored by specific sectors of the economy which tend to view social and infrastructural problems as not their business.

In a November 2020 report, UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund) warned of an impending sanitation crisis in Central America, made all the more severe by the effects of Hurricanes Eta and Iota. Unicef was particularly concerned about the existence of a great deal of stagnant standing water following the hurricanes which would enable the breeding and spread of more disease, including covid.


Sources:

UNICEF website: www.unicef.org

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) website: www.fao.org/land-water/events/world-water-day-2021/en/

El Economista, 20.12 20, ‘Unicef advierte de una crisis sanitaria por falta de agua en Centroamérica’.

El Economista, 22.03.21, ‘El acceso universal al agua en Latinoamérica es más urgente tras la pandemia, según la FAO’.

 

Guatemala: teleSUR Correspondent Attacked By Men With Machetes

The report on the need for Mayan resistance to the Oxec (and other) hydroelectric projects – also reported in this month’s additions to The Violence of Development website – is supported here by a teleSUR report on violence suffered by one of its journalists investigating the illegal logging and other damages done by the Oxec hydroelectric project. 

teleSUR, 24 August 2018 

Rolanda de Jesús García Hernández was filming the consequences of alleged illegal logging by a hydroelectric company when men threatened her with machetes. A teleSUR correspondent in Guatemala, the Indigenous Mayan K’iche journalist Rolanda de Jesús García Hernández, was attacked and robbed of her equipment while reporting on a hydroelectric project and illegal logging by unknown attackers who threatened to kill her.

García and another teleSUR correspondent, Santiago Botón, were summoned by the Q’eqchi’ community authorities of Sacta, on Cahabón’s riverside, to investigate illegal logging believed to be connected to the Oxec hydroelectric project. García travelled there to meet with local authorities, who accompanied her investigation on August 21 [2018].

García, with community leader Francisco Tec, walked for an hour to reach a community on Sacte mountain which has been severely affected by logging. Once there, they interviewed locals and filmed some of the affected areas for a T.V. reportage.

“The people were very worried; we interviewed them on the stop, as part of my job,” García told a press conference on Friday. “I managed to film some images, some shots with the locals. At the other side we saw there were some employees from the Oxec company. After a few minutes, they started yelling at us.”

The employees then approached the reporting team and tried to take the cameras. They then shouted sexually suggestive threats at García in Spanish.

The reporting team decided to leave the area, but got separated. García stopped at a small river, where she was surrounded by six men who threatened her with machetes.

“Employees of the Oxec Hydroelectric detained the journalist Rolanda de Jesús García, along with community members of Sacte in the Cahabón municipality, Alta Verapaz. The journalist was doing her journalism work when detained.”

García sent a text message just after 3 p.m. local time, saying: “In Cahabón, just informing you I’m in an ugly place, they want to take the camera away.” The attackers then seized the camera and threw it into the river.

“Our boss gets mad when someone enters his private property,” one of the men told García, stressing that the group knew who she was and where to find her. After threatening to rape and kill her then throw her body into the river, the men finally released García when she promised never to return. The incident has been reported to police.

People living on the Cahabón river say erosion and flooding have increased dramatically with the illegal logging allegedly related to the Oxec hydroelectric company, but the government is ignoring their plight.

“We can’t remain silent, it’s important to denounce this truth,” García said. “We’ve been the witnesses of several arrests and criminalization against the leaders, and now the press is being persecuted.”

“I fear for my life. I was warned they know who I am and took pictures and video of me. I was threatened and I was told their boss would have the files” – Rolanda García Hernández, teleSUR correspondent.

Guatemala’s social leaders, especially those involved in human rights and environmental issues, are often criminalized by the government and private companies whose economic interests are at stake, occasionally resulting in murder.

García said: “It would seem like it’s a confrontation between brothers and sisters, but we know this persecution comes from groups that are behind all these actions because when the communities try to speak to the cameras, the radios, to denounce, what they immediately receive is persecution. We’re also at risk.”

Several Guatemalan and international alternative media outlets and human rights groups are standing in solidarity with García, condemning the attack and demanding the Public Ministry prevent such assaults on freedom of speech.

The Oxec Hyodroelectric has denied any responsibility for the incident or having knowledge of García’s journalistic work.

La resistencia maya a la concesión privada de los ríos ve la luz en Guatemala: Revista de ‘Liberemos Nuestros Ríos’ por Madre Selva

Publicado 14 de Marzo 2018 por ACAFREMIN (Alianza Centroamericana Frente a la Minería). 
Les estamos agradecidos a ACAFREMIN por el derecho de reproducir el artículo aquí.

El colectivo guatemalteco ecologista Madre Selva publicó hoy un libro en el que narra la resistencia de las comunidades mayas Q’eqchi’ de Santa María Cahabón, en el departamento norteño de Alta Verapaz, a los proyectos hidroeléctricos Oxec y Oxec II.

La obra, titulada ‘Liberemos Nuestros Ríos’ y editada por la investigadora Simona Violetta Yagenova, tiene como objetivo “nutrir” a la población guatemalteca sobre la oposición a la ‘concesión privada de los ríos’ con énfasis en el proceso de ‘defensa’ que han realizado las comunidades aledañas para impedir que se desarrollen los proyectos en los ríos Cahabón y su afluente Oxec. El libro, que contó con el apoyo de la Fundación Hienrich Böll Stiftung, realiza un análisis histórico de la ‘lucha social’ de los dos proyectos hidroeléctricos.

Ambos pertenecen al grupo Energy Resources Capital Corp., registrado en Panamá, y obtuvieron la autorización definitiva para operar del Ministerio de Energía y Minas el 7 de agosto de 2013 y el 12 de febrero de 2015 para Oxec I y Oxec II, respectivamente.

La investigación narra cómo desde el año 2012 al 2015 la población de Santa María Cahabón habría sufrido asesinatos y desalojos a pobladores de la comunidad, así como el encarcelamiento de algunos de sus líderes que se opusieron a la instalación de dichos proyectos.

Fotografia por: latrillamediosindependientes.blogspot.com

El movimiento, añade, emergió y se desarrolló a pesar de una extensa campaña de difamación, que incluye la criminalización de uno de sus dirigentes (Bernardo Caal, detenido el pasado 5 de febrero por supuestamente haber cometido los delitos de detención ilegal y robo), orquestada por ‘el empresariado’ y ‘los poderes locales’, con la connivencia de los organismos Ejecutivo y Judicial.

Del Río Cahabón, que cuenta con una longitud de 195,95 kilómetros entre el norte y el oriente del país, se desprenden más de 50 ríos y arroyos entre los que se encuentra Oxec, Canlich y Chiacté, en los cuales operan actualmente seis hidroeléctricas: las Renaces I, II, III y IV (de la Corporación Multiinversiones), los Oxec I y II y la de Chichaic.

La construcción de varias represas, señala el documento, “altera gravemente el ecosistema fluvial” alrededor de los cauces, “destruyendo hábitats, modificando el caudal y cambiando los parámetros básicos del agua”.

Tras un análisis detallado de las diferentes acciones, consultas previas, amparos y resoluciones del ente Constitucional -que en mayo pasado resolvió que la hidroeléctrica podría seguir trabajando pese a no haber esperado a la consulta previa basada en el Convenio 169 de la OIT- la publicación de Madre Selva asegura que hubo contradicciones en la resolución.

El libro concluye que “las consultas comunitarias de buena fe constituyen mecanismos de regulación social, resolución de conflictos y toma de decisiones que se construyen colectivamente.”

En diciembre pasado [2017], la Cámara de la Industria de Guatemala celebró el fin a un proceso de consulta comunitaria que encabezó el Ministerio de Energía y Minas entre septiembre y noviembre pasados en 11 comunidades aledañas, en los que supuestamente se llegaron a acuerdos que fueron trasladados a la Corte Suprema de Justicia. No obstante, dicho proceso no fue bien recibido por colectivos de activistas, como Madre Selva.

Según dijo al presentar los resultados el ministro de Energía, Luis Chang, los acuerdos entregados al poder Supremo se centran en constituir “relaciones en un ambiente de armonía” y que la empresa cumpla con “mitigaciones ambientales durante y posterior a la construcción y operación del proyecto.”

Una afirmación a la que se opone el libro ‘Liberemos Nuestros Ríos’, el cual sostiene que el Estado guatemalteco, históricamente, “ha despojado a los pueblos originarios en sucesivos periodos históricos bajo el lema del desarrollo y el progreso.”

Mientras las hidroeléctricas Oxec I y II guardan la esperanza de generar unos 100 MW anuales, han sido centenares de pobladores y activistas los que advierten que el proyecto ha dejado sin agua a unas 50 comunidades.