The record of mining transnational corporations that operate in Guatemala continues surprising and it turns out very difficult not to associate these abuses with the state’s role as an accomplice of the private capitals.

Karin Nansen, from REDES – Friends of the Earth Uruguay participated in the mission in Guatemala from September 20 through 25. In an interview with Real World Radio she told us that Canadian mining corporation Goldcorp – responsible for its subsidiary Montana - is the country’s largest company, which uses cyanide. It uses nearly 250,000 liters of water an hour, while a Guatemalan family consumes 60 liters of water a day, at the most.

A similar situation will happen in the community of San Juan Sacatepéquez, in the central department of Guatemala, where cement company Holcim -Cementos Progreso is expected to be installed. The company aims to install a plant there that would start operating in 2012, and which approximate cost would be nearly 600 million dollars.

“There are lots of people around the world who don’t even imagine the magnitude of the human rights abuses by mining corporations because the only side heard is that of the corporations, which is misleading advertising, while the abhorring crimes they commit in the communities territories are ignored”, said Nansen.

Besides, she also referred to the need for the enforcement of the indigenous peoples rights – specifically ILO’s 169 Convention – and to make legally binding the community consultations where people opposed mining. The corporations that promote policies of divide inside the communities should be denounced, and the criminalization of the movements that oppose these projects should be stopped.

In Colotenango, for example, in the past five years six community leaders who opposed mining were killed, and they found the guilty in only one of the cases. These murders are quickly filed as common crimes, which shows the partiality of the judiciary, which acts better when it comes to investigating the reports of corporations.