In Huehuetenango department alone, a total of 26 municipalities carried out popular consultations to their residents on the convenience of the installation of new extraction projects. San Rafael La Independencia municipality will carry out a consultation on April 28, while there will be another consultation in San Mateo Ixtatan on May 21st.

In parallel to these consultation processes, the Guatemalan environmental organizations are following closely the discussion about the amendments to the Mining Law.

The aim of these amendments to the laws in force is to highlight the role of the community consultations, an ancient mechanism of participatory democracy of the native communities, which have historically lived in these lands.

The consultations are also provided in ILO’s 169 Convention and in municipal laws. By promoting this mechanism of direct democracy, the social movements of Guatemala that resist mining have found a common struggle and a reason to coordinate actions nationally.

Natalia Atz, coordinator of the Unit of Influence of CEIBA, Friends of the Earth Guatemala, said that in the consultations carried out so far, nearly 99% of the participants rejected open pit gold mining.

It is natural that the social organizations that promote these community consultations expect that the popular expression will be legally binding. This means that after firm rejection to mining it will be possible to set a moratorium on mining activities in the country.

But the Guatemalan authorities have systematically ignored the pronouncement of the affected communities, something which for Atz shows the economic power and interests behing the promotion of the mining industry.