 |
 |
|
Guatemalan Leader Challenges Trade Agreement
 In
July of this year, human rights defender and environmental
activist Mario Godínez received a death threat via
fax in his office in Chimaltenango, Guatemala. Mario heads
the Friends of the Earth member group in Guatemala, called
the Association
for the Promotion and Development of the Community (CEIBA).
These threats are very alarming but they also show how seriously
the opposition takes Mario’s work.
Mario, an agricultural engineer by training, has defended
human rights in Guatemala for many years. Mario helped start
CEIBA in 1993, when support was needed for Guatemalan refugees
returning from Mexico, and he became the general coordinator
of the organization in 1996. CEIBA’s work has since
broadened to include campaigns against free trade agreements
that threaten the environment, keeping genetically modified
crops out of the food supply, and against cyanide open-pit
mining.
This year, Mario has been working on two very contentious
issues in the region: the United States - Central
America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and the Marlin
gold mine in the eastern highlands of Guatemala, a project
of Glamis Gold.
Mario, like many Central Americans, is concerned that CAFTA
will destroy local agriculture and allow U.S.-based multinationals
increased capability to exploit natural resources and weaken
environmental laws. While Friends of the Earth-U.S. was fighting
to prevent the passage of CAFTA in our Congress, Mario was
fighting to keep CAFTA from passing in Guatemala. Around that
time, there were nationwide demonstrations against the trade
agreement in Guatemala, in which one person was killed and
many others injured. Unfortunately, in March, 2005, the Guatemalan
government passed CAFTA.
In April, Mario visited Friends of the Earth-U.S. During
his visit, Friends of the Earth-U.S. arranged for him to
meet with U.S. legislators, urging them not to ratify CAFTA.
He also met with World Bank officials, asking them to halt
the Marlin
gold mining project. In July, he received the faxed
threat, which warned CEIBA not to hold meetings of more
than 20 people or else “we will consider it an act
of provocation and act accordingly.”
Mario’s words on the dangers he and his family face
reveal his courage and stoicism,
“In the case of our family, we are activists of
all of this struggle, so when there’s a crisis of repression
or violence, normally our children – my children, for
example – have to move from one house to another, my
mother, my father to another house, my girlfriend to another
house. We are very mobile, because they can attack us at any
time. In times as difficult as those we are living in, Friends
of the Earth helps us activate a network of solidarity for
security and human rights.”
Friends of the Earth-U.S. responded to this threat against
Mario by urging its members to write to the Guatemalan government,
asking that the government investigate the threat and take
measures to protect Mario. Over 1000 people sent letters
on Mario’s behalf. Mario, although taking precautions
about his work, is now continuing his work with indigenous
communities and his struggle against the mine. He wrote
to us that, “…the tension has lessened a bit.
We can’t be sure of anything except to say that we
are safe for now, but the great
pressure and solidarity that all of you have raised
in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia has resounded
here…”
|
|
