The road to San Miguel Ixtahuacán, Guatemala is a descent into a valley along an asphalt road riddled with potholes that could easily swallow your tire. In the chilly pre-dawn of a February day, six of us -- a videographer, human rights activists, a photographer, an interpreter and a driver -- make our way in the dark. We share the road with large and old slatted trucks carrying cattle, rickety brightly-painted school buses packed with sleeping passengers, women in traje, their indigenous dress, walking to town carrying babies across their chests. It's cold and the stars outline the silhouette of the mountains that separate Guatemala from Mexico just an hour and a half to the west. On our right we start to see the first rays of the sun as we climb into the Sierra of the Cuchumatanes mountains, high above the clouds.
We're moving into a conflict-torn area where communities, like San Miguel Ixtahuacán and neighbouring Sipacapa, have been drastically changed by the arrival of mining companies like Montana Exploradora, a Guatemalan subsidiary of the Canadian-owned mining company Goldcorp, which began the exploitation of the Marlin Mine in 2004. We're not sure what to expect, but our role is clear: Record first-hand testimonies from women who say their lives have been changed dramatically by the mining in the area. We're here as part of a larger fact-finding mission sent to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala in January by the Nobel Women's Initiative (NWI). Based in Ottawa, the organization was founded by six female recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, and is led by Laureate Jody Williams, winner of the 1997 prize for her anti-land mine work. The organization sends delegations of prominent citizens -- lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders, artists -- into high-conflict areas around the world to investigate the plight of women and human rights defenders, defensoras, including those who are targeted as women -- raped, assaulted, denied the power to protect their land, livelihood,Browse a huge selection for ledflashlightss at chinabuye. health and families. We've heard some terrible stories during the past 10 days travelling through these countries.
Entering the valley, San Miguel Ixtahuacán hangs on our right past the once thick pine forests. We are met by a woman defensora wearing the traditional elaborately-woven Maya blouse, huipil, and matching wrap-around skirt of the region, along with a nun and priest from the local Catholic Church, which has been a vocal opponent to mining activities in the area. They welcome us over breakfast,Coast LED lanterns, ledlightforyou and headlamps are ... which we eat quickly after we learn a group of women is waiting for us. The nun, who is a native of San Miguel Ixtahuacán, leads us into the main street; we pair off and walk through this small quiet town where all the doors facing the street are open and people bend their head as a greeting as we pass. We are led into a bright meeting hall where indigenous women sit in a large circle facing us as the sound of marimba music fills the room. Between us on the floor is another circle made from carefully placed dried ears of corn pointing towards the centre where more corn forms spokes pointing in four directions. There are unlit candles and the silence of waiting. When we are all seated, they begin to sing a hymn:
"The mining company," says Maria Elena,With my bikelighter I could barely see much more than a few metres ahead of me. "is our worst wound; it has torn open our mother earth, who feeds us, and we feel her pain. We have no peace, our communities are being divided and destroyed."
"We don't want the water to disappear and the trees to dry up," said Francisca Pastoran, in a desperate tone. "We want to be heard as women. We don't want kidnappings, violence and hatred. Our ancestors left us an inheritance that was complete. What are we going to leave ..I stock many of the parts used in these shinebrightled projects, on my web store.. slavery?"
They detail kidnappings,Start saving money today with ledlightbulbs. the violence against them and their families, the death of crops, children with strange rashes and sickness they say comes from water contaminated by the mining. They tell us how their ancient communities are now fracturing -- some welcoming the mines as an economic alternative, others strongly opposed, saying the mines poison their land, make their people ill and that private mining security forces intimidate and threaten them. For many of the women, Spanish is their second language, while others speak only their indigenous Mam tongue, which is interpreted to us. None of the emotion is lost.
We're moving into a conflict-torn area where communities, like San Miguel Ixtahuacán and neighbouring Sipacapa, have been drastically changed by the arrival of mining companies like Montana Exploradora, a Guatemalan subsidiary of the Canadian-owned mining company Goldcorp, which began the exploitation of the Marlin Mine in 2004. We're not sure what to expect, but our role is clear: Record first-hand testimonies from women who say their lives have been changed dramatically by the mining in the area. We're here as part of a larger fact-finding mission sent to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala in January by the Nobel Women's Initiative (NWI). Based in Ottawa, the organization was founded by six female recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, and is led by Laureate Jody Williams, winner of the 1997 prize for her anti-land mine work. The organization sends delegations of prominent citizens -- lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders, artists -- into high-conflict areas around the world to investigate the plight of women and human rights defenders, defensoras, including those who are targeted as women -- raped, assaulted, denied the power to protect their land, livelihood,Browse a huge selection for ledflashlightss at chinabuye. health and families. We've heard some terrible stories during the past 10 days travelling through these countries.
Entering the valley, San Miguel Ixtahuacán hangs on our right past the once thick pine forests. We are met by a woman defensora wearing the traditional elaborately-woven Maya blouse, huipil, and matching wrap-around skirt of the region, along with a nun and priest from the local Catholic Church, which has been a vocal opponent to mining activities in the area. They welcome us over breakfast,Coast LED lanterns, ledlightforyou and headlamps are ... which we eat quickly after we learn a group of women is waiting for us. The nun, who is a native of San Miguel Ixtahuacán, leads us into the main street; we pair off and walk through this small quiet town where all the doors facing the street are open and people bend their head as a greeting as we pass. We are led into a bright meeting hall where indigenous women sit in a large circle facing us as the sound of marimba music fills the room. Between us on the floor is another circle made from carefully placed dried ears of corn pointing towards the centre where more corn forms spokes pointing in four directions. There are unlit candles and the silence of waiting. When we are all seated, they begin to sing a hymn:
"The mining company," says Maria Elena,With my bikelighter I could barely see much more than a few metres ahead of me. "is our worst wound; it has torn open our mother earth, who feeds us, and we feel her pain. We have no peace, our communities are being divided and destroyed."
"We don't want the water to disappear and the trees to dry up," said Francisca Pastoran, in a desperate tone. "We want to be heard as women. We don't want kidnappings, violence and hatred. Our ancestors left us an inheritance that was complete. What are we going to leave ..I stock many of the parts used in these shinebrightled projects, on my web store.. slavery?"
They detail kidnappings,Start saving money today with ledlightbulbs. the violence against them and their families, the death of crops, children with strange rashes and sickness they say comes from water contaminated by the mining. They tell us how their ancient communities are now fracturing -- some welcoming the mines as an economic alternative, others strongly opposed, saying the mines poison their land, make their people ill and that private mining security forces intimidate and threaten them. For many of the women, Spanish is their second language, while others speak only their indigenous Mam tongue, which is interpreted to us. None of the emotion is lost.
