Long-form News Articles on Latin America
Annand, Amanda. 2019. “The Pit of San Pedro: The Life and Death of a Canadian Mine in Mexico.” The Narwhal, June 22.
The town of Cerro de San Pedro was named after an iconic hill that — after two decades of mining — has been transformed into an open pit. As the Canadian-owned mine moves into its closure phase the community is grappling with the legacy of both development and disruption left in its wake.
Binks-Collier, Max. 2020. “Evicting Lote Ocho: How a Canadian Mining Company Infiltrated the Guatemalan State.” The Intercept, September 26.
The campaign culminated in two waves of evictions targeting several Indigenous villages on January 8, 9, and 17, 2007. Eleven women from Lote Ocho were allegedly gang-raped by police officers, soldiers, and CGN’s security during the last eviction. Ich is one of those women.
Brown, Alleen. 2019. “She defended her land against a mine in Guatemala. Then she fled in fear for her life.” The Intercept, June 23.
In response to the anti-mining movement in San Rafael, Tahoe hired firms run by U.S. and Israeli ex-special forces veterans to protect the project and lobbied the Guatemalan government to quash the resistance. Over the course of the 12-year conflict, mine opponents have been shot, imprisoned, and even killed.
Hylton, Annie. 2017. "Is Canada to Blame for Human Rights Abuses in Guatemala?" The Walrus.
Canadian mining firms are not held responsible for horrors inflicted on Indigenous communities by foreign subsidiaries. But a Toronto court could change that. With the help of Canadian attorneys at the Toronto-based Klippensteins law firm, German Chub Choc, Angélica Choc (the widow of Adolfo Ich Chamán), Rosa Coc Ich, and ten other women from Lote Ocho are suing Hudbay in Canada for negligence, and seeking damages. The case is likely the first of its kind in Canadian courts.
“Introduction: Consulta Previa in Chile, Colombia, Guatemala and Peru.” Americas Quarterly.
Between August 2013 and January 2014, an Americas Quarterly research team traveled to four countries in Latin America—Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, and Peru—to study the varied implementation of consulta previa across the Americas.
The four countries we studied have all ratified International Labour Organization Convention 169 (ILO 169), a binding international treaty that establishes the right of Indigenous and tribal peoples to be consulted when a policy or project affects their culture or heritage. With support from the Ford Foundation and local researchers in the four countries, we spoke to Indigenous and Afrodescendant leaders, company representatives, government officials, lawyers, and NGOs to better understand their experiences, successes and frustrations with consulta previa.
Watts, Jonathan, 2019. "Resource extraction responsible for half world's carbon emissions." The Guardian
Extractive industries are responsible for half of the world’s carbon emissions and more than 80% of biodiversity loss, according to the most comprehensive environmental tally undertaken of mining and farming.