dawn's blog

In today's Globe & Mail, a letter by Ken Georgetti, contesting the Globe's coverage of the July 2nd release of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 prisoners of war held by the FARC in Colombia.

Georgetti writes: "The only thing more 'stunning' than the rescue was your rush to link this action to the Canada-Colombia trade negotiations in your editorial Colombia's Resurgence (July 4) and in Jeffrey Simpson's column A Bold Rescue Is Good News For Colombia - And Canada (July 5)."

This morning on Democracy Now, Amy Goodman held a roundtable on Colombia with Mario Murillo, Michael Evans and Manuel Rozental.

Rozental states:

"I, first of all, have to say, like I think almost every Colombian, that we were absolutely elated by the liberation of Ingrid and that her condition is good... The fourteen prisoners of war, mistreated, abused, and I’m also glad, as everybody, that they’re free."

The Report of the Standing Committee on International Trade, "Human Rights, the Environment and Free Trade with Colombia," is a hastily written document based on the Committee's work around the Canada Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

The report in itself is not great, but the recommendations are important. It will be key for Canadians to pressure the Harper government to abide by the recommendations, which are an obstacle to the signing of the FTA, but which the Conservatives are likely to try and bypass.

The recommendations are reproduced below.

Meanwhile, the scandals continue to pile up for the Uribe regime. See: Declaration of Carlos Gaviria (PDA) on Uribe's declaration of a 'Populist Dictatorship,'.

UPDATE: Justin Podur on the release of Ingrid Betancourt.

The War Funding Bill was signed into law by President Bush today, allocating another $162 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without a timeline for troop withdrawl.

Buried away in the Bill is $465 million for the first year of the 'Merida Initiative.'

The Merida Initiative, formerly known as 'Plan Mexico,' is a military plan whose aim, according to the Bush Administration, is to "combat the threats of drug trafficking, transnational crime, and terrorism in the Western Hemisphere."

The Merida Initiative will further militarize Mexico and Central America, and will likely mark an increase in the criminalization of migrants heading towards the US.

The total budget for the Merida Initiative is 1.6 billion dollars. During the first year, $400 million is destined for Mexico, and $65 million will be divided between Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Belize, Panamá, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

The budget is destined for: helicopters and surveillance aircraft, increased US participation in policing, communications surveillance technologies, and "non-intrusive" inspection equipment, ion scanners and canine units for Mexican customs, the new federal police and military to "interdict trafficked drugs, arms, cash and persons."

The War Funding Bill, which was rejected by Democrats in May, was passed by 311-106 last week by the Democrat led House of Representatives.

Corporate executives in Canada are not used to being called out in public for their actions, or the actions of their companies.

But that's what happened a couple nights ago in Toronto, when Barrick boss Peter Munk and his daughter Nina appeared at an event at Indigo bookstore.

According to the Toronto Spectator blog, "a nondescript gent stood up and, in a wan tone, began to ask a question that seemed to turn on what he claimed was Barrick’s spotty environmental record... The fellow simply carried on like a low-key high school English teacher addressing morning assembly. As he gathered pace, the tenor of his accusations grew more and more inflammatory: 'Murder…slaughter…rape…Peter Munk has blood on his hands.'"

The story in the Spectator was later picked up by the National Post and the Toronto Star.

The National Post's self professed "B-list" pundit Jonathan Kay could do no better than speculatively slander the rebel interlocuter based on his tennis shoes:

"Anyone who makes a regular appearance at such bookish soirées will know this breed well. I wasn't there when the Munks got ambushed. But here's what I'm guessing the verbal assailant looked like: ill-fitting jacket, t-shirt advertizing a political party that no longer exists, focused stare, tote bag full of leaflets and odd homemade food items, and, of course, the shoes."

Goldcorp Inc.'s Marlin mine in Guatemala has been a hotbed of controversy since locals became aware of the presence of the company (then Glamis Gold) in their municipalities.

Adding weight to the resistance to the mine is a ruling made public on June 9th by the Constitutional Court in Guatemala, which has found eight Articles (or sections thereof) of the Mining Law to be unconstitutional. (full text of the ruling in pdf format).

Among the Articles deemed unconstitutional are 19 and 20, which allow mining activities to start while the corresponding paperwork is still being processed, Articles 21, 24 and 27, which allow mining activity to take place to unlimited depths of the subsurface, Article 75, which allows mining companies to discharge water from their tailings pond directly into surface water, as well as Articles 81 and 86.

Goldcorp has refused to comment on the ruling, as they are in this case unable to use their regular discourse about the importance of the "rule of law."

Lawyers and environmentalists in Guatemala hope that the ruling will prevent Goldcorp from discharging untreated water from the tailings pond at the Marlin Mine (pictured) into local rivers, which the company had planned to begin doing in the next few months.

¡Viva la Consulta Comunitaria, Bajo la Represión!

On June 7th, Foreign Affairs Canada announced that the negotiations for the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement have been concluded.

The entire negotiation process has been secret and there is no public draft text of the agreement to speak of.

According to FAC, "Before signing the agreements and making them public, Canada and Colombia will undertake a detailed legal review of the texts in English, French and Spanish. In Canada, the treaties will then be tabled in the House of Commons for a period of 21 sitting days. During that time, members of parliament will be able to review, debate, vote on a motion, or send the agreements to committee for further review. Following the 21-day period, the Government plans to introduce draft legislation to implement the agreements."

Both countries are playing up the labour and environmental agreements that accompany the FTA, this at a time when the legitimacy of the Colombian Congress is questionable due to ongoing scandals, and the Canadian Liberal party is charging that the FTA was announced with "no respect for parliament."

While the Democrat controlled congress in the US has managed to block the ratification of the US-Colombia FTA, there is no such mechanism in Canada, and according to NDP MP Peter Julian, "Canada is pushing ahead with a trade agreement simply to satisfy George Bush and that is entirely inappropriate."

South American news agencies are reporting that the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and Colombia could be signed this week in Bogotá.

A Canadian "technical team" is participating in the 5th -and potentially final- round of negotiations in Bogotá from 1-6 June.

Bloomberg quoted U of T political "scientist" John Kirton as saying: "An agreement 'will give aid and comfort to all the liberalizing forces within the United States who are instantly going to notice it and say if the Canadians are doing Colombia, why can't we.'"

An excellent background article, "Building its Ties to Colombia: Canada's Imperial Adventure in the Andes," explains some of the major problems related to a Canada-Colombia FTA.

Photo from No Colombia FTA rally in Toronto in November, 2007.

A new website, Solidarité avec Écosociété, has been launched in support of the publishers of Noir Canada, who are facing a SLAPP suit from Barrick Gold, to the tune of $6 million.

In related news, recent protests at Barrick's May 6th AGM in Toronto are documented at protestbarrick.net.

Similar protests took place in front of Goldcorp's AGM in Toronto on May 20th.

"Knowing the truth is painful, but it is a highly liberating action" - Bishop Gerardi, April 24, 1998

Bishop Juan Gerardi was assassinated 10 years ago today. He was beaten to death with a concrete slab in front of his residence. His killers have never been brought to justice.

The assassination took place two days after the release of "Guatemala Nunca Mas" (Guatemala Never Again), the comprehensive document on the 36 year internal conflict in Guatemala put together by the Recovery of Historical Memory (REMHI) project of the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruño gave a powerful sermon in memory of Gerardi this morning in the Cathedral in Guatemala City. He received an extended round of applause when he stated that "the Catholic Church will not stop demanding that the case of Bishop Gerardi be clarified, until we know who was responsible for doing what."

Toruño finished the mass by stating that in remembering Gerardi, the Catholic Church is reaffirming that in Guatemala, they have taken a "fundamental option for the poor."

According to Oxfam America's website, "Oxfam America and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) agreed on April 4, 2008 to collaborate on creating a common mining code for all of West Africa."

The agreement, according to Oxfam, "...will help the 15 member countries adhere to uniform standards created jointly by governments and citizens, and increase protection of human rights and the environment while promoting investment."

ECOWAS, according to their homepage, has a "mission to promote economic integration in 'all fields of economic activity, particularly industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial questions, social and cultural matters'..."

Voice of America notes that "Oxfam and ECOWAS recently led meetings with affected community members from 11 West African countries."

Oxfam America, according to the information on their website, has taken on the role of "[overseeing] the participation of civil society representatives" in the drafting of a new mining law.

What makes Oxfam (ahem, Oxfam America) qualified to "oversee" mining affected communities and civil society groups in West Africa in meetings about mining law reform has not been addressed in media reports to date.

Preliminary official results are showing that former Bishop Fernando Lugo has won the presidential elections that took place April 20 in Paraguay.

According to the Supreme Elections Tribunal in Paraguay, Lugo's party, the Patriotic Alliance for Change (APC) has an estimated 40.46% of votes, compared to 31.12% for Blanca Olevar's Colorado party and 21.8% for General Lino Oveido. This figure is still preliminary but includes 70.87% of the polling stations.

According to AP, "News broadcasts showed two minor scuffles outside polling places Sunday" but voting was generally peaceful.

The book launch for Noir Canada: Pillage, corruption et criminalité en Afrique, edited by Alain Denault and the Collectif Ressources d'Afrique out of Montréal, was a cancelled yesterday when the authors and publishers (Édition Écosociété) received letters from a law firm representing Barrick Gold.

The letters alledgedly refer to apparent inaccuracies in the book, more particularly around the representation of Barrick's role at Bulyanhulu, in Tanzania, where more than 50 small scale miners were buried alive in 1996.

Barrick has also sued The Guardian and The Observer over articles that they published about the Bulyanhulu massacre.

Noir Canada is about the role of Canadian companies in Africa, which operate with the "unfailing help of the Canadian government."

The list of corporate abuses is long: advantageous mining contracts in the DRC, partnerships with arms dealers and mercenaries in the Great Lakes region, miners buried alive in Tanzania, an "involuntary genocide" by poisoning in Mali, brutal expropriations in Ghana, using people from the Ivory Coast for pharmaceutical testing, devastating hydroelectric projects in Senegal, the savage privatization of the railway system in West Africa...

I sure hope that Écosociété goes ahead and releases the book...

Paraguayan news agency Jaku'éke reports today that "death threats to the Alliance Campaign are being followed through."

Alfredo Avalos, a journalist and organizer with the opposition presidential campaign remains in critial condition with gunshot wounds to his head, and his partner Silvana Rodríguez was killed last night in Curuguaty, in the state of Canindeyúby, 250km northeast of the capital, Asunción.

Avalos worked for Tekojoja, a movement which has allied with the opposition presidential campaign, Patriotic Alliance for Change (APC), headed by presidential candidate and former Bishop Fernando Lugo.

This is the second murder of a Tekojoja organizer in the last two months. Local police and officials refute that the killings were politically motivated.

According to Carrillo Iramain, an organizer in Canindeyúby "there are constant telephone messages, indirect messages and direct threats happening in these final days [before the elections]. This is an area where fear rules."

Elections are planned for April 20, 2008 in Paraguay.

The current government of the landlocked South American country is one of the strongest US allies in the region. The government has come under international scrutiny for allowing the setting up of US military bases in the country, near the Bolivian border.

UPDATE: A new article by Ben Dangl and April Howard: Dissecting the Politics of Paraguay's next President.

The BBC is reporting that the World Bank has announced a $178 million dollar loan to the D.R. Congo to repair 1,700km of electric cables "to increase power for the mining sector."

Nevermind that only 6% of people in the DRC have access to electricity, the mining industry needs another massive subsidy.

Citizens protest the meeting of Canadian Prime Minister and Barrick

Two hours late and in the presence of a huge security entourage that included guards, police and special forces, Stephen Harper arrived at the offices of Barrick Gold and entered through the parking area, in order to avoid the peoples’ protest that started at 8:00 am at the entrance to the building.

Brazilian president Lula da Silva has written a piece called 'Challenges for the G8 summit' for La Jornada de Mexico.

He states:

"The promotion of the use of ethanol and biodiesel helps to democratize access to energy, and diminishes world dependance on finite hydrocarbon reserves...

[Biofuels] constitute economic, social and technological alternatives that are within the reach of countries that are economically poor, but rich in soils and arable lands...

OPEN LETTER TO IAN AUSTIN, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF SKYE RESOURCES

Ian Austin, President & CEO
Skye Resources
Suite 1203 - 700 West Pender Street
Vancouver, BC
V6C 1G8

April 11, 2007

Dear Mr. Austin,

To begin, we want to thank you for responding to the CBC’s request for an interview regarding Skye Resources in Guatemala. Your willingness to respond publicly to the situation in El Estor connotes your awareness of the need for a response to public concern over the operations of your company in Guatemala.

The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, has just released a new report on the International Labour Organization's Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention 169. The report is meant as a guide for the private sector "in relation to C-169."

The new IFC report basically sets up a "reputational imperative" for companies to comply with ILO 169, noting that "While a private company might feel the need to clarify that the law does not apply to it, a more fruitful approach may be to try to act in a way that is consistent with the principles of the Convention on issues such as consultation, land rights, and protection of indigenous peoples' cultures." (my emphasis).

Vancouver based Goldcorp lodged a formal complaint today against Madre Selva, a Guatemalan ecologist collective, as well as against Flaviano Bianchini, an Italian biologist who carried out water quality studies near Goldcorp's Marlin mine in Guatemala. Bianchini's study found high levels of heavy metals, and the findings were released by Alvaro Ramazzini, the Bishop of San Marcos.

February 28, 2007

A Public Letter To:
Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs
James Lambert, Director General, Latin America and Caribbean Bureau, DFAIT
Kenneth Cook, Canadian Ambassador to Guatemala

RE: Canadian ambassador to Guatemala spreads misinformation about film documenting indigenous Mayan Q'eqchi' communities forcibly evicted on behalf of nickel mining company Skye Resources.

The recent murder of Yolanda Izquierdo by paramilitary forces in northeastern Colombia is the second murder of a leader of a land recuperation struggle in the country in less than a week.

In an article in El Diario, Izquierdo is described as "a representative of the victims of the ultra-right in her region."

There is an emergency vigil for Yolanda Izquierdo in Vancouver on Monday, February 12th, at 6pm at the Robson side of the art gallery.

Matt Vincent of the Montana Standard has written a piece that is funny, sad and ironic as anything. Saturday morning reading at its finest.

Mongrel calls Berkeley Pit home for 16 years introduces us to the long term environmental catastrophe of open pit mining with an astounding honesty, permissible perhaps because in this story, it is a dreadlocked dog bearing the impact.

Incredible. Villages of people affected by these same phenomena, and only "The Auditor" gets special treatment.

Iraq in Fragments, James Longley's three year project, is a beautiful, poignant document that brings the viewer in for a close look at Iraq and it's people.

Coming soon to Calgary, Toronto, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Ottawa, the Peg, and more.

Reuters ran a story yesterday about how Rigoberta Menchu is considering running for president in the next elections in Guatemala, scheduled for September 9, 2007. According to a Prensa Latina article, Encuentro por Guatemala is interested in her candidacy and will be meeting with her next week to discuss the possibility.

Peter Cizek explains why: Scouring Scum and Tar from the Bottom of the Pit.

An indepth look at the "gigaprojects" rocking the North, and the web of NGOs tied up in corporate/ money who thus far have largely failed to respond to what Cizek calls an "environmental holocaust."

Back in BC just in time to welcome a pack of gold-silver-nickel-copper toting criminals in suits to the Vancouver for the Association for Mineral Exploration conference, known as Roundup 2007, which will take place from 29 Jan to 01 Feb at the Westin Bayshore.

The list of sponsors is a veritable who's who in the international mining world. I am working on a list with notes to leaflet with, for the moment, I'll pick just one: Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.

Quote of choice: "If we can force Ivanhoe out of Mongolia, that signifies that we are a democratic nation. If we can’t, we will become the next Burma" -S.Ganbaatar, Ulan Baator, 2006.