Conversations on race and climate change Case studies

CASE STUDY #1 by A. Doebeli

FENIX MINE IN EL ESTOR, ,

MAYA Q’EQCHI’ TERRITORIES ATLANTICATLANTIC OCEAN OCEAN

Root cause analysis and Defenders, 2017; Russell, 2017). positionality statement In 2011 the Fenix project was sold to the Solway Group The Fenix mine is an open-pit company after Hudbay became nickel mine situated in El Estor, embroiled in three lawsuits (Caal Guatemala, on the traditional v. Hudbay, Choc v. Hudbay, Chub territories of the Maya Q’eqchi’ v. Hudbay) for violence against peoples. The mine is among the Q’eqchi’ land defenders (Russell, oldest and the largest mines 2017). in the country, operating from 1960-1980, and since 2014. The Failing get consent or to mine has recently expanded acknowledge Q’eqchi’ land in 2018 to allow monthly claims, in 2006 the Guatemalan production to increase from government ordered community 1,000 to 1,500 tons of nickel members to leave their lands (Katowatie, Tatham & Field, without a court order, thereby 2017; Solway Group, 2018). The breaking International Fenix mine has undergone many Law (Kalowatie et al., 2017; Fenix Mine shifts in corporate ownership, Klippensteins, Barristers & LAGO DE IZABEL and from 2006-2011 was owned Solicitors, 2019). Met with by Canadian mining companies Indigenous resistance, the IZABEL LAKE Skye Resources and Hudbay Guatemalan government and Minerals and their subsidiary the mining companies mobilized Compañía Guatemalteca de paramilitary forces, security Níquel (Russell, 2017). During personnel and police officers to this time, these corporations enact violence against Q’eqchi’ tried to revive the mining project land and the community of El but were met with resistance Estor. Examples of violence from Q’eqchi’ land defenders faced by land defenders include generally concerned about the forced evictions, theft, arson, health of their people, lands, intimidation, aggravated assault crops, and water (Front Line (lawsuit: Chub v. Hudbay),

– 1 – – 2 – Conversations on race and climate change Case studies

sexual violence and gang rape of the extraction of fossil fuels are communities, especially Q’eqchi’ women (lawsuit: Caal v. also at play with metallurgical Indigenous, Black, people of Increase in mothers’ responsibilities Hudbay), and murder (lawsuit: colour, women, queer, trans and PTSD and mental Increase in mining. That is, fossil fuel and health problems for as caregivers and violence against Intimidation agricultural producers Choc v. Hudbay; Russell, 2017; mining extraction co-constitute two-spirit folks. land defenders sex workers and threats Amnesty International, 2017; and reify power relations and Rise in price of Front Line Defenders, 2017). material realities of neoliberal In general, I am complicit in electricity Arson Assault and Contamination of attempted murder land (decreased land These deplorable actions were racial capitalism, imperialism and privileged by overlapping productivity, subsistence Decrease in farming, food availability) enabled by paramilitarization and colonialism. Further, entanglements of racial social cohesion Increase in disease and birth deformities and law enforcement, and took mining contributes to climate capitalism, settler colonialism, Theft place in a general climate of imperialism, white supremacy Murder of land Increase in change through carbon dioxide defenders Social unrest and protests employment Increase in demand criminalization and incarceration emissions required to extract and cisheteropatriarchy that I

DAILY IMPACTS DAILY for men for nickel from renewable energy have identified as root causes Sexual violence and of land defenders enabled by minerals from the earth, and abuse by security and Increase in women’s of the violence associated paramilitary forces economic dependence Incarceration and colonial Guatemalan domestic through a reduction in carbon on men because mine criminalization of only employs men land defenders law that does not recognize sinks of vegetation due to with the Fenix mine. As a Investment by Q’eqchi’ title (Kalowatie et deforestation required to prepare first-generation settler and Hudbay (e.g. at Loss of clean water from UBC) as a move to Forced evictions toxic metals and sewage al., 2017). Colonial Canadian mining sites. uninvited guest on unceded,

innocence and displacement from workers (polluted

Lake Izabel)

law also facilitated these acts ancestral,Ѳ and traditional e e w e w of violence because Canadian I am interested in thinking about xməx m θ kʷ əyy‘d’ m̓ territories, I am courts do not yet hold Canadian mining in relation to envisioning complicit in ongoing violence Canadian Strategic lawsuits Hudbay Skye Resources Paramilitarization, companies accountable for their and approaching just, equitable of settler colonialism on these international and against public Compañía Guatemalteca militias, police, domestic law (and perception de Níquel security companies actions overseas or the actions lands. I identify as a white- climate of impunity) (SLAPP lawsuits) and anti-oppressive climate of their subsidiaries, though futures. Projected expansion in passing cis-gendered woman Canadian tax codes Corporate social UN Guiding the aforementioned lawsuits are of colour, which grants me and stock exchanges Investor responsibility policies Principles on Solway Group, renewable energy production, State Dispute enacted by Hudbay Business and INCO, EXMIBAL challenging this (Wipond, 2013; partial privileges in systems Settlements Human Rights (companies that have especially of solar panels, wind Canadian International operated the mine at Truth and Reconciliation Martens, 2016). The violence of white supremacy and Resource Development different times) Commission (doesn’t address turbines and energy storage Institute Lack of land title violence against Indigenous cisheteropatriarchy, particularly Free Trade for Q’eqchi’ and peoples in other nation-states) violates both the UN Declaration technologies, are heavily reliant Agreement Guatemalan domestic UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous because I identify with the STRUCTURES/INSTITUTIONS Canadian International between law and environmental on the Rights of on an acceleration of mining Development Agency and Guatemala review process Indigenous Peoples Peoples, and the UN Guiding to supply heightened demand gender I was assigned at birth, Principles on Business and of metals, particularly nickel, and due to my relatively light Human Rights, and ultimately lithium, indium and silver skin colour that also means I am White supremacy is rooted in oppressive systems (World Bank, 2017). Thus, not read as racialized in some of extractivism, colonialism and renewable energy production instances. Further, I am granted Globalization imperialism, white supremacy, depends on imperial and colonial privilege by colonial socio-legal Neoliberalism and cisheteropatriarchy, among violence of the mining sector. In and economic configurations ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS of and free trade others (Kalowatie et al., 2017; facilitating a just transition away in that I am financially stable Fenix Mine in El Estor, Guatemala, Ongoing effect of Russell, 2017. from fossil fuels, contending and have Canadian citizenship. Maya Q’eqchi’ territories genocicde and civil war with the colonial and imperial With regards to imperialism, Racial capitalism Colonial, imperial, and neoliberal violence of extractivism remains I navigate a contradictory From Perera’s “Ineqaulitree,” used here with (Neo)colonialism violence of extractivism of utmost importance to ensure subjectivity: as a Canadian appreciation. Leaves represent daily impacts permeate both historical and citizen, I benefit directly from

ROOT CAUSE IDEOLOGIES CAUSE ROOT that the climate futures we enact (Perera’s “everyday symptoms”), the trunk Human exceptionalism ongoing material realities of do not perpetuate ecological wealth generated through represents structure and institutions, and (Neo)imperialism roots represent root cause ideologies. climate change – the same ruination and simultaneous Canadian imperial and colonial Cisheteropatriarchy Extractivism oppressive logics that govern violence against marginalized projects, for example those

– 3 – – 4 – Conversations on race and climate change Case studies of extractivism. However, communities that coconstitute are Chub v. Hudbay, suing for the mandating reparations that 2017). But while reparations are , part of my lineage is rooted my being, and the lands and aggravated assault of German hopefully will cover all the essential to equitable climate revitalizing memory and in Venezuela, a country that, peoples in whose oppression I Chub who was shot and left legal fees and begin to atone for futures, they are often only initiating community healing while inflicting colonial violence am implicated. It is from this paralyzed, Caal v. Hudbay, suing histories of death-dealing as analyzed as one event and thus practices (Kalowatie et al., 2017; on Indigenous people, is also positionality that I hope to for gang rape of 11 women from well as ongoing violences against cannot overturn the structures Einbindern & Nolin, 2010). afflicted with legacies and continue my journey of learning the village of Lote 8, and Choc communities and against the of colonialism, imperialism present realities of Canadian and and unlearning, exploring v. Hudbay, suing for the murder land (Rodríguez, 2016). neoliberalism, white supremacy, Maya Q’eqchi’ resurgence US imperialism. North-South solidarities in of human rights defender cisheteropatriarchy, and others. provides a space for envisioning theory and in practice, and and father of five Adolfo Ich However, the drawbacks of and embodying alternative Ultimately, my positionality aspiring to practice and embody (Amnesty International, 2017; seeking justice through colonial In order to begin to overturn futures that focus on relationality with respect to racial capitalism, just climate futures that turn Russell, 2017). The lawsuits court systems include a potential these systems of oppression, to build relationships of settler colonialism, white away from extractive violence. were initiated in 2010, and in strengthening of legitimacy of the Maya Q’eqchi’ community is reciprocity and consent rather supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy 2013, the courts ruled Canadian colonial socio-legal also calling for their title to be than extraction. They invite and imperialism means I that the cases could go to trial. practices, as well as probable recognized, and for the eviction a connection to the non- am complicit in ongoing Climate presents and futures This was legally precedent- re-traumatization of the 16 of extractivism from their land human world that destabilizes dispossession and displacement, setting and was the first time Maya Q’eqchi’ women testifying so that they can continue to colonial conceptions of human particularly of Indigenous, As previously alluded to, that a Canadian corporation against Hudbay Minerals. live off the land as they have exceptionalism (Rodríguez, Black, people of colour, women, climate presents that call for was being sued for the actions As well, reparations cannot done for thousands of years 2016), and disrupt colonial queer, trans and two-spirit the expansion of renewable of its subsidiaries overseas, begin to cover the loss of life, (Rodríguez, 2016). This would and imperial configurations of folks, and also with respect energy typically result in representing a significant step family, relations, livelihoods, and also result in the protection of relationships. This is a call for to the Fenix mine, of Maya the intensification of mining for corporate accountability customs that Hudbay and other Lake Izabal, Guatemala’s largest the reconfiguration of relations Q’eqchi’ land defenders. This violence in order to extract lawsuits (Russell, 2017). The actors have instigated (Barkaskas lake, and the human and non- to non-humans, and to minerals complicity is compounded by minerals required for building court cases are still ongoing in & Hunt, 2017). human communities that rely on and metals that reshape the my positionality as a student new energy infrastructures Canada, though in Guatemala, the lake (Rodríguez, 2016). economy to be circular and focus at UBC, an institution that (World Bank, 2017). Ultimately, the security personnel Instead, reparations can provide on balance and regeneration simultaneously grants me social this represents a perpetuation responsible for the crimes were a remedy and possibilities Further, more than solely an rather than continual expansion capital associated with ‘formal’ of the systems of oppression found innocent, and the land of healing and regrowth, if instance of resistance through and extraction. education while perpetuating at the root causes of climate defenders have instead been they are conceptualized with colonial socio-legal principles, and upholding systems of change and a reinforcement of criminalized (Russell, 2017; consultation and consent from the Maya Q’eqchi’ community In general, Indigenous oppression, for example by current patterns of exploitative Front Line Defenders, 2017). the communities involved has embodied practices of resurgence invites a solidarity investing in and receiving relationships towards those (Barkaskas & Hunt, 2017). Indigenous resurgence that that respatializes relationships donations from corporations devalued and deemed ‘other’ These court cases have enormous Allocating just reparations provide pathways towards to be grounded in land and associated with the Fenix mine by a cisheteropatriarchal white potential for holding Canadian requires re-contextualizing and equitable climate futures rife place rather than in relation (Martens, 2016). My subjectivity supremacist society. corporations accountable for naming the violence surrounding with decolonial possibilities. to the illegitimate colonial shapes material realities, both of enacting imperial violences, and the Fenix mine as imperial The community has recentred state (Walia, 2012). Ultimately, oppression and of resistance. The imperial, colonial and could motivate the creation of and colonial violence, while on practices of Indigenous these solidarities provide extractive paradigms that too legislation that places limits to, recognizing this violence as strength and tradition as a pathways towards futures built My positionality informs often govern human – nonhuman or optimistically ends Canadian ongoing, rather than historical, form of healing, (Rodríguez, on land repatriation and self- what I conceptualize as my relationships are currently being imperialism and extractivism and actively and truthfully 2016). They have also connected determination, and on enacting

responsibilities to the land on challenged in three precedent- while attending to past listening to what the El Estor across generations to link situated place-based relationships

which IѲ am situated, the displacement and dispossession. Maya Q’eqchi’ community mining violence to the genocidal of consent, accountability, e e e setting ongoing court cases w w x m k y‘d’ m nation, the human being heard at the Supreme The court cases could also experienced, and currently wants massacres that the Maya reciprocity, respect, allyship, and non-human Court of Canada. These cases provide mechanisms for and needs (Barkaskas & Hunt, community faced during the trust, solidarity and love.

– 5 – – 6 – Conversations on race and climate change Case studies

Works cited TIMELINE of Fenix Mine in El Estor, 2008-2011 2011 1960-1996 Hudbay Inc. purchased Skye The Swiss company Amnesty International. (2017). Angelica Choc V Hudbay Guatemala, Maya Q’eqchi’ territories Guatemalan Civil War occurs. By the end Resources, whose name changed Solway Group Minerals. Retrieved January 28, 2019. of the civil war, it is estimated that around to HMI Minerals. Hudbay Inc. purchased the Fenix Events related to climate, race, and 200,000 people are dead or disappeared, and Compañía Guatemalteca de Mine from Hudbay, Barkaskas, P. & S. Hunt. (2017). Institute for the the Fenix mine; inspired by the around 80% of which were Mayan, leading Níquel (CGN, Guatemalan Hudbay and is currently Humanities. Truth before reconciliation: Reframing/ the civil war to be likened to genocide subsidiary) illegally entered the operating the mine resisting/refusing Reconciliation. opening activity of Conversations. (Klippensteins et al., 2019). The vast majority Maya Q’eqchi’ community of La after it reopened in of the violences of the civil war were Union, in the municipality of El 2014 (Klippensteins et Chewinski, M. (2016). Mining as Canadian Nation- perpetuated by the Guatemalan government. Estor in an attempt to forcibly al., 2019). Building: Contentious citizenship regimes on the move. Pre-colonialism Maya Q’eqchi’ people still face the evict peaceful community members Canadian Journal of Sociology 41(3): 349-373. without a court order (Front Line Maya Q’eqchi’ people lived consequences of intergenerational violence Defenders, 2017). On September in what is now Northeast (Kalowatie et al., 2017). Einbindern N & C. Nolin (2010). Voices from the Edge: 1954 27 2009, under the command of 2010-?: A Mayan community shares stories of its struggle to Guatemala, in relatively Maya Q’eqchi’ In response to Árbenz’s Mynor Padilla, the head of security avoid forced eviction by a nick mine. Cultural Survival independent chiefdoms that community members policies and in order to protect and former lieutenant colonel Quarterly 34(3): 28-33. maintained relationships with bring 3 lawsuits the profits of the UFC, the 1963-1968 in the Guatemalan army during each other, with deities, and with against Hubday CIA ousted Árbenz and trained Canadian company Inco and its subsidiary the 1981 military regime, the Front Line Defenders. (2017). Defending the foreign networks that spanned in 2010. In 2013, General Carlos Castillo Armas EXMIBAL were granted a 40-year mining security guards shot at community Environment, Defending Life. Medium. Retrieved January across present-day Central the Ontario courts as his replacement (Kahn, concession to 385 km2, starting the members, paralyzing German 28, 2019. America, and potentially beyond ruled that the three 2006). The UFC received all construction and operation of the Fenix Chub and making him lose the use (Kahn, 2006). lawsuits could go its land back using ‘aid’ from nickel mine (Klippensteins et al., 2019). Inco of a lung (Russell, 2017; Front Kahn, H. E. (2006). Seeing and being seen: The Q’eqchi’ forward in Canadian the US, displacing Indigenous and EXMIBAL wanted the Fenix mine to be Line Defenders, 2017). The guards Maya of Livingston, Guatemala, and Beyond. University courts. These are people once more. an open-pit mine, which was prohibited in the also shot and killed Adolfo Ich, of Texas Press 1520s-1540s Guatemalan constitution. Inco successfully Chub v. Hudbay (for First contact from Pedro de a community leader and teacher, lobbied for the military government to aggrataved assault of Alvarado on ‘behalf ’ of Spain. in front of his family (Russell, Kalowatie, D., R. Tatham & B. Field (2017). Indigenous suspend the constitution and helped them to German Chub), Caal v. The Spanish tried to conquer the 2017). Padilla continued to act as women’s anti-mining activism: a gendered analysis of the 1950 write new mining and tax codes beneficial Hudbay (for gang rape Maya Q’eqchi’ people, but were head of security for a year after El Estor struggle in Guatemala. Gender & Development, Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was to the mining sector that legalized open-pit of 11 Maya Q’eqchi’ largely unable to do so until the this incident (Russell, 2017). He is 25(3): 405-419. elected President. He directly mining (Klippensteins et al., 2019). currently facing criminal charges in women), and Choc v. 1540s, when priests entered the Hudbay (for murder challenged the hegemony of Guatemalan court, but previously Klippensteins, Barristers & Solicitors. (2019). Canadian region to convert Maya people of Adolfo Ich; Russell, foreign interests in Guatemala court rulings have found him Mining in El Estor. Choc v. HudBay Minerals Inc. & Caal to Christianity (Kahn, 2006). by building government 2017). This decision Following this, Maya Q’eqchi’ innocent (Russell, 2017). v. HudBay Minerals Inc. infrastructure such as roads 1970-1980 by the Ontario court people were forcibly displaced, and ports, and by passing is precedent setting, The Fenix mine was met with large Martens, S. (2016). Interview with Yves Engler: A faced many diseases, and until Agrarian reform law. He representing the first community mobilization in opposition. Inco Propaganda System: How Canada’s government, the 1800s, were enslaved in abolished slavery and forced 2004-2008 time that a Canadian and EXMIBAL get help from the military corporations, media and academia sell war and plantations (Kahn, 2006). labour, and redistributed Another Canadian company, Skye corporation is being government in evicting people and achieving exploitation. The Talon. Retrieved January 28, 2019. 20% of agricultural land, for Resources, purchased the Fenix sued for the actions ‘stability’ for mine operations. This resulted example by reclaiming land mine property without consent of its subsidiaries in the murder of around 3,000 people Rodríguez, J. (Director). (2016). Choc vs Hudbay [Video 1839 from the UFC (Kahn, 2006). from Maya Q’eqchi’ people, a overseas. Though the over a period of 10 years in the El Estor file] Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/191327705 Land titles began to be granted move that the UN condemned. cases are still ongoing, region, many of whom opposed the mine for land that wasn’t agricultural. Police, military, and security forces this is a significant construction (Klippensteins et al., 2019). Russell, G. (2017). Is Justice Possible in Canada However, communities were evicted community members and step for corporate or Guatemala for Hudbay Minerals/CGN Mining forced to rent their land to burned their houses, and in 2007, accountability 1930s Repression? Upside Down World. agriculturalists, largely for coffee Labour laws supported the 11 Maya Q’eqchi’ women in the lawsuits, and has production, which eventually UFC and other (mostly Lote 8 village were gang raped opened the door for gave the land to private 1978 (Klippensteins et al., 2019). Simons, M. (2007). Guatemala: Peasant Massacre. North imperial) agriculturalists by Panzós massacre occurred on May 29 as a many other cases for agriculturalist owners (Kahn, American Congress on Latin America. criminalizing unemployment direct result of land rights struggles. As a corporate Canadian imperialism to be held and landlessness. The process response to the kidnapping of community Solway Group. (2018, December 03). Fenix Project. to account (Russell, of dispossessing communities leaders that resisted evictions, around 700 1982 Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://solwaygroup. 1880s-1900s 2017). The trials are of land culminated in 2% of Maya Q’eqchi’ people marched to Panzós to Fenix mine closed due to the com/our-business/fenix-project-guatemala/ United Fruit Company (UFC) landowners owning 72% of demand their land title be respected (Simons, Guatemalan government currently ongoing, came to Guatemala to transport particularly because arable lan (Kahn, 2006). 2007). They were met with around 150 demanding a 5% royalty from Walia, H. (2012, January 1). Decolonizing Together. bananas to Europe and North Hudbay has been soldiers of the Guatemalan Army who shot Inco (Klippensteins et al., 2019). Briarpatch Magazine. America. UFC built a railroad unarmed defenders, murdering at least 140 This resulted in the sudden loss slow at responding from and and providing and injuring at least 300 people. Many of of jobs for many people, inducing Wipond, R. (2013). Canadian mining races to the bottom. , completed in evidence (Russell, the injured people also died due to lack of migration out of El Estor. Focus. 1908 (Kahn, 2006). medical attention (Simons, 2007). Inco retained access to the land 2017; Amnesty International, 2017). (Klippensteins et al., 2019). World Bank. (2017). The Growing Role of Minerals and Metals for a Low Carbon Future (Rep.). Washington D.C.

– 7 – – 8 –