Development Or Devastation?: Epistemologies of Mayan Women's

DEVELOPMENT OR DEVASTATION?

Epistemologies of Mayan women’s resistance to an open-pit goldmine in Guatemala

Morna Macleod*

Abstract

The Canadian corporation Goldcorp’s Marlin Mine in San Miguel Ixtahuacán is the ﬁ rst open-pit goldmine in Guatemala. While Goldcorp depicts Marlin as a showcase for development and good business, many Mayan women express extreme distress at the multilayered destruction caused by the corporation. Under the guidance of the indigenous women’s movement Tz’ununija’, in May–June 2011 and July 2012, I held in- depth interviews with ﬁ ve Maya- Mam leaders and two workshops in San Miguel with more than 30 women opposing the mine. Analysing their visions and Goldcorp’s public development discourse, I argue that the mine is decimating San Miguel’s social fabric and environment. Although Goldcorp has created employment, infrastructure and injected money into the local economy, gains are short term in comparison with the long-term impacts of the mining venture on land and community. At heart, two fundamentally opposed visions are at stake: Western “development” versus tb’anil qchwinqlal, or quality of life.

Keywords

Mayan women, goldmining, development, indigenous worldviews, Guatemala

* Lecturer and researcher, Postgraduate Programme, Social Science, Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEM), Cuautla, Morelos, Mexico. Email: [email protected] DOI: 10.20507/AlterNative.2016.12.1.7

Introduction by the extractive industries based on profi t and Mayan women opponents who celebrate life. What has the mine brought us? Complete I decided to study Mayan women’s resistance disruption. to the Marlin Mine after long discussions with This wasn’t the case before, we lived peacefully. my close Mam friends, an extended family who fl ed San Miguel during the armed confl ict but Of course, there was poverty. Material return frequently, bringing back updated news poverty, about the devastating effects the mine is having But there wasn’t poverty in terms of land, on environment and community. Accompanying trees, water . . . Tz’ununija’ (a national Mayan women’s movement I had worked with before), I participated (Luz, a Maya-Mam woman in her fi fties, inter- in their activities with women resisting the view, June 2012) mine in San Miguel. They helped me to identify key activists in Ágel (where eight women had Open- pit gold mining has become a conten- arrest warrants issued against them) and in the tious issue across the globe, creating vast profi ts Catholic parish. After explaining the purpose for corporations and causing environmental, of my research and gaining their consent, I social and cultural destruction at the local level. held in- depth interviews with fi ve of the local Emblematic of today’s neoliberal capitalism Maya- Mam women leaders in May–June 2011 and extractive industries, the Marlin Mine has and July 2012, organized a day-long work- received substantial attention from scholars, shop together with the Catholic parish Sister development practitioners and social activists Mariana with the parish women’s group (about in relation to the complex issues surrounding 25 women) and a workshop with the group the open-pit goldmine and its environmental, Women Fighting for a New Dawn (founded by social and health impacts. This article explores the women with arrest warrants issued against the ways indigenous women who oppose the them). I continued to have in- depth conversa- mine understand its damage and impact. tions with my Miguelense friends no longer First, I briefl y set out some assumptions and living in San Miguel, recording one woman in criticisms about “development” as economic particular various times over three years. I co- growth and progress. Indigenous intellectuals authored a life history with a leader who had in Latin America in recent years have written two arrest warrants issued against her (Macleod extensively about what constitutes the “quality & Pérez Bámaca, 2013), and organized a week- of life” (buen vivir in Spanish or tb’anil qch- long tour with her in Mexico to disseminate winqlal in Mam). I contrast these with Western information about the book and the impact understandings of development and briefly the goldmine is having on San Miguel. I have contextualize the issue of mining in indigenous maintained close contact with three Maya- communities. I describe San Miguel Ixtahuacán Mam women in this article. My participation as well as the arrival of the mining corporation in an ethical health tribunal (http://health and opposition to the mine, and explore some tribunal.org/) in July 2012 allowed me to scru- Mayan women’s understandings of the impact tinize testimonies from local men and women the mine is having on land and community. and contribute to condemning Goldcorp mining Then I analyse Goldcorp’s discourse on devel- operations and their effects on the commu- opment and mining operations in indigenous nity in Guerrero in Mexico, Valle de Siria in peoples’ communities. I end the article by high- Honduras and San Miguel and neighbouring lighting the incommensurability between the Sipacapa in Guatemala. different development paradigms put forward

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Development in the new millennium of development and are advancing ideas of and mining buen vivir. Starting in Ecuador and Bolivia, ideas of sumak kawsay (quality or plenitude In recent decades, there has been growing criti- of life in the Kichwa indigenous language) and cism of the dominant concept of development suma qamaña (quality or plenitude of life in the understood as modernization, progress and Aymara indigenous language) respectively have economic growth that gained traction in the travelled through the continent. Other indig- mid- twentieth century, in particular, as Shanin enous peoples’ movements and intellectuals (2003) puts it, the arrogant—and misleading— share and add to these theorizations, creating view promoted in Western Europe and North a pan-indigenous corpus of ideas that counter America that “all societies are advancing natu- modern premises of development, advancing rally and consistently ‘up’, on a route from a paradigm shift. Shared principles and values poverty, barbarism, despotism and ignorance include reciprocity, service to the community, to riches, civilization, democracy and rational- the interconnected relationship between nature ity, the highest expression of which is science” and human beings, respect, and respect for (p. 65). the spoken word, amongst others (Hidalgo Although this linear idea of progress and Capitán, Guillén García, & Deleg Guazha, development was partially questioned in the 2014; Salazar Tetzagüic & Telón Sajcabún, 1960s by dependency theorists (Cardoso & 2001). Faletto, 1979) who argued that third world The process of documenting the notion of countries were actively being “undeveloped” buen vivir involves recuperating and theoriz- by the fi rst world, through their gleaning of ing indigenous epistemologies, and resignifying resources and cheap labour force, the domi- concepts and values to adapt to present realities. nant notion has remained remarkably robust. It also means digging for meanings embedded This anti-capitalist criticism was limited to the in indigenous languages (López Intzín, 2013) skewed distribution of wealth and exploitation and fl eshing out these understandings. Maya- of labour, and did not question the premises of Tseltal López Intzín (2013) records the words modernity. This was to come later, through the of a Tseltal woman: linking of modernity to colonialism and patriarchy. Nandy (2003) thus comprehensively I don’t know what’s happening with me, I criticizes don’t know what I’m doing, but my loom doesn’t want to walk (move forward). Maybe a world-view which believes in the absolute it hears that my heart isn’t feeling even a tiny superiority of the human over the non- human bit of the abundant bounty of the universe- and the sub-human, the masculine over the earth, I am not living well, my life is unwell, I feminine, the adult over the child, the histori- don’t feel plenitude or goodness. (p. 84) cal over the ahistorical, and the modern or progressive over the traditional or the savage. The Maya- Tseltal woman has lost her harmoni- (p. 169) ous connection to the universe; as a result, her weaving ceases to fl ow. Others have been less inclusive, questioning Open- pit goldmining epitomizes the criticism patriarchy but not modernity, or colonialism of modernist development by indigenous— and dominating nature but not patriarchy. and other—organizations in Latin America. In Latin America, indigenous intellectu- In Ecuador, the president of the Kichwa indig- als and movements in this new millennium enous organization Ecuador Runakunapak have increasingly questioned Western ideas Rikcharimuy (Confederation of Peoples of

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Kichwa Nationality, ECUARUNARI) succinctly registered in husbands’ names, is often sold to states that with “open-pit mining, mountains the mine without women’s consent. are destroyed . . . destabilising peoples, nation- Despite adversity, Jenkins and Rondón alities; this does not constitute happiness” (2015) and Caxaj, Berman, Restoule, & Varcoe (Cholango, 2010, p. 242). While indigenous (2014) highlight indigenous women’s (and communities in Australia and Canada have men’s) resistance to mining ventures. The for- more leverage to negotiate with transna- mer unpack the concept of “resilience”, while tional corporations (O’Faircheallaigh, 2013), the latter address shared cultural identity, spir- “mining companies operating in developing itual knowing and being, defence of individual countries still largely operate with effective and collective rights and the capacity of “speak- impunity” (Coumans, 2011, p. 530). However, ing truth to power” (Caxaj, Berman, Restoule, some companies are being challenged, particu- & Varcoe, 2014, p. 827). However, larly through international instruments, such as the United Nations International Labour it was these same strengths that were pro- Organisation Convention No. 169 (UN ILO foundly threatened by the presence of the C169) and the United Nations Declaration mining company. Thus, community resist- on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Mining ance presented a wellness paradox; as key affects indigenous communities in particular community health promoting mechanisms, ways, given the importance of territory for the erosion of these same strengths by local min- survival of indigenous peoples: “The violation ing operations revealed sites of “entry,” or of the rights to lands, territories and resources vulnerability. (Caxaj, Berman, Restoule, & is also a violation of the rights to develop- Varcoe, 2014, p. 832) ment and to culture. The culture of indigenous peoples cannot be understood outside of their Both texts point to the capacity of indigenous physical environment, resources and traditional women (and men) to exercise agency in contexts livelihoods” (Tauli- Corpuz, Enkiwe- Abayao, of powerful mining corporations, overcoming & de Chavez., 2010, p. 54). Caxaj, Berman, framing indigenous peoples as simple victims. Restoule and Varcoe (2014) highlight how However, the authors recognize that they are local indigenous men and women who oppose also vulnerable, making the case that resilience open- pit mining are construed as “‘backwards’ and strengths are accompanied by vulnerability. and anti- development” (p. 827). Mining is a highly gendered industry with greater negative impacts for women than for San Miguel Ixtahuacán and the Marlin men (Lahiri-Dutt, 2012; Parmenter, 2011); Mine however, Parmenter (2011) recommends that the resources industry adopt an intersectional Nestled amongst hills and pine trees, San Miguel analysis that “does not consider gender alone, Ixtahuacán is in San Marcos in the northWest- but includes other intersecting identities and ern highlands of Guatemala, near the Mexican factors such as race, class and the local socio- border. About 98% of San Miguel’s nearly political and cultural context of the women 40,000 inhabitants are Maya- Mam, and the affected” (p. 82). Mining brings cashﬂ ows and majority live in rural areas. Most also speak the recruitment of men from other regions, Spanish, but some only speak Mam. According often giving rise to binge drinking, domestic to the state planning secretariat, 86.39%of the violence, precarious sex work and sexually population are materially poor and 32.84% transmitted diseases (Caxaj, Berman, Varcoe, live in extreme poverty (SEGEPLAN, 2010). Ray, & Restoule, 2014). Land, traditionally To supplement subsistence farming—maize,

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beans, potatoes, vegetables, wheat, coffee and Over the following years, the open-pit gold- barley—men and women seasonally migrate mine has had many impacts on San Miguel to the large coffee plantations on the southern Ixtahuacán and its inhabitants. Caxaj, Berman, coast and to Chiapas in Mexico. Women also Varcoe et al. (2014) highlight numerous physi- work periodically as domestics in the cities. In cal, spiritual and emotional manifestations of recent years, many Miguelense have undertaken “embodied expressions of distress”, as well as the perilous journey through Mexico to migrate community disintegration or “social unravel- to the United States. ling” (p. 54). A thorough study of the impacts Guatemala’s internal armed confl ict (1960– of the mine on the community and environment 1996) reached San Miguel in the early 1980s. The led Zarsky and Stanley (2011) to conclude that army tortured, killed and disappeared suspected “local benefi ts are a tiny fraction of total mine guerrilla sympathizers and community leaders revenues and earnings, the bulk of which fl ow (Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico, overseas to the company and its shareholders” 1999), leaving a sense of fear and mistrust. (p. 4). Although there may be substantial indi- During this period, Mayan spiritual practices rect benefi ts for Guatemala, “both direct and decreased while the presence of fi rst Catholic indirect economic benefi ts will cease abruptly Action and then evangelism rose. However, San when the mine closes because jobs, taxes and Miguel retained tight-knit community practices, royalties will evaporate and because there is with everyone participating in local festivities. It little evidence that mine revenues have been was unthinkable to walk down the street with- invested in building sustainable industries” out greeting every passing person—this was to (p. 4). Moreover, local communities bear all change with the advent of the mine. environmental risks. These are exceptionally Glamis Gold—later bought out by Goldcorp high and likely to increase over the remaining —arrived surreptitiously in San Miguel at the life of the mine and into the post-closure phase. end of the 1990s. No process took place of Gold mining poses generic hazards related to prior consultation in good faith required by cyanide and heavy metal contamination of the UN ILO C169 Article 6(2), ratifi ed by the water from acid mine drainage. Guatemalan government in 1996. The local subsidiary, Montana, organized some public events that they regard as consultations Mayan women resist Goldcorp (Montana Exploradora de Guatemala S.A., 2004, pp. 65–66), “but in none of these meet- Opposition to the mine began to mushroom, ings did the company ask us if we agreed [to at first around specific issues, including the the mine]” (Mariana, a Maya-Mam Catholic inconformity of some villagers having sold their sister in her late thirties, interview, July 2012). lands so cheaply, and a growing number of By 2005, the Marlin Mine had started opera- cracked houses near the mine. Villagers blamed tions. In neighbouring Sipacapa, where 15% of the mining company’s heavy trucks and use the mine would be located, local leaders organ- of dynamite, but Goldcorp and its subsidiary ized a community consultation. Sipacapenses Montana dismissed these accusations. Women overwhelmingly voted “no” to the mine (Sieder, often spearheaded resistance to the mine in San 2007); this did not impede the mining company Miguel: blocking roads while armed with hot from initiating operations. In San Miguel, peo- water, pellets made from chilli and sometimes ple were confused and divided about the mine. machetes. The successful community consulta- Some saw it as an opportunity for much needed tion in Sipacapa brought on an escalation of jobs, while others held the mining project in repression, including the arrest of protestors, deep distrust. two forced disappearances and the decapitation

ALTERNATIVE VOLUME 12, ISSUE 1, ARTICLE 7, 2016 DEVELOPMENT OR DEVASTATION? 91 of a local activist (Sibrián & van der Borgh, The open-pit goldmine as calamity 2014, p. 78). Doña Cristina, a Maya- Mam woman in her early forties, had given permis- Mayan women who oppose the mine are partic- sion to one of the companies working for the ularly concerned about the loss of land, and the Canadian mining corporation to pass electric health and wellbeing of their children, grand- cables across her land, and was made to sign children and future generations. Pollution and a blank piece of paper. Her dismay was great scarcity of water also worries them; animals are when the company placed a large electricity dying and the avocado and fruit trees are drying post next to her house: this presented a secu- up, even in communities not in the immediate rity risk for her children and was not what vicinity of the mine. New illnesses are appear- they had agreed. After fruitlessly taking the ing, particularly skin diseases and rashes in case to Montana and related companies, in children. Women complain of tristeza (sadness) June 2008 Doña Cristina, together with seven and susto (shock): other women in their village, Ágel, pulled up the “anchors”, causing a power cut, and then Our sadness arises from all the water they did not allow the company to reconnect the use to wash [the minerals]. We see all that electricity ﬂ ow. As a result, they received arrest water . . . Where is it going? It’s polluting warrants (Macleod & Pérez Bámaca, 2013). water sources, it’s affecting families and ani- Over the following four years, the wom- mals . . . as we all depend on water. This en’s movements were severely curtailed; Doña is something we need to ask: what´s hap- Cristina had to go into hiding for several pening here? The people who are doing this, months, but came back home to give birth. are they feeling? [conscious of what they’re She was subsequently arrested; her brother, an doing]? Or are they simply interested in sim- employee at the mine, handed her over to the ply extracting the gold, with no concern for police. However, members of the mine resist- what happens? This sadness is great, and it ance movement stopped the police pick-up will be difﬁ cult to get over. It’s very deep, truck and enabled her release. Finally, in May damaging your inner being; damaging families 2012, the arrest warrants were lifted, through and their sentiments. The elders are very sad legal support accessed by Tz’ununija’. about what’s going on; nothing like this has Another locus of resistance grew through ever happened here before. (Luz, interview, the work of Maya- Mam Sister Mariana, and June 2012) her work with the women’s pastoral in the parish. Sister Mariana was the first coordi- The sadness Luz described illustrates the inter- nator of the Frente de Migüelense contra la connectedness between people and nature. Minería (Miguelense Front against Mining, What affects nature also affects the community, FREDEMI), formed in 2009. FREDEMI has physically and spiritually. Luz also spoke with close ties to Canadian non-governmental organ- alarm about how people are losing the value of izations (NGOs) and social movements, and q’ixkojalel (the capacity to feel what the other represents 18 communities in a strategic litiga- feels) or what we might call empathy; people’s tion case at the Inter-American Human Rights hearts are growing cold. Commission (IAHRC) (Yagenova, 2012). The The women are also pained by the way the mine and its impact on the environment and mine is ripping apart families and the social on the Miguelense social fabric deeply trouble fabric of community life, and lamenting the way many Mayan women, though not all are organ- the mine has divided them. Not being listened ized, and the mine has been sorely divisive of to—not being taken seriously—is offensive to community. the women. Fear has also gripped a large part

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of San Miguel, especially as people standing up thank you. (Doña Micaela, elderly woman, for their rights are treated as criminals. Doña Workshop, May 2011) Cristina said, “I have an arrest warrant. Well, I am not ashamed of this as I haven’t stolen, This testimony reveals the deep suffering the I haven’t taken anything away from the com- mine has caused in many Miguelense wom- pany. What I’m doing is fi ghting for justice. Our en’s lives. It gives an insight into the way grievances are fair, I’m defending a just cause” Maya- Mam women understand territory and (interview, May 2011). During a workshop patrimony, handed down from one generation we carried out with the women’s pastoral, an to the next—the linking of past, present and elderly woman spoke in Mam, illuminating future. The ancestors were wise and made pro- local aesthetics. Her language was ceremo- visions for future generations by leaving them nial and richly rhetorical as she addressed the land. Selling off lands for money is shameful; women in the meeting: it shows no responsibility to future generations. The community is divided between those That is why, sisters, there will be more pov- in favour of and those against the mine, and erty, more misery will surround us, there will this lack of harmony is being handed down be more thirst, the trees will dry up, and water to future generations. Returning to the Maya- sources will dry up. And who will we leave to Tseltal woman’s refl ection about her loom, in suffer? Whom will we leave in slavery? Our these circumstances, harmonious connection to children. What shame! We have given birth to the universe is shattered. Repeatedly, women and raised our children. What example are we expressed extreme grief and shame about leav- giving our grandchildren? It is such a disgrace ing nothing for future generations. A woman that we are leaving our families to perdition, who visited the closed down Goldcorp San leaving them to slavery. This is such a source Martin mine in Honduras continued: of grief and sadness . . . That is why we as women are rising up, we’re clarifying our What’s happening here happened in Honduras, vision, we´re awakening. We talk about this where the mine also arrived; four of us went situation; we refl ect on how our children will to learn from the experience. It fi lls me with grow up. We need to give this great thought; sorrow. I was so sad coming back thinking: we need to clarify our vision. We should leave How can I interpret all that is happening? the corporation naked, the way they are leav- How can I really understand? When will we ing us naked, without trees, without water, women rise up? This is most important to us without vegetation. Our children will remain as women; we value the land, as bringing up in poverty. What inheritance shall we leave our children falls to us. What will we be able them? Our ancestors, our parents left us a to give our children and our grandchildren marvellous memory and a legacy: the land. after them? What will they drink? Where will They left land to us as they passed through this they live? Where will they get their fi rewood? world. They thought wisely, they knew how to In Honduras, I saw that there is no longer interpret the future of their children and their water or vegetation, nothing. They say they grandchildren. But now, what will we leave as don´t have food . . . there is so much poverty. a memory to our family? We will leave them in (Doña Martina, elderly woman, Workshop, slavery and poverty. What should we do now May 2011) knowing God’s word? There is division in our community and in our church. That is why, These refl ections translated from Mam illus- sisters, we need to place this in our hearts, we trate an immense feeling of doom, of trying need to learn from this. These are my words, to come to grips with something so great,

ALTERNATIVE VOLUME 12, ISSUE 1, ARTICLE 7, 2016 DEVELOPMENT OR DEVASTATION? 93 so overwhelming, so difﬁ cult to fathom and indignantly, “What happens to the birds that with its consequences on future generations. drink from the lake? They turn up dead on the In conversation with some of the Maya- Mam shores, as the lake is polluted . . . Who will speak women, I brought up the Native American up for the animals that die? We are witnessing and Canadian First Peoples’ concept “Our that nature, and that the birds are dying. Who Responsibility to the Seventh Generation”. In is going to speak up for those animals? Who is my own words, I relayed the notion of “the going to protect them?” (Interview, December sacred responsibility of Indigenous people to be 2010). Responsibility is not limited to other the caretaker of all that is on Mother Earth and human beings; we are also responsible to nature. therefore that each generation is responsible Finally, Sister Mariana summed up the key to ensure the survival for the seventh genera- differences she sees between the concepts of tion” (Clarkson, Morrissette, & Regallet, 1992, “development” promoted by the goldmine and p. 7). The notion immediately resonated with the way Mayan peoples understand tb’anil the women, and it was mentioned repeatedly qchwinqlal: during the interviews. I also tried to get a sense of moments of What is development? For the mining company tb’anil qchwinqlal. Doña Cristina talked about it is “economic development”, infrastructure. her childhood: I see how cold this is; when I visit [richer] families, they live in such huge houses, there’s When I was little we had animals . . . when I no sense of warmth, of family. In contrast, for was six I’d take them to graze with my mother; us “development” is when there’s friendship, when I was bigger I’d go with my brothers. sharing, good food and health, education, It was lovely; we would go out to herd the all these aspects of life. They build schools, animals and the air was pure. It was delight- infrastructure, but what is the point of a fancy ful, getting together with cousins and friends school if the contents of the education are to play. We were out herding until dusk, then poor? That’s not integral development for we’d return home, happy and without a care. the children. On the contrary, it’s a kind of Now when I see them exploiting and extract- development that the system imposes which ing the gold, I start to cry, it hurts me so much. helps to blind us, to kill us off little by little as The company has destroyed the forest, there indigenous people. Our spirituality, our values is no longer anywhere [for the animals] to are at risk. Our life as a people is in danger. graze, only the din of the company’s machines. Instead of life, they’re slowly killing us off. (Interview, May 2011) This is what the transnational corporations and neoliberalism offers us with “develop- The sense of impotence, frustration and dis- ment”. Mam people don’t have that kind of possession invades Doña Cristina, though her development at heart. For us it’s about life, will to resist continues. She, as do many other harmony, complementarity, our relation to women in San Miguel, hark back to a time when, God, balance and everything that contributes although life was hard and poverty prompted to life. (Interview, May 2011) seasonal coffee harvest migration, there was more harmony and peace in the communities. Far from material consumerism and individual The women’s close relationship with nature— advancement, this vision is relational, collective with all living beings—is evident in many of and life centred. Now let us turn our vision to the interviews. Their grief and concern is not the way Goldcorp envisions its contribution solely for themselves and their families, but also to the wellbeing of the local population of San for others who cannot speak out. Luz stated Miguel Ixtahuacán.

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Goldcorp’s corporate social environmental technicians measure ambient responsibility air quality, noise levels, forest cover, ground resource quality, water quality and terrestrial Goldcorp has the difficult task of juggling, biology, adding that water tests carried out by on the one hand, the attraction for its inves- the Association of Community Environment tors of making large profi ts and, on the other, Monitors “and government ministries have fulfi lling good practice principles in the com- shown no negative impacts due to mining” munities where it works. I argue that it does so (Goldcorp, 2011b, p. 17). This claim seems discursively. After hearing the bitter complaints extraordinary given the mine’s vast consump- made by local inhabitants, statements such as tion of water, use of lethal chemicals to extract the following seem ironic: “We acknowledge gold and the inevitable leaching of sulphuric the traditional cultures and knowledge that acid into groundwater (Slack, 2012), and it has exist in Indigenous communities, and we seek been contested by independent expert reports to consult and partner with these communi- (Comisión Pastoral Paz y Ecología [COPAE], ties to improve economic, environmental and 2008–2011). social opportunities” (Goldcorp, 2010b) and Discursively, Goldcorp says the “right “Transparency, trust and accountability. These things” and it has adopted voluntary principles are the guiding principles of Goldcorp’s social on sustainable development on security and policy that underlines our commitment to the human rights at the Marlin Mine. The latter communities where we work, our employees, were created in 2011 after the IAHRC issued the environment and the protection of basic precautionary measures requesting that min- human rights” (Goldcorp, 2014). ing operations be suspended until the effects Goldcorp makes vast profi ts from the Marlin of the mine on local indigenous communi- Mine. According to the Observatory of Mining ties were properly assessed. Goldcorp goes to Confl icts in Latin American (Observatorio de considerable lengths to counteract local com- Confl ictos Mineros en América Latina, 2011), munity grievances and international outcry. based on Goldcorp’s annual report, in 2010 the The article “Dispelling the Myths of Marlin” Marlin Mine produced about 300,000 ounces in Goldcorp magazine Above Ground features of gold, at an approximate cost of US$200 per Flora Macario, a Maya-Mam industrial engi- ounce, when the cost of gold on the market was neer from San Miguel and superintendent of US$1,241 per ounce. This puts Goldcorp’s phi- sustainable development at Marlin. Macario lanthropy into perspective; their Sierra Madre was invited to Canada “to speak from the heart Foundation coordinates local socio- economic and set the record straight” (Goldcorp, 2011a, development projects. These include three-year p. 18) about the Marlin Mine: scholarships for young people, greenhouses, coffee projects, a daycare centre, education She speaks highly of the good that Goldcorp projects, schools, medical campaigns and a has done for her people. “I have never seen medical care centre. The last, unveiled by such high dedication to safety and concern Guatemala’s then president and retired general for the environment. I am so impressed with Otto Pérez Molina in March 2012, highlights the social infrastructure created, the training the links between the upper echelons of national and opportunities for people today, and the and transnational power. Environmentally, income-earning potential that will last into Goldcorp claims to reforest between 10 and the future”. (p. 18) 20 hectares annually, but fails to mention how many trees it chops down or the ecosystems it Photographed together with Native American destroys. Their website states that Goldcorp’s leaders, Macario is quoted as saying she felt

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“very comfortable” with Grand Chief Matthew Slack (2012) highlights that this is particu- Coon Come: “He spoke about community larly the case in developing countries where values, stewardship of the land, the interac- there is weak government oversight of extraction between humans and nature, and how tive industry corporations. Slack argues that for Goldcorp stands for these principles and values” CSR to become meaningful rather than empty (p. 18). While local opponents to the mine face rhetoric; there needs to be an honest assessment persecution for standing up for these values, of costs and benefi ts; social benefi t should trump indigenous movement discourse is here appro- corporate profitability when deciding upon priated and divested of meaning and political entering into ventures; community consent is content (Batliwala, 2008, p. 18). crucial and needs to be respected; and there This discursive move is echoed by the slo- needs to be greater incentives and accountabil- gans on large billboards in Guatemala City: ity for CSR performance (pp. 180–182). The “Development=health=better quality of life” Marlin Mine case study documents how these and “Development=work=better quality of key indicators are not adhered to by Goldcorp. life, for us at Goldcorp development is what is Slack concludes that this is illustrative of the valuable”. Goldcorp is masterful at mobilizing “‘rhetoric vs. reality’ contradictions around discourse that masks actual practices, and puts CSR that are all too common in the extractive “meaning in the service of power” (Thompson, industries sector” (p. 182). 1990, p. 7). While Goldcorp’s development The University of Toronto’s International discourse is based on premises of economic Human Rights Program director Renu growth, spillovers and jobs, when deemed nec- Mandhane (2011) goes further in her criticism essary, it appropriates other actors’ demands of Goldcorp’s human rights and CSR policies: and values. Goldcorp moves in a terrain referred to by de The policies appear robust at fi rst blush: they Sousa Santos and Rodríguez- Garavito (2005) reference all sorts of international agree- as “neoliberal governance”, which prioritizes ments and bind their employees to respect the technical over the political, private over them. However, beyond the lofty language, public, and experts instead of the active partici- the policies are deficient in key respects. pation of the people, and affected communities. They do not require Goldcorp to assess the Principles are “voluntary” rather than binding, human rights impact of projects at the outset, and good practice, in the form of corporate obtain independent assessments of human social responsibility (CSR), is encouraged rather rights performance, or remedy harm caused. than enforced. Oxfam America senior policy The policies also omit any mention of the advisor Keith Slack, a fi rm supporter of CSR, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of in his article “Mission Impossible? Adopting Indigenous Peoples and make no clear com- a CSR- based Business Model for Extractive mitment to the right of indigenous peoples to Industries in Developing Countries”, uses the free, prior and informed consent. (n.p.) case study of the Marlin Mine in San Miguel Ixtahuacán to exemplify the gap between Mandhane highlights the omissions and slip- Goldcorp’s verbal commitment to CSR and pery nature of Goldcorp’s commitment to CSR, practice on the ground. Rather than imple- and the revealing exclusion of indigenous rights. menting CSR principles, “it remains largely On another note, Peter Utting (2005) from window dressing that serves a strategic purpose the United Nations Research Institute for of mollifying public concerns about the inher- Social Development considers that for CSR ently destructive nature of extractive industries to be truly meaningful, it cannot be separated operations” (Slack, 2012, p. 179). from structural and macro-policy issues and

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perverse tendencies concerning labour fl exibili- They hear but they don’t listen. They don´t zation, taxation and pricing practices (p. 386). recognise the problems; they say there isn’t Utting is also sceptical of the global governance sickness [resulting from the mine]. They don’t arrangements that bring together government, listen though we’re telling the truth; it’s not private enterprise and NGOs to work in har- a lie. They’re the ones who benefi t with eve- mony and criticizes the “commodifi cation of rything they extract. How many millions do activism” (p. 382), which tends to downplay they make? The benefi ts are for them. They´re structural issues and water down criticism. He living on our lands. And what do we get from cogently argues that “an infl uential discourse all this? Sickness, for us humans and nature. has emerged which suggests that confrontation, (Interview, December 2010). single- issue activism, and criticism that profi les specifi c problems rather than solutions is ‘ideo- When local Mayan women and men blame the logical’ or passé and that NGO collaboration mine for the skin diseases, particularly on their with business and engagement with the market children’s arms and legs, they are told that this is modern and savvy” (p. 382). By labelling cannot be proved, as no baseline diagnostic local grievances and protests as “ideological”, medical study was performed prior to the min- these are simply disqualifi ed. ing corporation’s arrival. When local people Dominant development discourse, as Escobar denounce the cracks in their houses caused (2003) argues, creates the terms of the debate by the mine’s heavy machinery, vehicles and where “the system of relations establishes a dynamite, they are told that the cracks are due discursive practice that sets the rules of the to seismic movements. game: who can speak, from what points of view, with what authority, and according to what criteria of expertise” (p. 87). Goldcorp Conclusion sets skewed rules of the game whereby technical aspects take on overwhelming importance and Goldcorp, in collusion with weak national and require expert reports. These include, amongst local government, affi rms that these mining ven- others, a human rights assessment of the tures bring “development”. The Maya-Mam Marlin Mine (Goldcorp, 2010a), yearly envi- women in this article eloquently illustrated the ronmental and social performance monitoring devastation open-pit mining has wreaked on reports (2004–2009), sustainability reports San Miguel Ixtahuacán. This includes not only (Goldcorp, 2012–2014), competing evalua- environmental destruction, but also the decima- tions on water quality (COPAE, 2008–2011; tion of the Maya-Mam spiritual relationship E-Tech International, 2010), and competing with nature and all living beings, divisions in assessments on causes of cracks in houses families and the community, and disposses- (Comisión Interinstitucional, 2010; COPAE, sion of territory, putting into jeopardy their 2009). While COPAE expert reports are critical very existence as indigenous peoples. Open- of the mine, the importance attached to these pit goldmining, with its focus on extraction reports contributes to excluding the vast major- and profi t, is incommensurate with the tb’anil ity of local indigenous inhabitants who lack qchwinqlal mapped out in this article by Maya- Western expertise and economic resources to Mam women. contend in this fi eld. Instead, their lived experience and knowledge are rendered invisible, or what de Sousa Santos (2007) refers to as being actively “produced as non-existent” (p. 46). Luz illustrated the impact of this discursive erasure:

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Acknowledgments and disclaimer Mam a Mayan indigenous people and language Research for this article was funded by the in Guatemala and Norwegian Research Council project Women Chiapas, Mexico and Law in Latin America: Justice, Security Miguelense a person from San and Legal Pluralism, coordinated by Dr Rachel Miguel Ixtahuacán Sieder, from the Christian Michelsen Institute, q’ixkojalel the capacity to feel what Oslo, and CIESAS-DF, January 2010 to 2013. the other feels, in the We discussed and agreed upon ethical consider- Mam language ations for our research; everyone I interviewed Sipacapense a person from Sipaca understood and agreed to take part in the suma qamaña quality or plenitude of research that I would publish. I used pseudo- life, in the Aymara nyms to protect their identities. I shared my indigenous language writings in Spanish with key people in San in Bolivia Miguel to get their feedback and consent to sumak kawsay quality or plenitude of publish; when writing in English, this is more life, in the Kichwa difﬁ cult. indigenous language All translations from Spanish are by the in Ecuador author. susto shock, in the Spanish language tb’anil qchwinqlal quality of life, in the Glossary Mam language tristeza sadness, in the Spanish buen vivir quality of life, in the language Spanish language Tseltal a Mayan indigenous doña a respectful honoriﬁ c people and language used for married and in Chiapas, Mexico older women in the Tz’ununija’ a national Mayan Spanish language women’s movement; Ecuador Confederation of full name Movimiento Runakunapak Peoples of Kichwa de Mujeres Indígenas Rikcharimuy Nationality Tz’ununija’ Frente de Migüelense Miguelense Front contra la Minería against Mining Kichwa an indigenous people and language in Ecuador of Inca descent

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