Radio Mundo Real

Jose Acosta from CESTA/ Friends of the Earth El Salvador, participated in the Verification Mission on Mining in Guatemala. He told us about the irreversible damage that mining is having in the communities that resist the actions of extractive corporations.

Jose participated in the mission as part of a delegation of Friends of the Earth International that went through different Guatemalan regions affected by open-pit mining.

The members of the mission verified on the ground the effects of the actions of transnational corporations on the spirit of the families living in the regions where there are pending mega projects.

“Children reflect the fear and concern of the families over the uncertainty about their future and the feeling of being displaced from their territories”, Jose Acosta told Victorino Tejaxun from CEIBA, Friends of the Earth Guatemala, in an interview for Real World Radio.

“We could verify the strong dispute over territory”, Acosta said. He especially reported on the evictions by one Canadian transnational corporation in the north east of Guatemala.

Later on, following the preliminary conclusions of the Mission, Jose Acosta explained a feeling of disappointment of the communities in the government institutions that should be defending them.

“The communities are being displaced, they are being abused and the government institutions are doing nothing about it”, said Jose Acosta. “So the answer of the peoples will be a necessarily violent one, a violence caused precisely by the transnational corporations”.

Jose Acosta also reported on the actions of some Guatemalan environmental organizations that have joined the discourse – that responds to the interests of transnational corporations – of “emptying the territory to preserve it”, which has generated frustration among the population.