State of Siege on Indigenous Land and Mining Site in Guatemala

Oct 26, 2021

Dear Readers,

Another mining project and resistance story, followed by police intervention, is developing in Guatemala.

It's been more than 20 days that indigenous Maya Q'eqchi' people have been holding a pacific sit-in in El Estor to demand their right to participate in a community consultation on the Fénix project of Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN), a subsidiary of the Swiss company Solway Investment Group.

In response, Guatemala's government issued a state of siege on Sunday, which has now been ratified by Congress. About 500 soldiers have been sent to El Estor. Several police raids were conducted today; journalist Juan Bautista of Prensa Comunitaria's home was one of them. His cellphone was confiscated by the authorities.

According to Prensa Communitaria, Giammattei's government issued at least 14 state of exceptions since he assumed power in 2020.

This news was brought to you by our new Guatemala news curator, Jody García, a journalist with nine years of experience covering issues related to justice, politics, human rights, migration and environmental justice in Guatemala. Welcome, Jody!

In this newsletter, you'll also find news about the rest of the region, good news regarding Central American scholars and reflections on reggaeton as a tool for sexual liberation.

We will take next week off for Día de los Muertos/el Día de Todos los Santos. Then, we will be back to cover a busy month of November, with the elections of Nicaragua and Honduras coming up. Have a great week!

Salú,

Melissa and Jody

Photo by Prensa Comunitaria. Protests in El Estor against the mining project by Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN), subsidiary of Solway Investment Group.

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Headlines

Migration

📰 Vulnerable Deportees: Over 7,000 migrants deported by the Biden administration to Mexico under Title 42 have experienced violence and crime in Mexico. // Detained migrants allege various cases of abuse from border enforcement officials. // An internal review of a Georgia detention facility found multiple policy violations surrounding the treatment of a detainee with mental illness who committed suicide.

📰 Migrant Justice: Migrant justice organizers staged a virtual walkout from a meeting with Biden administration officials. // Organizers in Miami blocked a road to demand Biden create a pathway to citizenship for Haitian and other migrants. San Diego organizers held a vigil to call for humane treatment of Black migrants. // A migrant caravan traveling to Mexico City broke through a National Guard roadblock and demanded “freedom” from migrant imprisonment and transportation out of southern Mexico.

📰 Quota System Over: Immigration judges no longer have to abide by a quota system implemented under Trump.

📰 The Border: The governors of Texas and Missouri will sue the federal government to build the border wall. // Border Patrol arrested nearly 1.7 million migrants in the 2021 fiscal year. // “Remain in Mexico” will resume in November to send asylum seekers to Mexico.

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Central America

📰 Human Rights: Organizations will present the systematic human rights violations faced by migrants and asylum seekers in the United States, Mexico and Central America in the 181st Session of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights.

📰 On Corruption: US Justice Department Anticorruption Task Force will launch new measures to "combat corruption in Central America" (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras).

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Belize

📰 Fish Right Eat Right: Oceana Belize is launching an initiative called "Fight Right Eat Right!" which will help people know exactly where their seafood is coming from. This is part of an effort to encourage responsible fishing practices.

📰 Land Rights: The National Garifuna Council will be holding a virtual conference to discuss Garifuna land rights, hoping to bring the issue some public attention.

📰 COVID-19: Belize is officially the country with the 2nd highest vaccination rate in the Caribbean, with almost half the population having received at least one dose.

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Costa Rica

📰 Poverty Rate: The poverty rate decreased across the country by 3% compared to 2020 but it’s still higher than it was before the pandemic. That means about 26% of the population or 1.35 million people are living in poverty in 2021. Meanwhile, poverty in the country’s southern region actually increased by 7%.

📰 Migration: Government officials from Cuba met with a Costa Rican delegation in a virtual meeting to agree to “regular, orderly and safe” migration between the two countries.

📰 Indigenous Learning: More than 30 women from various indigenous territories in the country’s southern region attended a financial training seminar with the goal of strengthening their enterprises and the economic well-being of their families.

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El Salvador

📰 Bitcoin: El Salvador’s Central Bank is using bitcoin as part of the pitch for a new 1.3 billion dollars loan. // Hackers have been stealing identities to cash in bitcoin bonuses offered by the government; at least 700 cases have been reported.

📰 Legislative Assembly: Last Wednesday, the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly decided against decriminalizing abortion in a 73 to 11 vote. // The Assembly also voted to approve a decree that prohibits public and private gatherings that are not related to arts, culture or sports citing COVID-19 concerns. Critics say that this move aims at blocking protests.

📰 Disappearances: On Oct. 21, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights questioned and criticized El Salvador’s "reactive" instead of "proactive" response to recent forced disappearances. The meeting had been requested by 15 human rights organizations.

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Guatemala

📰 El Estor: The Guatemalan congress ratified a "state of siege" in El Estor, in northern Guatemala, last Sunday, where Q'eqchi inhabitants and other indigenous authorities ask to be consulted regarding the operations of a mine. The mining project is from Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN), a subsidiary of the Swiss Solway Investment Group. Police in the area are following and raiding activists and news organizations.

📰 Free Press: News outlet elPeriódico denounces that the Prosecutor's Office of Consuelo Porras seeks a judge to authorize an embargo, rooting, raids and arrest warrants to close the newspaper. elPeriódico filed an injunction to prevent being taken out of circulation.

📰 Violence against girls: Cristel, 14, was found dead on October 21 in San Pedro Ayampuc, Guatemala. Although the Public Ministry says that she died by suicide, the victim had written a letter stating that she was sexually abused and threatened by her boyfriend. The case is under investigation. So far in 2021, at least five suicides of girls and adolescents related to sexual abuse have been reported in Guatemala.

📰 Nuevas Ideas: Signatures are being collected to establish a Nuevas Ideas Party. Although El Salvador’s Nuevas Ideas Party said they had no involvement with this, El Faro points out that the creator behind this campaign has ties to President Nayib Bukele.

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Honduras

📰 COVID-19: Health authorities have begun administering the third dose of COVID-19 vaccines for immunocompromised patients and health care workers.

📰 Electoral Alliances: The political opposition in the two biggest cities in Honduras, San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa, have created an alliance in an effort to win municipal elections.

📰 Money Laundering: The Public Ministry issued an arrest for the mayor of Talanga, Roosevelt Eduardo Aviléz López and his family circle, as they are suspected of money laundering. This adds to the evidence that Honduras is largely governed by drug-trafficking and criminal structures that have infiltrated the branches of government, political analysts say.

📰 Seeking Investments: Honduran Foreign Minister, Lisandro Rosales, traveled to the United Arab Emirates to meet with various governmental and private sector representatives to seek foreign direct investment for Honduras.

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Nicaragua

📰 Vaccines: The government initiated the vaccination of those between 18 and 29 years old with Sputnik Light vaccine. Children between 2 and 17 are being vaccinated with Cuban vaccines Soberana and Abdala. 1.4 million Sputnik Light vaccines and 625,000 AstraZeneca doses arrived in Nicaragua. Some Nicaraguans are traveling to Honduras to seek Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, due to little information or doubts about vaccines not approved by the WHO.

📰 Economy: Government set fixed prices for oil and gas after a year of weekly increases. Media reports that the government always had this power, but waited until two weeks before the elections to control the prices.

📰 Private Sector: The National Police detained the President and Vice-President of the Private Enterprise Council (COSEP), Michael Healy and Alvaro Vargas, under suspicion of treason and money laundering. The COSEP announced that Healy and Vargas are “absent” and replaced them with Cesar Zamora (energy sector) and Scott Vaughn (textiles and clothing). Some believe Zamora will be open to restarting talks with the government.

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Panama

📰 Electoral Code: On Saturday, the National Assembly approved the controversial bill 544, thereby reforming the Electoral Code. The draft law has been largely rejected by organizations, members of the Supreme Electoral Court and some parties of Panama, who asked the law to be rejected. The President only vetoed Article 227 out of more than 200. This article ordered an amnesty to fine candidates who failed to comply with presenting campaign income and expenses. Critics say that the law reduces transparency in next elections.

📰 Evictions: The National Land Administration Authority (ANATI) evicted families residing in Tierra Prometida, located in the village of Playa Leona, district of La Chorrera. The National Sports Institute, Pandeportes, will begin the construction of a Sports City and the Mariano Rivera High-Performance Baseball Training Center.

📰 Vaccine Donations: Panama donated a batch of 243,880 doses of the AstraZeneca formula to Nicaragua.

Rally to Support Black Immigrants in San Diego

Chelsey Birgisdottir was among the several dozens who showed support at the SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) San Diego rally to support Defend Black Immigrants National Day of Action. (Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Good Reads

📌Migration Trends: The Migration Policy Institute released a report dispelling the notion that recent and more diverse migration patterns reflect record levels of migration.

📌About Olivia Zúniga Cáreces: Deputee Olivia Zúnica Cáreres was attacked and later exposed on social media; this reports analyze how women are being targeted just by participating in the political space. (Vienna Herrera for El Faro)

📌 Authoritarianism: "Central American countries are falling like dominoes into authoritarianism," writes José Miguel Vivanco in Human Rights Watch.

📌Fake News: Fake polling is the new tactic to influence the elections in Honduras. (Criterio HN)

📌Lady Drag: Revista Factum interviews the iconic Lady Drag, who became famous during anti-Bukele protests in El Salvador. Below is a short recorded clip from the interview.

Central American Studies

Salvadoran scholar Cecilia Menjívar, professor of sociology and global scholar of migration and Central American Studies, was elected president of the American Sociological Association.

🎓 Challenging Latinidad: The Latino/a Studies Association Conference 2022 has made a call for papers about the theme “Centering Blackness, Challenging Latinidad.”

🎓 About Leisy Abrego: Salvadoran scholar Giulliani Alvarenga interviews sociologist Leisy Abrego about her work on migration (in ContraCorriente).

Can Reggaeton Be a Force for Sexual Liberation?

Panamanian Reggaeton historian Katalina Eccleston (@reggaetonconlagata) and Salvadoran journalist Daniel Alvarenga (@puchicadanny) talk about the power and potential of reggaeton as a force for sexual liberation (on Radar 2021).

Events

📅 October 26th: Democracy Dialogues: A Conversation with Carlos Chamorro | AS/COA (as-coa.org)

📅 October 28th: Beyond Sandinista Developmentalism: The Popular Economy in Nicaragua Tickets, Thu, Oct 28, 2021 at 5:00 PM | Eventbrite

📅 October 28th: The Accumulated Traumas of Honduran Displacement | Program in Latin American Studies (princeton.edu)

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