February 15, 2022
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This is not a ‘mistaken’ understanding of systemic impunity and corruption, human rights violations and repression in Guatemala.
This can only be understood as an intentional effort to ‘legitimize’ a corrupt, repressive “democratic allie” that remains – at all costs - open-for-global-business.
It is widely documented that the Guatemalan state systematically “criminalizes” (the filing of false criminal charges) and arbitrarily jails Indigenous and non-Indigenous land, environment and human rights defenders.
Since 2017, there has been an aggressive, illegal effort, by successive Guatemalan regimes, to criminalize Attorney Generals, judges, prosecutors and lawyers, and shut down or curtail prosecutor offices (CICIG, FECI, Attorney General) involved in prosecuting war crimes and organized crime/ corruption cases.
The Canadian government knows this perfectly well, and has done nothing.
In our recently published “TESTIMONIO: Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala”, we document systemic repression and human rights violations – including arbitrary detentions and jailings – in service of the Canadian lead global mining industry.
Is the Canadian government continuing to deceive the public about Guatemala, so as to continue support for yet more Canadian mining companies – Bluestone Resources, Radius Gold, Volcanic Gold Mines, Goldex Resources, Gunpoint Exploration - trying to operate widely opposed, harmful mineral extraction businesses?
It remains an urgent and timeworn challenge for the people and institutions of the rich, powerful countries – primarily the U.S. and Canada in the case of Guatemala – to start to hold our governments, companies and banks politically and legally accountable when they ‘legitimize’ and do ‘business-as-usual’ with corrupt, repressive, anti-democratic regimes.
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TESTIMONIO
More information: www.testimoniothebook.org
TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS (Canada & U.S.)
To support land and environment, human rights and justice defenders in Honduras and Guatemala – including the community defenders profiled in TESTIMONIO - make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
- U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
- Canada: (Box 552) 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8
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