[Global mining companies have used the pandemic to push unwanted
projects on vulnerable communities, who are fighting back — and
sometimes winning.]
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THE STRUGGLE FOR WHAT’S ESSENTIAL  
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Jen Moore
June 24, 2022
Foreign Policy in Focus
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_ Global mining companies have used the pandemic to push unwanted
projects on vulnerable communities, who are fighting back — and
sometimes winning. _

President of the Pueblo Shuar Arutam of Ecuador, Josefina Tunki,
during a protest along with other Shuar women, (Photo: Comunicación
PSHA)

 

_Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and
imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a
gateway between one world and the next. _

_We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our
prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our
dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly,
with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to
fight for it._

_—_ _Arundhati Roy, April 2020_

Just over two years ago when lockdowns were being declared like
dominoes around the world, there was a brief moment when the COVID-19
pandemic seemed to hold the potential for much-needed reflection.
Could it lead to a reversal away from the profit-driven ecological and
socio-economic dead end we’ve been propelling toward?

Arundhati Roy’s call to critical reflection was published in early
April 2020. At the time, she was observing the early evidence, on one
hand, of the devastating toll of the pandemic as a result of
extraordinary inequality, the privatized health care system, and the
rule of big business in the U.S., which continued to play out along
lines of class and race
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She was also writing with horror at how the Modi government in India
was enacting an untenable lockdown on a population of over a billion
people without notice or planning, in a context of overlapping
economic and political crises. While the rich and middle class could
safely retreat to work from home, millions of migrant workers were
forced out of work into a brutal, repressive, and even fatal long
march back to their villages. And that was just the beginning.

The jarring “rupture” with normality that Roy wrote about two
years ago has reinforced many “prevailing prejudices”, as she
anticipated. Whether we’re talking about Amazon, the pharmaceutical
industry, or mining companies, big business managed to have itself
declared “essential” and profit handsomely. Meanwhile, poor and
racialized people have paid the highest costs and experienced the
greatest losses in the U.S., India, and many other countries around
the world.

But we have also seen how people have fought back hard showing
tremendous resilience in the face of greater adversity.

This is very much the case in mining-affected communities around the
world, many of whom were already in David and Goliath battles before
the pandemic to protect their land and water from the harms of mineral
extraction. They have found no reprieve since the pandemic began.

While taking measures to protect themselves from COVID-19, these
movements have refused to let their guard down as governments and
corporations have taken advantage of greater social constraints to
advance the mining industry.

A PANDEMIC MADE TO FIT THE MINING INDUSTRY

Land defenders block mine-related traffic in Casillas, Guatemala,
2019. (Photo: NISGUA, via EarthWorks Flickr)

Since April 2020, the IPS Global Economy Project has been
participating in the Coalition Against the Mining Pandemic
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what was happening in the mining sector during the pandemic. The
coalition is made up of environmental justice organizations, networks,
and initiatives from North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and
Latin America that work in solidarity with mining-affected
communities.

The group observed early evidence
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mining companies would be among the worst pandemic profiteers. In the
past, after all, these corporations have sought to benefit from
floods, coups, dictatorships, and other disasters to rewrite laws and
push projects through while local populations are busy dealing with
catastrophe and living under the gun.

In addition, the coalition especially wanted to understand what the
pandemic meant for the struggles of Indigenous peoples and other
mining-affected communities on the frontlines with whom we work in
solidarity.

This collaborative research effort has involved local partners in 23
countries to document what it’s been like trying to protect
community health from the ravages of the pandemic — while also
fighting against the threat of losing their water and territory from
the long-term impacts of gold, iron-ore, copper, nickel, coal, and
lithium mining.

The 23 countries where we looked at cases have recorded 29 percent of
the world’s known COVID cases, 43 percent of recorded COVID-related
deaths, and include two of the top ten countries for the highest
mortality rates (calculated by dividing the number of recorded COVID
cases by the number of COVID related deaths). In order, these are Peru
and Mexico. (Ecuador, where we looked at another case study, now ranks
11th.)

As expected, our recently released Latin America report _No Reprieve_
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how COVID-19 restrictions seem to have been made to fit the mining
industry. As Price Waterhouse Cooper observed in its 2021 _Great
Expectations_ report
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the global mining industry, “by any important measure, mining is one
of the few industries that emerged from the worst of the COVID-19
pandemic economic crisis in excellent financial and operational
shape.”

Precious metal prices rose in the context of the uncertainty created
by the pandemic, leading to historic profits for some companies
despite lower production in 2020. Prices for base metals, such as
copper, soon followed as markets opened up. This was much earlier than
the lifting of social constraints, putting affected communities at an
even greater disadvantage than before the pandemic in their struggles
for water, land, and survival.

NO REPRIEVE FOR MINING AFFECTED COMMUNITIES

“Sanitizer against coronavirus, the mining virus, and the government
virus. These killers won’t kill us.” March in Putaendo, Chile.
(Photo: Putaendo Resiste)

The lengthy lockdowns and other public health measures that were put
in place not only spelled greater socio-economic crisis than before
for these communities. They also meant greater difficulty or outright
bans on meeting together to discuss concerns about environmental
contamination, hardship, mining projects, and the greater difficulty
of dealing with government offices responsible for permitting and
inspections.

Online meetings were often inadequate or unavailable. When there was
no other option but to get together to protest, the risks were greater
than ever.

In Brazil, as in many other countries in Latin America, mining has
continued pretty much without interruption since the start of the
pandemic. For over a year, the community of Aurizona in the state of
Maranhão has been living without an adequate supply of drinking water
since the rupture of a tailings dam at the Aurizona gold mine owned by
Mineração Aurizona S.A. (MASA), a subsidiary of the Canadian firm
Equinox Gold.

On March 25, 2021, at the height of the pandemic in this part of
northwestern Brazil, the Lagoa do Pirocaua tailings dam overflowed,
contaminating the water supplies of this community of 4,000 people.
Despite company promises, the community continues to lack adequate
water supplies. Meanwhile, the company obtained a legal ruling that
prohibits street blockades and filed a lawsuit against five movement
leaders to try to deter their organizing.

In Colombia, Indigenous Wayúu and Afro-descendant communities in the
La Guajira region experienced heightened risks from the continued
operation of the Cerrejón mining complex, the largest open-pit
thermal coal mine in Latin America. This mine is now owned exclusively
by Swiss commodities giant Glencore, which consolidated its control
over the mine in January 2022 when it purchased the shareholdings of
Anglo American and BHP Billiton.

This mine has already operated for over three decades and displaced
dozens of communities. In September 2020, the United Nations Special
Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, David Boyd, asked the
Colombian government to at least temporarily suspend Cerrejón’s
operations, pointing out that the contamination, health impacts, and
lack of water the communities already faced increased the risk of
death from COVID-19.

Instead, the mine continued and even accelerated operations, while
communities suffered serious physical and emotional impacts from
greater social confinement and loss of subsistence economic
activities. The company donated food and safety equipment to improve
its image, but this generated divisions and disagreements among
communities that were difficult to resolve given the restrictions on
meetings.

Making this situation worse, the government and companies have refused
to respect a 2017 Constitutional Court decision that recognized
violations of community rights to water, food, sovereignty, and health
in authorizing the diversion of the Bruno Creek’s natural course to
expand coal extraction. Instead, since mid 2021, Glencore and Anglo
American have been suing the Colombian government under the terms of
bilateral international investment agreements with Switzerland and the
United Kingdom for not letting them expand the mine.

MILITARIZED MINING

One of the many protests in Honduras during the pandemic by the
Comité Municipal en Defensa de los Bienes Comunes y Públicos,
calling for the release of eight water defenders standing up for the
Guapinol and San Pedro rivers. (Photo: Guapinol Resiste)

Not only did the spaces for community organizing shrink, disappear, or
just get a lot harder, violence got worse in many places. In many
cases, there was heavy-handed repression, heightened militarization,
and ongoing legal persecution of land and environment defenders.

In Honduras, the Tocoa Municipal Committee for the Defense of the
Natural and Public Commons spent nearly the entire first two years of
the COVID-19 pandemic fighting for the freedom of eight water
defenders who were arbitrarily detained for their peaceful opposition
to an iron ore project owned by the Honduran company Los Pinares
Investments.

They were only freed in February 2022, after the narcodictatorship of
former President Juan Orlando Hernández lost power to the country’s
first female president, Xiomara Castro. Meanwhile the company, which
has ties to U.S. steel company Nucor, managed to start operations in
mid 2021 without obtaining the required environmental permit,
immediately putting in danger the future of the San Pedro river on
which downstream communities depend.

In Mexico, a special group of public armed forces called the Mining
Police was inaugurated in 2020, aimed at protecting mining facilities
from mineral theft. The recruitment of troops was announced for the
first time in July of that year, during an online event entitled
“The reactivation of mining in the face of the new normality.” By
the end of September 2020, the first 118 federal officers with
military training had graduated and were deployed to guard the La
Herradura gold mine owned by the Mexican company Fresnillo plc, which
is listed on the London Stock Exchange and owned by Industrias
Peñoles.

In contrast, no measures have been taken to lower the levels of
subjugation, extortion, forced displacement, and violence against the
communities that inhabit these same areas — such as the community of
El Bajío, which neighbors the La Herradura mine, where the Penmont
company from the same business group operated illegally until 2013.

Members of the community of El Bajío have faced violence since this
time, despite receiving 67 favorable rulings declaring the land
occupation agreements of the community members affected by the Mexican
company Penmont (a subsidiary of Fresnillo plc) null and void. These
rulings have yet to be executed and the risks for the community have
intensified.

Two members of this community were brutally assassinated in April
2021. Beside their bodies a piece of cardboard was found on which 13
names of other community members involved in the resistance to the
mine were written, a clear threat. The state has not provided any
protection to family members either — although there are constant
patrols by state police, the National Guard, and the army to
intimidate the population.

MINING FOR SUPPOSED ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Protest led by the “Panama is Worth More Without Mining” Movement
(MPVMSM) in Panama City. (Photo: Radio Temblor)

At the same time, administrative processes for companies to get new
permits got easier and projects moved forward. The justification was
that mineral extraction would supposedly contribute to post-pandemic
economic reactivation, but it’s well known that mining tends to
divert attention from more sustainable economic sectors at a national
level and impoverish local communities.

In Panama and Ecuador —  both countries with few industrial mines
in operation due to widespread rejection by the affected populations
— there have also been attempts to accelerate mining expansion in
the name of economic reactivation.

In Ecuador, there is widespread opposition to mining in the country
due to its impacts on water, the country’s exceptional biodiversity,
and the well-being of small farmer and Indigenous communities.

During his election campaign, current President Guillermo Lasso
promoted “human rights and the rights of nature… and the
protection of the environment with a sustainable agenda.” However,
once he took office in May 2021, he showed his willingness to serve
transnational mining interests.

On August 5, he issued Executive Decree No. 151, an “Action Plan for
the Ecuadorian Mining Sector,” which seeks to accelerate mining in
fragile ecosystems such as the Amazon and high-altitude wetlands
(_páramos_). It gives legal certainty to mining companies by
providing a favorable environment for investors, indicating explicit
respect for international agreements that favor corporate interests.
It likewise proposes the acceleration of environmental permits for
mining projects without taking into account the socio-environmental
impacts.

Similarly, on May 19, 2021, the Panamanian government presented its
strategic plan to base its post-pandemic economic recovery on mining.
Given the prevalence of corruption and the constant violations of
environmental regulations and the Constitution by mining companies in
Panama, citizens see this mining stimulus plan as the government
aiming to enrich itself and its cronies.

Faced with the fallacy of national economic recovery through mining, a
national campaign platform arose called the Panama Worth More Without
Mining Movement (MPVMSM). This broad based movement of environmental
organizations, teachers, workers, youth, small farmers, and Indigenous
communities opposes mining and the renegotiation of the contract over
the only operating mine in Panama, Cobre Panama owned by First Quantum
Minerals, which they consider unconstitutional and argue should be
canceled.

Despite evidence that upwards of 60 percent of Panamanians support
this movement’s aims, the government insists on continuing to
promote initiatives aimed at making way for mining expansion in the
country.

TRULY ESSENTIAL RESILIENCE AND RESISTANCE 

Protest against mining in Acacoyagua, Chiapas, México. Sign reads:
“Who gave you permission?” (Photo: Luis Rojas Numura.)

Despite the conditions for peoples’ struggles having gotten harder
over the last two years, the resilience and resistance of people
fighting from the margins for their land, their water and their
community health has persisted, often with women, Indigenous peoples,
and small-scale farmers at the forefront.

From Mexico to Argentina, the communities and organizations who shared
their experiences for this report
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found ways to continue fighting for respect for their
self-determination, community health, and their own visions of their
future. While some projects moved ahead, others have not been able to
overcome tireless community resistance.

Whether communities are fighting to address mining harms or standing
in the way of these unwanted projects, their struggles are potent
examples of the sort of reimagining and digging in for fundamental
change that Arundhati Roy urged at the start of this pandemic.

Through their resistance, mutual care, traditional knowledge, and
efforts toward greater food sovereignty and collective wellbeing,
these communities and movements demonstrate the urgent need to shift
away from a destructive model of economic development that has been
forced on people around the world, based on endless extraction to
serve international markets with primary materials that are turned
into products for mass consumption.

They point out the vital need for a serious reckoning to address the
harms that have taken place and to pull back the reins on such
militarized mass destruction in order to prioritize peoples’
self-determination and more sustainable ways of living. This is what
is truly essential if we hope to ensure collective health and
wellbeing now and for future generations.

_For over ten years, Jen Moore has been researching, writing and
collaborating closely with the struggles of mining-affected
communities and allied organizations in Latin America, Canada and
other parts of the world.  From 2010 to 2018, she coordinated the
Latin America Program at MiningWatch Canada, which supports processes
of territorial defense and efforts to obtain justice for harms
associated with the activities of Canadian mining companies and
Canadian foreign affairs in the region._

_Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) is a “Think Tank Without Walls”
connecting the research and action of scholars, advocates, and
activists seeking to make the United States a more responsible global
partner. It is a project of the Institute for Policy Studies._

_FPIF provides timely analysis of U.S. foreign policy and
international affairs and recommends policy alternatives on a broad
range of global issues — from war and peace to trade and from
climate to public health. From its launch as a print journal in 1996
to its digital presence today, FPIF has served as a unique resource
for progressive foreign policy perspectives for over two decades._

* Latin America
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* mining
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* Environmental Justice
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* Indigenous Rights
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* Central America
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