While the effects of Covid-19 continue to feel unequal around the world, indigenous peoples, such as the Xinka in Guatemala, place tactics to organize and care for each other, while firmly anchoring their reaction to the ancestral practices that have sustained them. their lives. Time.
The Xinka basically live in southeastern Guatemala, in the municipalities of Santa Rosa, Jalapa, Jutiapa and Escuintla. Since the time of Spanish colonization, the Xinka have fought to protect their land and culture. Today, they continue to assert their rights to self-determination, to fight for the popularity of the Guatemalan government, and to resist transnational mining corporations. the world.
The list of demanding situations they face, along with millions of other Guatemalans, is long. Malnutrition rates are already high as a lack of confidence in food worsens. Public hospitals are collapsing under the weight of Covid-19. The national government uses the military to impose a daily curfew at four o’clock in the afternoon. across the country and criminalizes the many Guatemalans who are forced to break it in order to feed their families. And while all public transport is still prohibited and food markets are limited, resource extraction has been seen as an essential service, further jeiling the fitness of communities that have long struggled to protect their lands from mining. Their tenacious organization in their communities and in the courts is the only thing preventing the extraction of resources, whose operations would otherwise continue without hindrance to this global fitness pandemic.
Long-term uncertain for Xinka’s consultation on the Escobal mine
When the Guatemalan government closed the country’s borders in March 2020, the Xinka had been in just two years in one of the top vital processes for Aboriginal rights claims in the country: a court-ordered consultation with the Xinka on the Canadian’s future. Escobal Mine. This underground mine was first imposed on them through Tahoe Resources and then Pan American Silver, despite widespread opposition.
A 2018 Constitutional Court ruling showed that the rights of Xinka indigenous peoples had been violated when the state did not consult them before the exploration began. The Court suspended the mining operations in consultation.
The implementation of the consultation through the government was blocked even before the pandemic occurred due to procedural irregularities and discrimination that limited Xinka’s involvement. But pandemic constraints and meetings raise fears that these demanding situations will intensify. Representatives of the Xinka Parliament and the Pacific Resistance of Santa Rosa, Jalapa and Jutiapa have already denounced Pan American Silver subsidiary Minera San Rafael for entering the communities to distribute food in violation of the court-ordered suspension and the “free” nature of the consultation.
The xinka’s struggle for popularity and the right to self-determination has not ceased due to the Covid-19 crisis. In contrast, the pandemic poses a risk to network capacity in the region. But Xinka communities are responding as you know: thanks to a strong network organization rooted in their culture to make sure no one is left behind.
A place to share data
“Our ancestral practices are reflected in the way we organize and the percentage data between us. We are creating a plan to make sure that vital data is percentages directly with each and every member of the community,” said Luis Fernando García Monroy, who works with Xinka and survived a shooting in 2013 through the personal safety of the Escobal mine. “These ancestral organization practices help to save the spread of Covid-19 in Xinka territory.”
The Xinka Parliament is the representative elected framework of the Xinka people. It is composed of 25 communities that elect delegates to participate in common public meetings that address network issues. Parliament holds elections every two years and plays an important role in keeping Xinka communities informed and organized in the fight to claim and exercise their rights as indigenous peoples.
Now, due to the limitations of face-to-face meetings, the data sharing plan is implemented through physical remote visits, phone calls, Whatsapp messages and a wide presence on social media. This point of the organization is helping the Xinka Parliament to ensure that everyone has simple access to maximum productive fitness data that can help protect their communities and stay in touch with each other while facing serious restrictions. It also allows the Xinka Parliament to provide food and other essential elements to those who wish to do so to the fullest in this crisis.
Food and medicine exchange
The Guatemalan government has put in place strict measures, ordering the early quarantine of those with symptoms or suspected of contracting Covid-19. But for the many Guatemalans who have an informal economy to feed their families, it has been difficult to cope with these measures.
“The reaction of the Guatemalan government was that we stayed at home. While this would possibly be a smart move, it doesn’t take into account the fact that many Guatemalans live day by day and their families with 25 or 50 quetzals consistent with the day (US$3-7), Monroy says. “Communities selling their completion and vegetables have been particularly affected and lost their products, prevented from accessing markets due to travel restrictions between regional departments and prolonged curfews that have been enacted without notice.”
In response, the Xinka Parliament is running for food distribution to families who have developed Covid-19 symptoms and are quarantined, while supporting the intercommunal exchange of food and classic medicines.
“Covid-19’s risk is real. But being hungry is also difficult,” says Emy Gomez, who works as an assignment coordinator at Xinka Parliament. “We do a percentage of what we have. For example, if someone has beans and another user has corn, they will industrialize. We also manufacture ancestral drugs. Right now, with Covid-19, we use a lot of lemongrass, ginger and honey. Sharing allows us to stay united and keep our fitness strong in the context of a collapsed fitness system. We don’t have the luxury of going to the hospital right now, so we take care of our fitness. It’s a precautionary measure – measures we’ve known as Xinka Village.”
That of communal lands and food sovereignty
Communal lands play a vital role in Xinka culture, and some Xinka communities have titles dating back to the 17th century. Article 67 of Guatemala’s Constitution also provides special coverage for communal lands, identifying the peculiarities of indigenous land control and the importance of classical governance structures for land control. The Xinka Parliament continues to wage this battle, leading – and winning – several instances before the Constitutional Court to enforce the rights of the Xinka in the face of what is happening on their communal lands.
And for Xinka President Aleisar Morales, this fight has direct implications for long-term network fitness and combat pandemics like Covid-19.
“As the Xinka people, we have a collective name for our lands. We all have a piece of land to paint, but we only have what the earth produces, not the earth itself. We take care of our lands and this does not an unusual name protects us,” Morales said. “As farmers, we were going to continue to paint on our own plots of land, and I think that’s why it hasn’t affected us so much [by Covid-19].”
During this crisis, the Xinka Parliament is seeking food security and food sovereignty in the region through aid to bring production to life in a small circle of family plots. “We are planting our crops for the coming months,” Morales continues. “We don’t know how long this will last, but we’re taking advantage of the merits of this crisis to be even more self-sufficient.”
Casillas’ nonviolent resistance camp
When the exploration permit was granted for the Escobal mine in 2010, it was granted without the consent of the affected Xinka communities living in the area. And when Pan American Silver acquired Tahoe Resources and the Escobal mine in 2019, he did so knowing that Xinka’s rights had been violated.
As a component of a regional motion for the adequacy of land and the network for threats from the Escobal mine, communities erected two non-violent camps and prevented truck traffic from achieving allocation for approximately 3 years. This direct action, parallel to the Constitutional Court’s decision on consultation, suspended the operations well.
But to prevent him from spreading Covid-19, the Pacific Resistance will temporarily dismantle the Casillas camp at the end of March, just before the 3rd anniversary. The Camp of Mataquescuintla remains in position with fewer people at some point.
“One of the most demanding situations for the Xinka Parliament at the moment is that the constitutional court’s resolution is ratified,” says Luis Fernando García Monroy. “We have noticed instances in which Pan American Silver has taken credit for this pandemic for the communities of entry, which has provoked more confrontation in this region because the population is so opposed to mining.
Pan American Silver said it fulfilled covid-19’s wishes by distributing food, but at the company’s annual general meeting it refused to answer questions about how the action violated the court order.
“We continue to call for the constitutional court’s resolution to be followed and that other indigenous people who have been marginalized for many years be respected,” Monroy says. “We continue in this struggle and continue to say ‘NO’ to any kind of assignment that attacks the physical integrity of our other people here in Xinka territory.”
First published in ResistEscobal.com, with support from Earthworks, the Institute for Political Studies and MiningWatch Canada.