Today, representatives of Cultural Survival, the Guatemalan Community Radio Movement, and several national Indigenous organizations are scheduled to meet with Alvaro Colom (president of Guatemala), Roberto Alejos (president of the Congress), and members of the Supreme Court to discuss how to grant long-promised broadcast licenses to community radio stations. The meeting is the strongest opportunity yet for government support of community radio and is the result of months of intense lobbying by Cultural Survival and our community radio partners.
Author: Dorothy Kosich
June 24, 2010
Human rights and indigenous peoples' special interest groups scored at least a temporary victory against the Marlin gold mine as the Guatemalan Government decided to suspend mining operations in San Miguel Ixtahuacan, Guatemala.
By Tracy L. Barnett
SAN MIGUEL IXTAHUACAN – Friday, June 24, was a day of celebration in this small mountain town in Guatemala’s Western Highlands. President Alvaro Colom had just sent a shock wave through the country whose reverberations were felt in faraway Toronto: the Marlin Mine, owned by Canada-based transnational Goldcorp, was ordered to suspend operations. The celebration, however, was short-lived.
Cultural Survival's Community Radio Project director Mark Camp reports from Guatemala that Tropical Storm Agatha devastated many of the communities that we are working with there. Mudslides and flooding have now killed 123 people, and the death toll is expected to rise, after more than three feet of rain fell. In just one village in Solola 25 homes were washed away and at least 15 people killed. There is no word yet on how many radio stations may have been affected, but the ones still operating will be essential lifelines for information and restoration efforts.
Physicians for Human Rights
Environmental health scientists from the University of Michigan find that a sample of Guatemalans who live near a controversial gold and silver mine in the country's western highlands have higher levels of potentially toxic heavy metals in their urine and blood than a sample of residents who live farther from the mine.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.