Whistle blowing and CAFTA

2 weeks ago, the president ordered a big operation in the capital city, whereby hundreds of gang members and leaders were caught and arrested. Gang activity is one of the big problems of Guatemala city, and is probably responsible for the horrific number of murders that occur there every day. A rumour is circulating around Xela that one of the gangs has come here, and there is a lot of fear among the residents of the city that the problems of the capital may be replicated here.

The residents of Xela have not taken this lightly. Knowing that they can´t rely on the police to do anything they have organised themselves into taking action. Each person in Xela has been issued with a whistle, and at 10am, 2pm, 5pm, 7pm and 11pm everyone comes out of their houses and blows their whistles. This is a warning to anyone thinking of making trouble that there are a lot of angry residents with baseball bats and other things that aren't going to take any messin'. If anything kicks off, the blowing of the whistles at any other time is an instruction for everyone to get their baseball bats and get out onto the streets.

Although it's a bit depressing that there is the perceived need for this action, it always warms my heart when people actually get together as communities and do things to help one another. I was on my way to spanish class at 2pm when the whistling started. It was defeaning! I could hear whistles being blown from every direction! It was quite cool!

This week has also seen huge protests in the capital about something else - the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). You may already have heard of NAFTA, the North American equivalent. Essentially, these agreements, brokered by the USA (who else?) have been put forward to ensure that the USA has access to markets for its products across Central and South America, without any restrictions in place. Why is it so important we wonder that the USA should be persuing this agreement so agressively, when Guatemala and the other Central American countries are small, poverty stricken, and therefore not large markets for American produce? Another important part of CAFTA is that it will allow US companies to set up in Central American countries, taking advantage of the cheap labour and lax environmental legislation in these countries. This is not only bad news for the inhabitants of Guatemala, but also for workers in the US. Companies relocating to countries such as Guatemala will be quick to get rid of their expensive US labour force and replace them with cheap Guatemalan counterparts. The fact that Guatemala for example has virtually no environmental protection measures, will allow US companies to produce goods at astonishingly low cost without soiling their own back yards. This idea makes me, and several million inhabitants of Central American countries very angry indeed.

Canadian-based Glamis Gold provides a perfect example of the sort of thing we are going to see more of if CAFTA becomes a working policy. In 2003 the Portillo government granted Glamis Gold a mining license without conducting the obligatory consultation of the local indigenous communities - something that is required by international law. The World Bank has approved a $45 million loan to Glamis to finance their operations in Guatemala. Despite its own guidelines stating that: before investing in extractive industries, there must be broad community support and the project should clearly help alleviate poverty.

The extraction of gold requires the use of cyanide, which everyone knows is a very nasty chemical that causes you to die of suffocation. The indigenous communities living in the area of the proposed mine are rightly concerned that leachate from the mines will contaminate their land and water, making their lives there untenable.

In terms of the agreement brokered between the goverment and the Glamis Gold, Glamis has agreed to give ONE PERCENT of its profit to Guatemala, whilst pocketing the remaining 99% for itself and its shareholders (hardly a project that clearly helps to alleviate poverty). For the purposes of comparison, similar investments in Chile and Cuba have resulted in a 40 - 50% share in the profits between the company and the country.

Recently, angry clashes between the police and local people have resulted as locals blockaded roads that were being used to transport mining equipment to the site. One local farmer was killed during the protests. The current president, Oscar Berger has said that he will involve the military if protests continue, saying "we must protect our investments".

If you would like to do something to help the local people fight the might of the Glamis Gold and the Guatemalan "goverment", please visit the site below to see what can be done.
http://www.rtfcam.org/take_action/guatewb.htm