Breaking: Pres Perez Molina announces he will withdraw the declared state of siege... (NOT REALLY)

[Catherina]

Last edited Thu May 9, 2013, 10:59 PM - Edit history (2)

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 6m

MT @lahoragt BREAKING NEWS: President Perez Molina announces he will withdraw the declared state of siege in 4 municipalities.

(There's still another one in the North, in Peten, that's rarely mentioned. I hope that one's lifted too)

[Demeter]

1. Context?

I know you posted something, but my brain hurts...

[Catherina]

2. No context, just that tweet. Will go look for context

as soon as the prosecution in the Rios Montt trial tells their final lie of the closing arguments

[Catherina]

3. Oh that context. Peasants were protesting against a Canadian Mine

that they had no say in approving as the law requires, and in fact disapproved on their own. They protested and some were killed by the mine's security people. They held 23 (I think 23) policeman/

The President declared a state of siege in the 4 municipalities where they were protests and said he wasn't doing this to protect the mine but to go after Zeta drug cartels. A most transparent and bullshit excuse no one, no one bought.

He deployed over 5000 soldiers and 3,500 policemen (numbers might be reversed) and they went house to house, checkpoints everywhere, harassing people, all this to find the Xinka Parliament leaders who were leading the protests against the mine.

[Demeter]

4. That's a big story

another one we will never see in the M$M...

[Catherina]

5. Sadly no, other than passing mentions with no substance in them

But all of the mine's investors, including the Pension Plan Investment Board are being notified.


Tahoe Resources Investor Alert calls Guatemala project a Dangerous Investment

(Ottawa/Guatemala City) – Yesterday, the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) and MiningWatch Canada warned Tahoe Resources investors against further investment in the Escobal silver project, given lack of community support and increasing violence and repression in the area. Risks identified include:

1. Tahoe Resources does not have the social license to operate the Escobal project;

2. It is likely that conflict and violence will persist if the mining project continues to be imposed without community consent, given recent violence attributed to public armed forces, an illegal armed group and the company’s private security;

3. Implication of company private security in recent acts of violence could lead to civil lawsuits as has taken place in relation to other mining conflicts in which Canadian companies are involved;

4. Tahoe Resources is already under investigation in Guatemala for industrial contamination of water supplies near the Escobal mine site;

5. Failure of Guatemalan regulators to address residents’ complaints prior to granting company’s exploitation license is under appeal, which could put Tahoe’s exploitation license in jeopardy;

6. By repeating patterns seen in Guatemala’s mining sector in connection with Goldcorp’s Marlin mine, including lack of respect for prior community consultation, targeting of peaceful protesters through the judicial system and putting the project into production in the midst of violence and repression, the company is likely to be the object of further protests.

The project is located in the municipality of San Rafael Las Flores in the department of Santa Rosa where for over three years local communities have been peacefully demonstrating their opposition to the mining project given concerns over potential social and environmental impacts. Twelve municipal and community level plebiscites have been carried out in which over 90% of participants voted against the mine.



Tahoe Resources’ received its license to put the Escobal silver mine project into operation in early April despite widespread social opposition to the project and unaddressed complaints against the granting of the permit.



Tahoe’s project has provoked an increase in conflict in the region, which recently escalated on April 27 when the company’s private security shot at community members, injuring six men, two of them seriously. Contrary to company statements, a spokesperson for the Roosevelt Hospital in Guatemala City indicated that live ammunition was used. Alberto Rotondo, security manager for Minera San Rafael, Tahoe Resources’ wholly owned Guatemalan subsidiary, has been arrested and charged with with causing mild and serious bodily harm, and for obstructing the investigation by tampering with the crime scene. Two more supposed mine employees have been arrested in connection with the recent violence, including the killing of a police officer.



On May 2, the Guatemalan government declared a state of siege in San Rafael Las Flores, where Tahoe’s Escobal project is located effectively making public protest and further community consultations illegal as long as the measure remains in place. Local activists have been among those targeted in raids and detentions.

....

www.nisgua.blogspot.com/2013/05/tahoe-resources-investor-alert-calls.html


The full investor alert can be read here: https://www.nisgua.org/investor_alert_tahoe_8may13.pdf

[Catherina]

6. It's just a play on words. It's now a 'State of Prevention'

Government Decides to Change State of Siege to State of Prevention

President Otto Perez Molina on Thursday ordered the state of siege lifted in the four municipalities of Santa Rosa and Jalapa, amid the controversy that arose because Congress had not ratified it in within three days after it was enacted but the president denied this was the reason


Soldiers operating in the Mountain made Santa Maria Xalapán, Jalapa, due to the state of siege declared in that area. (Photo Prensa Libre: Hugo Oliva).

GUATEMALA CITY. - The president stated at the end of the Council of Ministers meeting that he had decided to lift the State of Siege and now declare a State of Prevention state in those municipalities and that this will be for 15 days.

Pérez Molina added that the same units of the Army and the National Police will remain in both the Santa Rosa and Jalapa areas.

...

http://www.prensalibre.com/noticias/politica/Retiran-Sitio-Santa-Rosa-Jalapa_0_916108586.html

[Judi Lynn]

7. The same 8,500 soldiers will stay there, but they'll call it "prevention," instead

of "state of siege" which reminds the whole world of what they already did to the people in the same places already. Now they're back to do it again to their survivors.

Clearly, we can't expect them to do the right thing. We have already seen how they treat indigenous citizens of Guatemala.

Can't expect the Obama administration to apply a little pressure through withdrawing material supports. We've seen how they handled material supports for the illegal coup-derived Honduran government.

Relax, it's not a "state of siege." It's only a "state of prevention!" That's a hot one.

[Catherina]

8. The cowardly congress won't touch this one

they're supposed to ratify any state of siege within 3 days according to the Constitution. Molina didn't even bother taking this to them. The indigenous people were yelling at Congress the other day, calling them clowns and cowards and that's precisely what they are. This is Molina's way of saying he can do whatever he wants.

Meanwhile, under the watchful eye of 8,500 military and civilian security forces, a 14 year old girl was raped and tossed out on the side of the road. She was taken to the hospital unconscious... You could say that's a daily occurrence here but this next story doesn't seem so daily. Who is this woman with "white skin" and "red hair"? I wonder if she wasn't one of many individual activists who come here independently to help. I really don't know what the story is here or why there isn't more news about this woman. I find it strange.

CORPSE OF WOMAN WITH SIGNS OF VIOLENCE FOUND
4 May 2013



JALAPA. The body of a woman about 25 years ago, was found Friday morning in a ravine at the edge of the road leading to the village Quebraditas, jurisdiction of the provincial capital, reported the National Civil Police.

The young woman was not identified and her body was naked, she was wearing only a shirt and underwear. The woman with white skin and red hair was found tied hand and foot with electrical wires, and had several stab wounds to her chest and neck.

It is believed that the body was taken to the site of the discovery in the early hours of today, as rigor mortis had not yet set in.





...

http://www.noticiasdejalapa.com/noticias/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=135:localizan-cadaver-de-mujer-con-senales-de-violencia&catid=39:noticiaslocales