Three female Nobel Peace laureates, including Tawakkol Karman, called Thursday for cessation of all mining activities in Guatemala after condemning severe damage to the environment and criminalization of those opposing extractive projects.

Tawakkol Karman (Yemen), Shirin Ebadi (Iran) and Jody Williams (United States), have expressed solidarity with communities opposing the San Rafael Goldmine, a subsidiary of Canada's Tahoe Resources in southeastern Guatemala.

"We support this community’s struggle and demand for the complete closure of not only the San Rafael Mine, but also of the illegal licenses that have been granted for the destruction of Mother Nature in Guatemala, said the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and Indigenous Guatemalan rights activist Rigoberta Menchú said.

The mine is temporarily suspended by court order after four years of operation, after an environmental NGO denounced the lack of respect for the consultations and the view of the Southeastern Guatemala's indigenous Xinca people.

The delegation of the Nobel Women's Initiative has called on companies and the government to ensure the protection of the population during their visit to the municipality of Casillas, approximately 35 km southeast of Guatemala City.

According to records from the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Guatemala, at the beginning of the year there were 307 licenses for the exploration and exploitation of "metallic and non-metallic" minerals and construction materials.

"Our children could be left without money or mansions, but not without a healthy land," said Norma Solares, a 25-year-old nursing student.

" We are against everything that would destroy the earth," stated Tawakkol Karman.

For her part, Iranian Shirin Ebadi urged the opponents of the mining company to demand that the government breaks the contract related the mining project.

" By allowing the practice of continuing corruption, governments don’t take into account of their people’s interests," she added.

Community members have taken advantage of the visit to report several incidents of repression and arrests by the police against women leaders and activists from the seven municipalities around the mine area where people have begun to suffer from water shortages, according to their allegations.

"We are against companies throughout Guatemala that want to steal the wealth of the land and the people who live off the land," said Jody Williams of the United States.

The Nobel laureates are conducting a human rights verification tour that began last week in Honduras, where they demanded justice for the murder of environmentalist Berta Cáceres in March 2016.

 

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