Call for mining ban aimed at Canadian multinationals

A bishop has called for mining to be halted in the impoverished Central American state of Guatemala, writes Jon Stibbs.

Bishop Alvaro Leonel Ramazzini Imeri of Huehuetenango backed complaints made in his own diocese about mines that have been dug without the consent of local people: “We propose a radical reform that closes mining sector activity,” he said.

Canadian multinationals were particularly singled out for criticism. The bishop stated that mining companies were “a generator of social conflict, since there is nothing left of the wealth they say they will leave to the community”.

He also accused the mining industry of contaminating precious local resources. Mining companies, he said, “have a negative environmental impact: the waste of water in areas where it is scarce, the use of cyanide, which ends up in the rivers”.