Good afternoon.
My name is Luis Fernando García Monroy, and I come from Guatemala. To give you some context, I would like to first tell you about the motivation that led me to defend natural resources.
My first motivation for defending natural resources, defending my rights, and defending our Mother Earth is the vital fluid that is water. In Guatemala we are suffering from major extraction of natural resources. Minera San Rafael, a mining company located in the eastern part of Guatemala, has been the worst human rights violator. We have had more than 150 cases of fellow defenders who have faced criminal charges due to unfair persecution and the criminalization of the defence of human rights by this company.
I am a survivor of an attack against my life led by this mining company in 2013. Seven of us were injured in that attack. I spent seven days in a hospital. Given the injuries from this attack, I've had six surgeries to date.
I want to focus today on the current danger in Guatemala for human rights defenders.
First of all, the Guatemalan state is deeply corrupted. The authorities have sold themselves. These companies, which are Canadian in origin, want to use money to solve any problem they have, and we are up against them. They are taking away our resources.
The mining company is in our territory, and a number of families live there. We are farmers. We grow corn. Now we can't sell our products because people say they are polluted due to the fact that there's a mining company next to our farms.
Also, some communities have had to be forcefully displaced because of the use of explosives in these mining operations. Recently, 90 families were displaced because the ground where they lived started to crack. A number of houses were subject to landslides.
As I said, a number of our fellow defenders have been murdered, and the murderers remain unpunished. We know Canada is a country where human rights are greatly valued and respected, so we need your support immediately as Canadian authorities. As defenders ourselves, we are in grave danger. All of our rights are being violated, and first of all, our right to consultation.
Consultation of our peoples has never been done. Some of us in the eastern region have carried out our own municipal consultations, but the decisions have not been respected. The project is still there and continues to operate, and what we need now is protection for defenders.
Due to all these human rights violations, we are under a state of siege. A “state of siege” means there is military rule. Between the national civilian police of Guatemala and the military, around 5,000 personnel came to inflict terror on our population. They brought in high-calibre weapons, as well as tanks, and had more than 20 detention orders against human rights defenders. Some of our fellow defenders were persecuted for seven months and others were imprisoned.
We know these extractive companies here tell you that the people are happy that they are bringing development, but I come here to tell you that this is false. What they do is criminalize the people and destroy the environment. As if that wasn't enough, in Guatemala the communities suffer great poverty, as well as water scarcity, and we know that these extractive companies are using large quantities of water.
What I'm asking you to do is investigate. Investigate these companies and help us to bring in some regulation of their activities. Also, if you find that a company has violated human rights in Guatemala, we demand that the company be closed.
Thank you very much for this opportunity.
Again, I am Luis Fernando. I am a survivor. It would take me four or five days to tell you my story of human rights violations against me by this company.
I know that time is short, so I thank you for your attention.