I went to Barrio Revolucion -about 15km outside of El Estor- today, where 200 families of peasant farmers have been since September. When I arrived, there was about 70 community members waiting under a large thatched hut, women inside sitting down, and men lining the side, standing.

The land that they are in supposedly belongs to the Compania Guatemalteca de Niquel, a subsidiary of Vancouver based Skye Resources, but the community cementary is there, and many people currently ‘occupying’ the land were born there, before they were thrown out by the company. One woman told me today that her parents fought for that land until they were murdered for their activism.

31 days ago, the company gave them 30 days to leave the land. Community members were expecting that the company would take part in a meeting in Guatemala City in the last few days and resolve the situation. The company, however, didn’t show. Today, I was told by a community leader, “We are not leaving this land.”

I will be returning to visit them on Saturday, and get a proper tour of the area. Tomorrow I am going to Lote 9, an area for which the people have papers to prove that they bought the land from the Government (last payment in 2002), but the civil registry has been destroyed, and the CGN/Skye Resources entered to perforate for exploration in 2005. The perforations were made in land that was being farmed. The company claims to have a licence that grants them the subsoil, but the land is most certainly the property of the Campesinos that live there (I was shown original registry documents).

I will be writing more on this in the days to come. For tonight, I am really truly going to finish my article on the Marlin Project.

I have also been reading a document about Guatemala transforming from a Banana Republic to a Mining republic (titled “EXMIBAL en Guatemala: De Republica bananera a Republica Minera”), published in the LAWGletter by a Canada based “Latin American Working Group.” It was written in the late 70s and is a great piece, with a really advance view of transnational companies for that time period.