Euan Wallace and Martina Mariano write in The Guardian about the ongoing struggle of the La Lima community, near Asunción Mita in the Department of Jutiapa, close to the border with El Salvador. It is a story replicated across Guatemala where Canadian mining interests have sought to exploit the environment and the poverty of the local people, and of the Fightback of the affected communities.
After lying dormant for years, the Era Dorada project in Asunción Mita resumed this year and villagers say history is being repeated, despite promises of change
In the community of La Lima in Guatemala, Elda Dinora Ramírez, 58, looks towards a small well at the back of her home. Dusty wooden planks lie across the opening, concealing the faint gleam of water far below. “The well is drying up again,” she says.
Ramírez’s home lies less than a mile from Era Dorada – a goldmining project acquired by the Canadian multinational Aura Minerals in January 2025. After years of inactivity, the project was reactivated this year when the Guatemalan government granted Aura a construction licence.
Exploration began in 1997 under the then-owners Entre Mares, a subsidiary of Goldcorp, and the project has faced a significant backlash throughout its 29-year history.
[…]
Although the mine’s development was suspended in 2013 due to unfavourable market conditions, the project site continued to have water extracted in subsequent years.
With operations temporarily halted, locals around the mine reported that water levels in their wells began to recover. Then known as Cerro Blanco, the project was sold by Goldcorp to the Vancouver-based Bluestone Resources in 2017. In 2021, Bluestone announced a controversial plan to convert the project into an open-pit mine.
[…]
In 2024, Guatemala’s new government annulled the environmental licence for Bluestone’s proposed open-pit mine, just months after it had been approved by the previous administration. But activists feared that work on the project would not remain dormant for ever.
“I knew it wouldn’t be over,” says Barrera. “This will only stop when they take the gold.”
Today, the mining site hums with life once again. Heavy vehicles judder past the rusted coils of barbed wire that mark the site’s borders, clouds of dust rising in their wake. Workers in hard hats and navy-blue overalls gather around the entrance.
You can read the full piece, with links and photos, here,‘They take the water, the springs dry up’: fear as Guatemalan goldmine plan is revived.
Thanks to Rights Action, some background to the issues can be found here:
PBI-Guatemala notes community resistance to Cerro Blanco project acquired by Canadian mining company, by PBI-Canada, November 28, 2025, https://pbicanada.org/2025/11/28/pbi-guatemala-notes-community-resistance-to-cerro-blanco-project-acquired-by-canadian-mining-company/
US-Backed Canadian Mine in Guatemala Threatens Water Supply for Millions Activists vow to fight the Cerro Blanco mine, which threatens a water supply for millions in Guatemala and El Salvador, by Michael Fox, TRUTHOUT, May 27, 2024, https://truthout.org/articles/us-backed-canadian-mine-in-guatemala-threatens-water-supply-for-millions/
Categories: Accompaniment, Corruption, Criminalisation, Criminalization, Environment, Guatemala, Human Rights, Impunity, Land, Mining, Poverty, Resource Extraction, Solidarity in Action, Solidarity in Action/Guatemala
Post comments here