What is land? A resource to be exploited? A commodity to be traded? A
home to cherish? In Guatemala, a country still reeling from thirty-six
years of US-backed state repression and genocides, dominant Canadian
mining interests cash in on the transformation of land into property,
while those responsible act with near-total impunity.
Editors Catherine Nolin and Grahame Russell draw on over thirty years of
community-based research and direct community support work in Guatemala
to expose the ruthless state machinery that benefits the Canadian mining
industry--a staggeringly profitable juggernaut of exploitation,
sanctioned and supported every step of the way by the Canadian
government.
This edited collection calls on Canadians to hold our government and
companies fully to account for their role in enabling and profiting from
violence in Guatemala. The text stands apart in featuring a series of
unflinching testimonios (testimonies) authored by Indigenous community
leaders in Guatemala, as well as wide-ranging contributions from
investigative journalists, scholars, lawyers, activists, and
documentarians on the ground.
As resources are ripped from the earth and communities and environments
ripped apart, the act of standing in solidarity and bearing
witness--rather than extracting knowledge--becomes more radical than
ever.
