DoomsdaysCW<p>'We cannot exist if we lose the water': In <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Honduras" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Honduras</span></a>, a community resists a <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/mine" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>mine</span></a> polluting the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/R%C3%ADoGuapinol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RíoGuapinol</span></a> </p><p>"<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/JuanL%C3%B3pez" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>JuanLópez</span></a>, representative of the Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods, told <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/RadioProgreso" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RadioProgreso</span></a> that the activists' next step is advocate for the revoking of Inversiones Los Pinares' mining contracts, the environmental license and the exploitation and exploration permit."</p><p>by Soli Salgado<br>October 18, 2022</p><p>TOCOA, HONDURAS - "The Río Guapinol that streams through the Bajo Aguán valley in northern Honduras has long been a source of drinking, bathing, cleaning, irrigation and cooking water for the surrounding community in Tocoa.</p><p>"In the last few years, the river has also provided an education: how to resist an international mining operation that they say contaminates the river in the name of development; how to confront a seemingly compromised justice system when that <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/resistance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>resistance</span></a> goes awry; and — for the women in particular — how to become leaders of a movement upon the indefinite imprisonment of their husbands and sons.</p><p>"Vilma Cruz raised her five children using the river, including a son who wound up spending almost two and a half years in jail for protesting the mining as part of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Guapinol8" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Guapinol8</span></a>, a group whose 2019 arrests and long detentions drew international outrage.</p><p>"'We don't feel at peace because our water has been endangered,' she said. 'Now, when I go to the river, I feel my chest swell, like I'm not free.'</p><p>A mine emerges, a community responds</p><p>"About a decade ago, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/InversionesLosPinares" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>InversionesLosPinares</span></a>, formerly the Honduran <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EMCO" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>EMCO</span></a> Mining Company and based in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Tocoa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Tocoa</span></a>, applied for a concession to build an iron oxide mine in the protected <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CarlosEscaleras" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>CarlosEscaleras</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NationalPark" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NationalPark</span></a>. Then-President Juan Orlando Hernández authorized the request in 2013, a decision locals said was made without following protocol of consulting residents of the area.</p><p>"The <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/OpenPit" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>OpenPit</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/mining" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>mining</span></a> project was upstream of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/R%C3%ADoGuapinol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RíoGuapinol</span></a>, a channel that stems from the larger <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/R%C3%ADoAguan" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RíoAguan</span></a>, a river that flows through tropical mountains from the Atlantic on the northern side of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CentralAmerican" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>CentralAmerican</span></a> country. </p><p>"When the Río Guapinol in 2018 started to turn a chocolate brown, locals took that as a cue to act against Inversiones Los Pinares. </p><p>"<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/GuapinolResiste" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>GuapinolResiste</span></a>, the local community's movement in response to the mining, said in a 2020 report that even before mining began, the construction of the facilities and roads had polluted both the Guapinol and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SanPedro" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SanPedro</span></a> rivers, affecting 14,000 residents who rely on the water for consumption and domestic purposes.</p><p>"'Losing the river would mean buying water, and you can't buy water for everything,' said Leonel George, who serves on the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods, founded in 2018 in response to the mining project.</p><p>"The river, he added, is 'closely linked to life and the existence of everything that surrounds us,' noting that the committee's concern goes beyond the effects that contaminated water would have on human beings to the river's surrounding <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/forests" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>forests</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/biodiversity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>biodiversity</span></a>."</p><p>Read more:<br><a href="https://www.ncronline.org/earthbeat/justice/we-cannot-exist-if-we-lose-water-honduras-community-resists-mine-polluting-r-o" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">ncronline.org/earthbeat/justic</span><span class="invisible">e/we-cannot-exist-if-we-lose-water-honduras-community-resists-mine-polluting-r-o</span></a></p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/JusticeForJuan" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>JusticeForJuan</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/GuapinolRiver" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>GuapinolRiver</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WaterDefender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WaterDefender</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SaveTheForests" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SaveTheForests</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/DefendTheSacred" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>DefendTheSacred</span></a><br><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NoMiningWithoutConsent" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NoMiningWithoutConsent</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WaterIsLife" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WaterIsLife</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SaveTheRivers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SaveTheRivers</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EMCO" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>EMCO</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/InversionesLosPinares" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>InversionesLosPinares</span></a><br><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/MunicipalCommitteeForTheDefenseOfCommonAndPublicGoods" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MunicipalCommitteeForTheDefenseOfCommonAndPublicGoods</span></a></p>