The
proliferation of 'legal' and 'illegal' mines across Honduras, prior to
and following the passage of the new and totally questionable Mining
Law, benefits the prosperity of a minuscule group of transnational
companies, organized crime and their political leaders.
The
recent accident in a gold mine in San Juan de Arriba, in the village
of Cuculmeca Hill (Municipality of Corpus, department of Choluteca),
which trapped 11 miners, seized the attention of a country engrossed in
World Cup soccer and the apocalyptical violence that a small group of
traffickers of misery has subjugated all of Honduras to.
Three
of the eleven miners were rescued from the informal mine's labyrinths,
where another fatal mining accident killed two miners in July 2013. To
add insult to injury, Mr. Juan Hernandez, current president of the
country, demonstrated the executive power's irresponsibility, writing a
"tweet" that announced the rescue of the 11 miners. Unfortunately,
that news was false, indicating the level of the president's
disconnection from reality.
President
Juan Hernandez called mining "modern slavery", and indicated that some
mining companies "have ties with organized crime". These companies
exist and operate within a framework of maximum exploitation of the
labor force and the total destruction of the environment, regardless of
whether they are transnational or local, 'legal' or 'illegal'. The
code of conduct established by the mining companies is similar to that
of drug trafficking cartels. No difference exists between Goldcorp,
Five Star, the Templars or their numerous local counterparts.
Mining
had governed Honduras since colonial times; it was only in the early
twentieth century that swaths of land were given to fruit companies.
Unfortunately, everything seems to indicate that during the
twenty-first century, the country will be devoured by transnational
extractive companies and international capital, via mafias and hired
killers that control political power.
At
the same time that the mining labyrinths of the Culcumeca Hill
crumble, the social fabric of the country dissolves at breakneck speed.
The social disaster reaches unprecedented levels, to the extent that
children are leaving in hoards, seeking supposed opportunities or simply
fleeing from the prevailing violence.
The
scenes captured in the photographs of the San Juan de Arriba mine
area, similar to those photos of children catapulting themselves on
train tops in Mexico, demonstrate the decomposition of a country that
has collapsed, where the satraps in power, crying crocodile tears,
persist in lying about the catastrophe that engulfs us.
Everything
indicates that the eight buried miners have already died.
Nevertheless, their families continue in their hope to find their
corpses at the very least. The same occurs with Honduras as a whole, in
the middle of the social catastrophe that we are living there are still
remnants of hope for Honduran men and women. It is hope founded in the
belief that one day we will be able to rid ourselves of the
dictatorship of organized crime that has had a steel grip on power for
the last decades. In this way, we could neutralize the beast that
systemically drives the sad exodus of children who flee from the depths
of Hell in Honduras.
from here
No comments:
Post a Comment