Someone Else's Treasure - Guatemala

Within the Department of San Marcos, in the western highlands of Guatemala, the Marlin Mine is located along the border between the municipalities of San Miguel Ixtahuacán and Sipakapa. The Marlin Mine, which has both open-pit and underground operations, is fully owned by Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc., one of the worlds biggest gold companies. The mine is operated by Montana Exploradora, a subsidiary fully owned by Goldcorp.

Someone Elses Treasure is an ongoing multimedia project which brings to light some of the experiences of people around the world whose lives have been impacted by the global mining industry including communities in the Philippines, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Chile, Canada, and now Guatemala.

The mining companies perspectives are easily accessible. The views of NGOs, human rights organizations and environmentalists are easily accessible. The perspectives of economists and academics are easily accessible. The views of the politicians, geologists and engineers are also easily accessible. But the perspectives of the people who actually live next to these mines are not.

For this reason, the focus of Someone Elses Treasure is on the people, the local communities, not the companies.




Photography & Production
Allan Lissner

Music
"T-Xe Chman" - Grupo Cotzic

"Sipakapa no se Vende" - Grupo Cotzic

"La Mineria" - Live recording of the San Miguel
Ixtahuacan community singing at Church


Translation
Alejandro Alfaro
Maria Van der Maaten

Special Thanks to
The people of San Miguel Ixtahuacan & Sipakapa

COPAE - The Pastoral
Commission for Peace
and Ecology

CSRT - Community Solidarity Response Toronto

NCA - Norwegian Church Aid

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• mining
• guatemala
• gold
• san marcos
• sipakapa
• sipacapa
• photojournalism
• photography
• multimedia
• lissner
• goldcorp
• someone else's treasure
• social justice
• human rights
• canada
• tsx

[MrMeme50000]

otraves lascompanias estranjeras asiendo delas sullas mientras los campecinos se mueren en la miseria el govierno llenandose los bolcillos ladones comensando con colon ..

[Cgal2011]

I love the music and the photography. The story is very moving. I wish more people would make a stand to put a stop to these profiteers.

[rkmsuperman]

There friends, this effort its very nice and have a lot of ideas, but we need the other part. i know this video is not a documental and do not pretend to be objective. I have a little knowledge about environment (more than 12 years), and in this movie we can not see the other part, and the development with out the projects, maybe that perspective can give us a bigger idea about it. Sideways nice video production.

[austinkathi]

Thank you for this. It makes me sick, especially that this is for gold- something that really, no one has to have to live- but unpolluted water IS something we all need for life.

[CiscoExAnimo]

Esta compania parte o diferente que GOLDCorp?

Que corporaciones estan involucradas?

Que organizaciones estas dando a conocer sobre estas corporaciones?

[TheShortestDistance]

We need more productions like this about the region. Thank you.

[robertdjwizard]

God dame thiefs!!

[Magnoliapetunia]

Alan, very moving piece. I saw your post on lightstalkers. Love the music of the highlands as well. Bravo, Nancy