Testimonio: Canadian Mining and the Aftermaths of Genocide in Guatemala ed. by Catherine Nolin and Grahame Russell (review)

Reviewed by: Testimonio: Canadian Mining and the Aftermaths of Genocide in Guatemala ed. by Catherine Nolin and Grahame Russell Vaclav Masek Catherine Nolin and Grahame Russell (Eds.) Testimonio: Canadian Mining and the Aftermaths of Genocide in Guatemala. Toronto: Behind the Lines Books, 2021. xxxi + 268 pages. Illustrations, index. $24.99 paperback (ISBN: 978-17-71-13562-7); $28.99 e-book (ISBN: 978-1-683-40329-6); $28.50 e-book (978-17-71-13563-4). In the 2013 documentary film Gold Fever, an audiovisual registry of environmental harms, human rights violations, and repression caused by Goldcorp Inc.'s mining operation in the western highlands of Guatemala, Noam Chomsky says, "You cannot say the mining companies are responsible for General Efraín Ríos Montt's slaughter but they are benefiting from the structures that were left in place after those many years of savagery and violence and repression" (Haines & Haines, 2013, minute 14:30). For Indigenous peoples in Guatemala, contemporary mining practices are experienced within a lingering legacy of colonialism and genocide (see Lovell & Lutz, 1996; Solano, 2005). Testimonio narrates the history of mining in Guatemala—one of emblematic impunity—and raises the voices and stories of the resilience of Indigenous communities who are dialectically defined by the history of injustices they have faced, even after transitioning from a military dictatorship to a multicultural democracy. The postwar context shaped many aspects of the current Guatemalan anti-mining movement. The Peace Accords of 1996 allowed activism to proliferate, but, as the book shows, the legacies of genocides remain latent. Testimonio is made up of contributions from independent journalists, media practitioners, and community leaders engaged in a collective sharing of usually complex and violent events concerning the four main mining-resistance struggles in Guatemala: Goldcorp Inc.'s Marlin mine in the Western Highlands of Sipakapa; Tahoe Resources' Escobal mine in eastern Guatemala; HudBay Mineral's Fénix mining project in the Guatemalan Caribbean; and Radius Gold/Kappes, Cassiday & Associates' El Tambor mining site in La Puya. The broad geographical reach of the comparative case studies makes Testimonio foundational and critical reading for the study of democracy and development in Guatemala. In the wake of the ever-expanding multinational extractive practices in ancestral territories, Indigenous authorities across the country are mobilizing to defend their communities and livelihoods. Testimonio is proof that by reclaiming the community as a socio-environmental nexus, the anti-mining movement is asking for a redistribution of political power, mainly in relation to ethnic and class inequalities that have [End Page 255] organized Guatemalan society for decades (Martínez-Peláez, 2009; Velásquez Nimatuj, 2019). Grassroots environmental movements, linked by solidarity networks that bridge anti-mining struggles, also demand more inclusive practices within political-administrative governance structures provided by the institutions of a more open civil society. The preface explains the accusation of defamatory content and unsubstantiated material by the previous publisher, Springer-Nature, which unilaterally canceled the book contract despite the truthful information about serious issues and the fact-based analysis of each piece included in the volume. The book then presents a compelling argument. Environmental damage is being foisted onto Guatemala by Canadian mining companies, juggernauts of exploitation, triggering inter-generational harm. Testimonio's intended audience is citizens in the Global North, primarily Canadians. As insurgent research (Gaudry, 2011), Testimonio creates accountability: The interlocking themes of globalization and capitalism raise awareness that the Canadian government supports an economic development model based on extractive practices while turning a blind eye or openly denying any wrongdoing by corporations. The volume powerfully asserts that Canadian corporations knowingly work under these conditions with an undemocratic ally. Thematically, the illustration of a local-global partnership of elites governing these extractive projects' planning, construction, and enactment underlines the contested morality of so-called partnerships in relations between Indigenous communities and mining companies. When victims and survivors speak about their suffering and losses, they rely on their interlocutors to respond: Testimony demands acknowledgment and redress. Canadian mining must follow a "transnational understanding" and "recognize the need to turn around and face the connections with Guatemala's genocidal past and violent present" (p. 7). The volume posits an underlying critique of extractive development...

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