Why are so many thousands of Central Americans forced to flee their homes, families and countries, year after year, decade after decade? It is astonishing and tiring to read, month after month, reports about the forced migrancy situation and not read a single explanation about how the U.S. and Canadian governments and other actors in the so-called international community maintain full and beneficial economic, political and military relations with the very regimes and economic elites in Guatemala and Honduras responsible for the conditions forcing people to flee.
Grahame Russell, author with Catherine Nolin of "Testimonio: Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala," will connect the dots between forced migrancy and military coups, for-export production, and the lack of human rights and labor and environmental standards. He will also give concrete examples from the community defense -vs- mining struggles that Canadian companies are involved in.
Russell is a non-practicing Canadian lawyer, an adjunct professor at University of Northern British Columbia and the director of Rights Action.