La Voz del Pueblo: Maya Consultas and the Challenge of Self-Determination for Socially Responsible Investment in the Mining Sector.

In Guatemala, the consulta comunitaria recently emerged as a process for local communities to resist mining and other extractive industries in the absence of government consultation. Approximately one million people in more than 76 of these plebiscites said no' to mining or other extractive projects since 2005. This case study examines the perspectives of consulta organizers from three Maya communities in Guatemala's western highlands who rejected the presence of Canada's Goldcorp, Inc. Interviews between May and November 2010 asked the organizers about the movement and the role of Goldcorp's socially responsible investor (SRI), the Ethical Funs, to promote indigenous rights. Employing a critical geographic approach to examine the consultas as an exercise of power and indigenous self-determination, the analysis found that consulta organizers were motivated by the historic and ongoing exclusion of their communities from the priorities of government, the proximity of the mineral licenses to their communities and the potential negative environmental and social impacts from mining. The organizers had no knowledge of SRIs and the lack of knowledge reveals a corporate social responsibility (CSR) gap that is the product of asymmetrical information distribution between investors and affected communities. I conclude that the consultas challenge the discourse of CSR by demanding explicit respect for the right to free, prior and informed consent, and represent a boundary condition for CSR where a local action creates geographic limits on where CSR, as practiced by the mining industry, is welcome. --Leaf ii.