[6] Currently, Latin America and the Caribbean are dominated by Canadian companies falling from a 49% to 32% held control over the larger-company mineral exploration market after the global recession of 2008.
[1] Mercosur, an economic agreement between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay along with associate members Chile and Bolivia in 1994 want to improve development through protecting the free movement of goods between these countries.
[19][20] Recently, with the Conservative government of Canada, a dramatic shift in foreign aid has occurred towards middle-income countries in Latin America, causing the abandonment of many projects in Africa.
NGOs and mining industry critics have been accusing the Conservative government for subsidizing phony "corporate social responsibility" projects that are led by profitable companies with bad intentions.
Jamie Kneen of MiningWatch Canada said that "the government is helping the mining industry to put a positive spin on their operations, despite their negative environmental and human-rights records".
In contrast, the president of the Canadian Mining Association Pierre Gratton believes "these projects help improve the image of the industry ... because they are meaningful and have value.
[23] Increased social disorganization with violent protests, criminal activities and even deaths and group rape have been suspected to be caused by the involvement of some Canadian mining companies.
[30] In addition, reports of the spills of harmful chemicals, such as cyanide in local water supplies has increased deaths of livestock and skin disorders and infection among children.
[31] In the face of resource extraction within Latin America, children are being exposed to higher rates of urban air pollution, pesticides, heavy metals, toxic synthetic chemicals, and hazardous electronic waste.
[34][35] (see Greenpeace Protests) Since Barrick Gold Corp acquired the Pascua Lama open-pit mine site in 1994 which crosses the borders of Argentina and Chile, environmental concerns such as water pollution and glacier relocation.
were displayed upon Prime Minister Stephen Harper's visit in July 2007 and show the growing negative opinion of Canadian relations by Latin Americans.
In a particular case the Maya-Mam in San Miguel Ixtahuacán have experienced an increase in violence, particularly during an event where the government unleashed security forces killing one man and seriously wounding 16 people.
[24] The Guatemala government suspended operations of the Canadian Goldcorp's Marlin Mine after the demands of the 18 Maya Indigenous communities affected by the environmental degradation of land.
[19] Findings of dangerously high levels of heavy metal poisoning in the blood of children and adults according to World Health Organization and CDC standards in the Siria Valley due to open-pit, cyanide leaching.
[31] Canadian government and business such as Aura Minerals still cooperate with the Honduran regime with further investments in corrupt mining practices and low-paid sweatshop industry.
[42] Lawsuits against the company have been launched by a group of 11 women from Guatemala with allegations of gang-rape by security personnel, members of the police and military in 2007 after an attempt to clear people from lands near a mining project.
[26] In addition a lawsuit for the murder of a man by private security guards hired by HudBays Guatemalan subsidiary company in 2009 was also put forth in Ontario courts.
[26] The brutal murder of an indigenous rural worker and the resulting wounding of seven others by a subsidiary of HudBay Minerals Inc. occurred in 2009 after locals gathered to protest a forced eviction were reported by Amnesty International and other Human rights groups.
An article written by faculty of law professors from both the University of Toronto and Ottawa in the Canadian Globe and Mail argued if standards are being met then the extreme opposition towards Bill C-311 should not have occurred by mining companies.
[35][59] David Harvey's idea of accumulation by dispossession is a framework used by some sociologists, economists, and geographers to understand the activities of Canadian mining companies in Latin America.
[1] A caveat of this form of neoextractivism is the process by which accumulation occurs cannot be distinguished from the inevitable reorganization of the lives of peoples within the community, through means of force and violence.