I am writing in response to your article on the activities of a junior exploration company in Guatemala (T.N.M., Oct. 17/03) in which you make several wild and unsubstantiated assertions regarding Exploraciones y Explotaciones de Minera Izabal (Exmibal), a majority-owned Inco subsidiary of which I am president. I note particularly that you do not attribute any of your erroneous comments and did not speak to me or to anyone at Inco before publishing this nonsense.
Exmibal granted access to the property to our colleagues in the junior company as a courtesy in order to facilitate a visit by their financial analysts. It appears that your journalist, John Cumming, whom I assume was an invited guest of the company, took advantage of his very brief visit to draw conclusions about Exmibal’s reputation in Guatemala and decide that the closure of the project because of a sharp rise in fuel costs in the late 1970s was a “spectacular failure” and a “stark monument to bad planning.” He offers no evidence for these assertions and no explanation as to how Inco could have “planned” for the actions of the OPEC oil cartel.
I would remind Mr. Cumming that journalism does have certain standards. Fiction masquerading as informed comment does not reflect well on your newspaper. The only part of your article that I think warrants the adjective “spectacular” is the spectacle that Mr. Cumming has made in presenting himself as an authority on Guatemala and world oil price forecasting.
For your information, and that of your misinformed readers, Exmibal has made every effort to maintain excellent relations in the local community of El Estor, as well as to support a corporate office in Guatemala City. It has a strong core of goodwill in El Estor from its operating days.
Since the shutdown more than 20 years ago, Inco has funded the continued care and maintenance of the facility that have provided jobs. It has also co-operated in a number of initiatives to sell Exmibal property to local farmers. In the specific instance of the townsite and golf course, the properties are leased to local cattle ranchers as grazing land.
If you make any further references to Exmibal, would you please ensure that your writers are properly informed. As president of the company, I represent the interests of both Inco and Guatemalan owners. I would be pleased to provide you with a more balanced account.
Robert Horn
President, Exmibal
Guatemala City
Be the first to comment on "Reporter ‘misinformed’"