In October 2021, the Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network initiated this urgent action calling for an immediate end to the excessive violence against Maya Q'eqchi' defenders in peaceful resistance against the illegal Fénix-Pronico nickel mining project in El Estor, Izabal. It was endorsed by several organizations. The letter can be viewed in Spanish here. The following is a version in English.
URGENT ACTION : GUATEMALA: State must immediately stop the excessive violence against defenders of the Maya Q'eqchi' people in peaceful resistance against the illegal nickel project in El Estor.
After twenty days of peaceful resistance against the illegal mining of their ancestral territories and the Guatemalan State's failure to enforce the Constitutional Court's ruling to immediately halt the mining, hundreds of State security agents are using excessive force to evict Maya Q'eqchi' fishermen and indigenous authorities in El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala. In addition, journalists and human rights observers on site are being threatened and harassed to silence what is happening in the area, especially related to the lack of compliance with the Constitutional Court's order to immediately stop operations at the mine site due to the lack of consultation with the communities.
October 24, 2021
We condemn the excessive use of violence by Guatemalan state security forces against Mayan Q'eqchi' fishermen and authorities who are asserting their legitimate rights to peaceful assembly and protest against the illegal mining operations of the Swiss-Russian Solway Group at the Fénix-Pronico nickel mine in El Estor, Izabal.
Defenders and journalists covering the protest have been tear-gassed, beaten and threatened by the excessive police and military contingent, and reports that more security is on the way to the area raise the alarm of more attacks and more illegal evictions. There are verified reports that the Police are entering the neighborhoods in search of social movement leaders and Maya Q'eqchi' community members who filed a successful writ of amparo against the mine's operations.
In June 2020, the Constitutional Court ordered the Guatemalan State to close the operations after ruling that the Ministry of Energy and Mines granted an exploitation license to Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN) - then owned by Canadian Skye Resources - in 2005 without consulting the affected communities. Operations at the mine have continued over the years, first with Hudbay Minerals, also of Canada, and currently through Solway Group, a Swiss-Russian consortium. During the ownership of each company, there have been acts of serious violence and systematic human rights violations against indigenous rights defenders.
