Members from the Permanent Council for the Defense of Life and Territory from the Kiche Mayan municipality of Santa Maria Chiquimula gather on the eve before the community consultation on extractive and energy industries. Since 2005, the consultation processes carried out in indigenous territories in Guatemalan are considered a preventive measure in the struggle to protect indigenous territories and their cultures from industrial projects. Santa Maria Chiquimula, Totonicapan, Guatemala. October 25, 2014.
This Land is Ours
The western hemisphere’s bloodiest armed conflict in the twentieth century left over 200,000 victims, most of them indigenous civilians in rural Guatemala. Post-war processes after the 1996 Peace Accords have been slow to implement and have not coped with the harrowing legacy of violence after a 36-year brutal war.
Land tenure can be singled out as the principal motive for the internal war. Indigenous Mayan communities, who make up roughly 60 percent of the country’s population, have maintained a cultural and territorial resistance over generations that have continually clashed with the small but powerful political and economic sectors in the country who have used the Army and Police to forcefully implement their projects.
Post-war Guatemala, currently the fifth most violent country in the world, is once again living similar patterns of repression by State forces that dangerously resemble the war years. Unrelenting foreign and domestic interests in extractive projects, particularly metal mining and hydroelectric power, are dangerously polarizing a fragile society struggling to deal with its recent past.
Youth from Barrio La Revolucion, a community in resistance against the Guatemalan Nickel Company (CGN), occupy an area known as La Cantera (the Quarry) claimed by CGN. Barrio La Revolucion, established in September 2006 as a resistance to the mining project, was violently evicted three times between November 2006 and February 2007. The community claims ancestral rights to the land over the foreign-owned mining company. Chichipate, El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala. September 28, 2014.
Homes in the community of Barrio La Revolucion are burned and destroyed by personnel hired by the Guatemalan Nickel Company (CGN). On January 8th and 9th, 2007, CGN, local subsidiary of Canadian Skye Resources, ordered the forced eviction of five Q'eqchi' Mayan communities around Lake Izabal in El Estor and Panzos, Guatemala. Over 800 State security forces carried out the violent eviction overseeing the destruction and even the burning of hundreds of huts in the indigenous communities who claim the territory as ancestral land. Chichipate, El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala. January 9, 2007.
Locals from San Fernando Chinatal hamlet gather before Cahabon's community consultation on extractive projects. In Cahabon, the Oxec hydro-electric projects have begun construction without a proper consultation, an issue that has caused severe divisions among the local population. Out of a population of 70,000 in Cahabon, 26,526 voted against the extractive projects while 11 voted in favor. The consultation was not sanctioned by official authorities. Since 2005, over 90 consultation processes have been carried out in indigenous territories in Guatemalan. These are considered a preventive measure in the struggle to protect indigenous territories and their cultures from unwanted industrial projects. San Fernando Chinatal Hamlet, Cahabon, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. August 27, 2017.
Community member from 9 de Febrero hamlet stares into the rapids on the Rio Dolores where the Santa Rita hydroelectric project is slated to operate. Q'eqchi' Mayans from local communities have refused to resettle to make way for the hydroelectric project. Numerous violent incidents between landlords and local communities have caused high tensions. On April 7, 2014, local landholder Augusto Sandino Ponce, stormed into 9 de Febrero shooting five locals and fatally injuring Victor Juc Maas, who was 24 years old. Coban, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. September 3, 2014.
Checkpoint between San Rafael Las Flores and Mataquescuintla during the first day of the declared State of Siege in four the municipalities due to the violent mining conflict in the region, involving Vancouver-based Tahoe Resources, which erupted this week resulting in a State of Siege where numerous constitutional rights are suspended for 30 days. Locals demand the cancellation of the mining project due to environmental irregularities as well as a lack of consultation to the local population. Mataquescuintla, Jalapa, Guatemala. May 2, 2013.
Carlos Enrique Pop Ac, 44, blows a conch to call the residents of Rio Polochi 2 to a meeting. The community of Rio Polochic 2, affiliated to the Committe for Campesino Unity (CUC), was officialy acquired for 67 families in 2016. All these families, along with a few hundred more, suffered violent evictions at the hands of the Guatemalan State in 2011 in the Polochic River valley due to land conflicts with the Chabil Utzaj sugar company. After legal and international pressure, the State of Guatemala was forced to find a solution for the 548 families displaced in the region. Today, Q'eqchi' Maya residents of Rio Polochic 2 have developed an agricultural co-op that produces rice, corn, eggs, rubber and eventually will also hold livestock. Rio Polochic 2, Panzos, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. June 28, 2017.
Three-year-old Celia chub Beb holds a wall inside her home next to her mother Candelaria Beb. The Q'eqchi' Mayan community of Lote 8 was violently evicted on January 17, 2007, by State forces at the orders of the Guatemalan Nickel Company (CGN), then-owned by Canadian mining firm Skye Resources. During the eviction, numerous local women were gang-raped by Police officers and CGN security personnel. In a landmark legal case, eleven women from Lote 8 are suing HudBay Minerals Inc., the mining firm that purchased Skye in 2008, in the home jurisdiction of Ontario, Canada, for negligence and carelessness causing physical and psychological harm. Lote 8, El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala. September 30, 2014.
Lucia Maquin helps cook during in the seventh anniversary commemorations for the murder of former Q'eqchi' Mayan community leader, teacher and anti-mining activist Adolfo Ich Chaman. Ich Chaman was murdered on September 27, 2009, by Mynor Padilla, former Army Colonel and head of security at the Guatemalan Nickel Company (CGN). Angelica Choc, plaintiff in the Guatemalan criminal case is also pursuing a high profile civil lawsuit in Canada against HudBay Minerals, company that employed Padilla at the time of the murder. La Union, El Estor, Guatemala. September 27, 2016.
Detail of the hands of Lote 8 community elder Marcelino Coc, 72. The Q'eqchi' Mayan community of Lote 8 was violently evicted on January 17, 2007, by State forces at the orders of the Guatemalan Nickel Company (CGN), then-owned by Canadian mining firm Skye Resources. During the eviction, numerous local women were gang-raped by Police officers and CGN security personnel. In a landmark legal case, eleven women from Lote 8 are suing HudBay Minerals Inc., the mining firm that purchased Skye in 2008, in the home jurisdiction of Ontario, Canada, for negligence and carelessness causing physical and psychological harm. Lote 8, El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala. May 19, 2014.
Two young men fish at dawn in Lake Izabal near the Fenix nickel mining project in El Estor, Guatemala. Established in 1965 as the EXMIBAL mine owned by Canadian mining firm INCO, the project was transferred to the Guatemalan Nickel Company (CGN) in 2005 after the expiration of the original 40-year license. CGN was the local subsidiary of Canadian Skye Resources, a junior mining company comprised of former INCO directors, until Canadian HudBay Minerals acquired Skye Resources in 2008. Russian-based Solway Group bought the mine in 2011. The Fenix project, marred with numerous human rights issues throughout its history, began formal processing operations in May 2014. El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala. September 28, 2014.
Machinery operates in Goldcorp's Marlin gold mine in San Miguel Ixtahuacan, Guatemala. The operations of Goldcorp's Marlin gold mine in Guatemala's western highlands have caused serious internal conflicts within the local Mam Maya communities as well as numerous environmental and health problems. San Miguel Ixtahuacan, San Marcos, Guatemala. February 12, 2007.
Mining and Energy Minister Erick Archilla awaits the arrival of President Otto Perez Molina before the signing of the official convene between the Guatemalan government and Tahoe Resources & Goldcorp's El Escobal silver project via its local subsidiary Minera San Rafael. The signing comes two days after six locals were shot by the company's security guards. Since 2011, eight local communities have carried out plebiscites that have rejected nearly unanimously the mining project Santa Rosa Department,. Guatemala City, Guatemala. April 29, 2013.
Locals from the La Puya peaceful resistance set up a blockade near the entrance to the El Tambor gold mine as riot police near. After two years and two months of peacefully blocking the entrance to U.S.-based Kappes, Cassiday & Associates (KCA) El Tambor gold mine, local residents of San Jose del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc were violently evicted by Guatemalan Police forces in order to introduce heavy machinery inside the industrial site. La Puya, San Pedro Ayampuc, Guatemala. May 23, 2014.
Martin Cac Xol (left), and Rafael Chub Cacao stand inside a home in the hamlet of Lote 8. The Q'eqchi' Mayan community of Lote 8 was violently evicted on January 17, 2007, by State forces at the orders of the Guatemalan Nickel Company (CGN), then-owned by Canadian mining firm Skye Resources. During the eviction, numerous local women were gang-raped by Police officers and CGN security personnel. In a landmark legal case, eleven women from Lote 8 are suing HudBay Minerals Inc., the mining firm that purchased Skye in 2008, in the home jurisdiction of Ontario, Canada, for negligence and carelessness causing physical and psychological harm. Lote 8, El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala. May 19, 2014.
A bullet hole shot by the police pierced the closet in the home of Domingo Rax, 74, who was beaten by police on August 15, 2014. On that day, locals from Samococh blocked the road as police had captured two peasant leaders a few kilometers North in Raxruha. A confrontation between locals and Police resulted in several injured, twenty-two arrested with dubious charges, and the death of three residents of Samococh. The Q'eqchi' Mayan community of Samococh is one numerous rural villages in Guatemala that receives support from CODECA in order to have electric service without paying the high prices set by the private distribution companies. Samococh, Chisec, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. September 5, 2014.
Local men eat breakfast at the anti-mining resistance camp preventing vehicles from entering Minera San Rafael (Tahoe Resources). Mataquescuintla, Guatemala. September 27, 2018.
Lote 8 community members help build the home of Abelardo Tiul Já. The Q'eqchi' Mayan community of Lote 8 was violently evicted on January 17, 2007, by State forces at the orders of the Guatemalan Nickel Company (CGN), then-owned by Canadian mining firm Skye Resources. During the eviction, numerous local women were gang-raped by Police officers and CGN security personnel. In a landmark legal case, eleven women from Lote 8 are suing HudBay Minerals Inc., the mining firm that purchased Skye in 2008, in the home jurisdiction of Ontario, Canada, for negligence and carelessness causing physical and psychological harm. Lote 8, El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala. September 29, 2014.
Locals from Pinares gather before Cahabon's community consultation on extractive projects. In Cahabon, the Oxec hydro-electric projects have begun construction without a proper consultation, an issue that has caused severe divisions among the local population. Pinares, Cahabon, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. August 27, 2017.
Olivia Asig Xol, one of the eleven plaintiffs in the Caal vs. HudBay legal case in Canada, drains corn kernels outside her home. The Q'eqchi' Mayan hamlet of Lote 8 was violently evicted on January 17, 2007, by State forces at the orders of the Guatemalan Nickel Company (CGN), then-owned by Canadian mining firm Skye Resources. During the eviction, numerous local women were gang-raped by Police officers and CGN security personnel. In a landmark legal case, eleven women from Lote 8 are suing HudBay Minerals Inc., the mining firm that purchased Skye in 2008, in the home jurisdiction of Ontario, Canada, for negligence and carelessness causing physical and psychological harm. Lote 8, El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala. September 30, 2014.
Members from the Permanent Council for the Defense of Life and Territory from the Kiche Mayan municipality of Santa Maria Chiquimula prepare the ballots on the eve before the community consultation on extractive and energy industries. Each ballot asks: "Are you in favor of metal mining exploitation, the installation of geothermal energy generators, construction of hydro-electric projects, installation of energy distribution towers, and Telecommunication towers within the territory of the municipality of Santa Maria Chiquimula?" Since 2005, the consultation processes carried out in indigenous territories in Guatemalan are considered a preventive measure in the struggle to protect indigenous territories and their cultures from industrial projects. Santa Maria Chiquimula, Totonicapan, Guatemala. October 25, 2014.
Celebrations in the ancient Mayan site of Zaculeu marking the end of the Mayan Era known as 13 Baktun. Indigenous groups and organizations marked the occasion to reinforce the people's right to ancestral land and territories. Zaculeu, Huehuetenango, Guatemala. December 21, 2012.