(Street art depicting the violent reprisal against the Maya Q’eqchi’ communities of El Estor. Including the peaceful Indigenous mining resistance who faced violent reprisal of state forces, including the use of tear gas and the Maya Q’eqchi’ community of Chinebal, El Estor, who experienced the theft of their ancestral land through the eviction and burning of their homes. “El Estor Resists” Photo Credits: María Guarchaj, Maya K’iche’ journalist @marycarr09)

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On October 25, 2021, the Guatemalan Congress ratified a State of Siege in the municipality of Estor, Izabal, Guatemala. States of siege allow the Government to restrict certain articles of the Constitution within a municipality, including the provisions which provide for freedom of action, legal detention, interrogation of detainees and prisoners, the rights to assembly and demonstration, and the right to bear arms. Due to this state of siege, the peaceful demonstrations of the Q’eqchi’ communities have once again been criminalized with extrajudicial detentions, illegal arrests, and raids on the homes of human rights defenders.

For more than 60 years, the Indigenous Q’eqchi’ communities in El Estor have expressed their rejection to mining exploration and exploitation in their territory. However, in 1970, the government of Carlos Arana Osorio granted a 40 year licence for the exploitation of nickel, cobalt, iron, and chromium to Explotaciones y Exploraciones Mineras de Izabal (EXMIBAL), a subsidy of the Canadian company International Nickel Company (INCO). Subsequently, the project has continued under the name of Compañía Procesadora de Níquel de Izabal, S.A. (PRONICO), which is part of Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN), a subsidiary of the transnational Solway Investment Group.

During these long years of dispossession, the communities have mobilized to defend mother nature from environmental and social damage that mining causes. In 2009, Mr. Adolfo Ich Chamán was murdered in Las Nubes, El Estor, Izabal. Aldolfo Ich Chamán was President of the Barrio La Unión Committee, leader of the Las Nubes community, a defender of the rights of his community, and school teacher. In an unprecedented effort, Angelica Choc, along with 12 other plaintiffs, filed a lawsuit in Canada against Hudbay Minerals and its Guatemalan subsidiary, CGN, to bring justice to their Maya-Q’eqchi community. In a separate incident, on May 27th, 2017, Carlos Maaz Coc, an Indigenous and land rights defender, was murdered while participating in a peaceful demonstration to call upon the authorities for a solution to the contamination of Lake Izabal, El Estor. We could continue to list the serious violations that the communities of El Estor have suffered. 

Persistence, courage, and the search for justice led the Union of Artisanal Fishermen in El Estor to initiate legal proceedings against the State of Guatemala for granting the Fénix mining license. The Constitutional Court issued a decision favouring the Union, ordering a consultation process and suspending the Fénix mine. At the same time, the Court reduced the mining area from 247.99 square kilometres (granted improperly years ago to the Canadian companies Skye Resources and Hudbay Minerals) to 6.29 square kilometres. However, due to the non-compliance with the resolution and the bad faith during the pre-consultation process, the Q’eqchi’ population initiated a 20-day peaceful protest to demand the Constitutional Court’s resolution be respected. In response to this, on October 22nd through the 24th, 2021, the Guatemalan National Civil Police (PNC) and the army violently and illegally repressed the peaceful moment with tear gas. One day later, a state of siege was imposed in the municipality of El Estor. States of siege have proven to be a systematic practice of the government to protect business interests and stop the momentum of Q’eqchi’ resistance in El Estor.

Enabled by the state of siege, security forces carried out illegal detentions and raids on the homes of human rights defenders, the Defensoría Q’eqchi’ office, and the Xyaab’ Tzuultaq’a community radio station.  

The communities of El Estor are in a vulnerable situation and at constant risk of abuses and crimes committed by both the mining company and the Guatemalan authorities. As the state of siege expired on November 23, 2021, a state of prevention was imposed upon the municipality of El Estor, Izabal for the next 15 days.