By Tek Omod
We started the day with an early breakfast before heading out at 7:30 a.m. for the three-hour drive to Mataquescuintla. Along the way, we stopped at a mine blockage, where community members shared their work. Many of them volunteered their time to monitor and control the petroleum trucks passing through.
When we arrived in Mataquescuintla, we sat with members of the Xinka community and listened. What unfolded was fifteen years of resistance told with quiet, steady conviction: a 2017 Constitutional Court ruling that found the Xinka People’s consent had been violated when a silver mine was granted its operating license; a court order that every government ministry and the mining company itself failed to comply with; and a community that responded not by waiting, but by acting. They hired thirteen independent international experts who confirmed what people already felt in their bodies: the water carried high levels of arsenic and lead; the water table near Las Flores had dropped one hundred metres; and the waste channels sitting one to two kilometres from the town centre were operating above safe levels and could one day overflow.
In 2024, community assemblies across six municipalities gave their answer: no consent. That decision now sits with the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) in Guatemala. Their greatest fear, expressed plainly and without drama, is that the state simply won’t respect it.
Before we said goodnight, someone brewed a cup of Colis coffee, the cooperative’s agroecological export brand sold in Canada, the United States, Germany, and Japan. The ask was clear: when you visit the Embassy, tell them to respect the decision. And wherever you go after this, carry the story with you.
We then headed to our hotel to drop off our things and took some time to walk around the city. The evening wrapped up with dinner and a reflection session together.
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