BTS February 2021 Newsletter
Check out our latest newsletter, which includes updates from Guatemala, news from the network, upcoming events and more!
BTS Website Launch & Social
Join us for the launch of our new website and connect with members of the network. The evening will feature a performance from musician Erick Carillo and insights from Festivales Solidarios!Festivales Solidarios is a group of Indigenous and Meztizo youth in Guatemala who use art and social media in resistance [...]
Updates from BTS Partners
Highlands Committee of Small Farmers (CCDA) Our friends at the CCDA continue their incredible work of community organizing in response to the many challenges faced. The end of 2020 brought on many difficulties with regards to the continuous violence and criminalization against land defenders. The CCDA continues to provide support [...]
Conviction of Hudbay’s ex-security chief in Guatemala
Photo: Angelica Choc and German Chub On January 6, 2020 a judge in Puerto Barrios, in Eastern Guatemala accepted the guilty plea of Mynor Padilla for the murder of community leader Adolfo Ich Chaman and injury to German Chub Caal, Haroldo Cucul and Alejandro Acte. Padilla was the head of [...]
Attack against Julio Gonzalez of the Escobal Mine Resistance
On the morning of Saturday, January 16, Julio González was shot by unknown assailants in his home in an assasination attempt. Julio is an extraordinary young man. He was one of the first people who spoke out against the Escobal mine in Mataquescuintla, now owned by Canadian company Pan American [...]
Guatemala Update ~ January 2021
Heading into 2021 Guatemala was recuperating from a series of environmental and political storms. The end of the hurricane season wrapped up after a higher than usual amount of rain which saturated the soils across the country and exacerbated the devastation brought on by the tailends of hurricanes Eta and [...]
Open letter: 190+ organizations call for investigation following assassination attempt against Xinca community leader
January 21, 2021 TO: María Consuelo Porras, Attorney General, Office of the Public Prosecutor, Guatemala; Augusto Jordán Rodas Hernández, Ombudsman, Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman, Guatemala; Sean McAleer, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Guatemala, Pan American Silver; Michael Steinmann, President and Chief Executive Officer, Pan American Silver; Ross [...]
Events for International Development Week 2021
Thanks to the Atlantic Council for International Cooperation for hosting IDW 2021! You are invited to our International Development Week event! Join BTS Cooperants Laura and Indigo for an interactive Lunch & Learn about coffee, justice movements in Guatemala, and the ways that they’re connected. We’ll dive into the history [...]
TAKE ACTION: Canada must provide promised powers to Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise
In January 2018, the government announced that it would create an independent office with the power to investigate. Instead, on April 8, 2019, it unveiled a powerless advisory post, little different from what has already existed for years. The Government of Canada failed to appoint an independent Ombudsperson for Responsible [...]
Consultations at Risk: Advances in the Escobal Mine Consultation Overshadowed by Constitutional Crisis
A new report Consultations at Risk: Advances in the Escobal Mine Consultation Overshadowed by Constitutional Crisis examines the ongoing consultation process of the Xinka people by Guatemala's Ministry of Energy and Mines during the 2020 Constitutional Crisis. The document was produced by EarthWorks, IPS- Global Economy Program and the Maritimes-Guatemala [...]