Urgent communiqué from Ancestral Maya Q'eqchi' Authorities

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March 6, 2024

Home of Angelica Choc, Maya Q’eqchi’ land and rights defender, raided by Guatemalan police
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Below: Urgent communiqué from Ancestral Maya Q'eqchi' Authorities

Well known Q’eqchi’ land defender Angelica Choc is, once again, a victim of repression by the Guatemalan government, in all likeliness due to her courageous advocacy in defense of land, rights and the environment in the eastern El Estor region of Guatemala, in resistance to over 60 years of corrupt, violent aggression by mainly Canadian, and also Swiss (Russian) mining companies and investors.

Home of Angelica, March 6, 2024. Photo: family member

It is widely rumored that Canadian and/or Swiss companies will try and get the infamous and notorious “Fenix” mining operation going again. This act of repression against Angelica Choc may be a warning being sent by government forces, on behalf of the mining sector, to Angelica and many other land and rights defenders in the región.

Many will also know of Angelica as one of 13 Q’eqchi’ plaintiffs in the landmark Hudbay Minerals lawsuits, filed in Canada in 2010, and continuing today.

House of Angelica Choc, defender of Q'eqchi' territories and rights, widow of Adolfo Ich murdered in 2009 while leading the anti-mining struggle in the Q'eqchi' territories of El Estor, is raided.

Communiqué from the Ancestral Maya Q'eqchi' Authorities, March 6, 2024
Barrio La Union, El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala

Maya Q'eqchi' ancestral authorities of Barrio La Union, El Estor, denounce the actions of the public authorities of the PNC (National Civil Police), MP (Public Ministry) and Justice of the Peace in El Estor, for carrying out a raid on the home of human rights defender Angelica Choc, in Barrio La Union, El Estor, on March 6, starting around 5:30 in the morning.

March 6, Angelica Choc's house. Photo: family member

We strongly repudiate these actions of the Guatemalan State. Angelica Choc is a 57 year old widow in poor health, after so many years of struggle in defense of Q'eqchi' territories and rights, and so many years of mining-related attacks against her person and family.

We demand that the State of Guatemala respond and assume responsibility for this abuse of the administration of justice, for yet another 'criminalization' of human rights defenders, and for the state of health of our sister Angelica Choc.

Angélica Choc is the victim of several attacks and human rights violations against her and her family, including the vicious assassination on September 27, 2009 of her husband Adolfo Ich Chaman, for defending Mother Earth against the invasion of mining in our territory. She is also a plaintiff, along with 11 women from the village of Lote 8, and German Chub, in the civil lawsuits in Canada against Hudbay Minerals, former owner of CGN (Compania Guatemalteca de Niquel) and the Fenix mine, for being victims of acts of repression linked to the mining operation in the years 2007-2009.

We demand, once again, that the State of Guatemala stop violating human rights and intimidating defenders, in a country where indigenous peoples defend Mother Earth and human rights, especially in this Maya Q'eqchi' territory of El Estor, Izabal.

Maya Q'eqchi' Ancestral Authorities of the La Unión neighborhood and COCODES.

Rights Action
* is sending emergency response funds to family of Angelica Choc
* coordinating with lawyers in Guatemala to try and determine who filed a seemingly trumped up criminal complaint against Angelica Choc resulting in this “search and seizure order”
* will report again on the well being of Angelica and family, and on the real and imminent threat that global mining companies will soon again try and opérate the “FEnix” mine, and
* continues to support the Hudbay Minerals lawsuits, working with the Toronto-based lawyers, and the Q’eqchi’ plaintiffs and their families.

More information
about Angelica Choc, her family, and many Q’eqchi’ land defenders in the El Estor región

TESTIMONIO-Canadian Mining in Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala

Edited by Catherine Nolin and Grahame Russell
Between the Lines, 2021
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Rights Action archives
60 years of mining in Q’eqchi’ territories ([link removed])

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