|
|
|
|
|
April 11, 2025
Q’eqchi’ Communities Block Roads,
Say ‘no’ to Montreal-based Central America Nickel
No end in sight to 60 years of Canadian mining ‘sacrifice zones’ in Mayan territories in Guatemala
|
|
Canadian companies are pushing yet again to exploit the lands, environment and lives of Q’eqchi’ peoples. Central America Nickel (CAN) and Auxico Resources of Montreal, Quebec are picking up from Nichromet Extraction Inc., Skye Resources and Hudbay Minerals, all benefiting from the devastating legacy of the International Nickel Company (INCO).
The Q’eqchi’ people are forced again to risk suffering State and private sector repression, just to say ‘no’ to ever more harmful and oftentimes violent mining.
Below
- “Happening now: Q’eqchi’ communities say ‘no’ to Canadian mining on indigenous territories in eastern Guatemala”, by Grahame Russell, with information from Carlos Ernesto Choc
- Background article: “Exploration of nickel generates rejection in Livingston communities”, by Luis Solano, January 29, 2025, El Observador
- Call by Q’eqchi’ people: Immediate suspension of all mining operations in territories of Q’eqchi’ peoples in eastern Guatemala
|
|
|
Happening now: Q’eqchi’ communities say ‘no’ to Canadian mining on indigenous territories in eastern Guatemala
by Grahame Russell, with information from Carlos Ernesto Choc
Once again, a Canadian company – this time the Montreal-based Central America Niquel (CAN) (https://www.centralamericanickeluaex.com/) - is pushing ahead, illegally according to local communities, with an unwanted mining operation in the same Sierra Santa Cruz mountain range where Maya Q’eqchi’ communities have suffered and resisted over 60 years of harmful, violent and corrupt mining operations.
Once again, Guatemalans are forced to take to the roads in peaceful protest to say ‘No to mining’, running the risk again of State and private sector repression. Early on April 7, hundreds of people from 54 mainly Q’eqchi’ communities set up road blocks on the main highway leading from Rio Dulce (department of Izabal) north to the Peten.
|
|
|
Now in day five of the peaceful occupation, the local population are waiting for representatives of the mining company Rio Nickel (Guatemalan subsidiary of CAN), as well as representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, to hear the demands of the 54 communities that are calling for the mining license to be annulled.
|
|
|
|
Carlos Ernesto Choc photos and reports:
“We, the 54 communities that get our water supply from this source, are aware of the struggle that has been going on for many, many years,” said Hendry Andrade, first councillor of Livingston.
|
|
|
|
The municipal mayor Enrique Xol appeared in the community of San Antonio Sejá, at the request of the communities, and said that as mayor he understands the need for water and for conserving it. He said he respects the decision of the communities and their rejection of mining.
|
|
|
60-year Nightmare of Fenix Mine in Q’eqchi’ territories of Panzos, El Estor, Livingston
- 1964-2004: INCO (Canadian owner) and EXMIBAL (subsidiary in Guatemala)
- 2004-2008: Skye Resources (Canadian, incorporated by former INCO directors) and CGN (new name of EXMIBAL)
- 2008-2011: Hudbay Minerals (Canadian, bought mine from Skye Resources) and CGN
- 2011-Present: Solway Investment Group (Swiss, with Russian investors) and CGN / PRONICO
- 2024-Present: Fenix Nickel Company (USA), newly incorporated subsidiary of Solway Investment Group
- 2024-Present: Central America Nickel (Canada) and Rio Niquel (Guatemala subsidiary)
Occurring in waves over the course of this entire time, mining in this Q’eqchi’ region of the Sierra Santa Cruz has been characterized by corruption, forced evictions and land theft, human rights violations including killings, rapes, lawfare (criminalizing community defenders), environmental and health harms and, for the most part, complete impunity in Guatemala and in the home countries (Canada, mainly, and also Switzerland and most recently the U.S.) of the companies.
The recent settlement of landmark Hudbay Minerals lawsuits (Oct.7, 2024 press release: https://rightsaction.org) are an important exception to this almost iron clad norm of impunity.
Gathered Rio Dulce community members find it incredible that yet another mining company arrives in the Q’eqchi region – this time, Rio Nickel (Central de América Nickel) -, claiming to have the needed mining licenses, when they knew nothing about this whatsoever.
Corrupted, repressive government of President Giammattei
They remind the public that CAN/Rio Niguel’s alleged licenses were granted during the government of then President Alejandro Giammattei who is linked to numerous corruption schemes with mining companies in this region and who allegedly received financial benefits from drug traffickers.
Cynical hypocrisy
Furthermore, Giammattei is barred from entering the U.S. (https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-01-17/us-bars-ex-guatemala-president-alejandro-giammattei-from-entry-3-days-after-he-left-office) and Canada (https://sanctionsnews.bakermckenzie.com/canada-enacts-new-sanctions-regime-in-relation-to-guatemala-4-individuals-targeted/) on allegations of corruption.
Yet, the U.S. and Canada imposed sanctions on Giammattei only after he left office in January 2024. During his entire time in office, the U.S. and Canada referred to the Guatemalan government as a “democratic ally”, maintaining and pushing for expanded North American investments and business interests in the country.
(Carlos Ernesto Choc is a Q'eqchi' journalist, with an environmental and human rights focus.)
|
|
|
Background article
Exploration of nickel generates rejection in Livingston communities
by Luis Solano, January 29, 2025, El Observador
(Translation by Rights Action. Any errors are ours.)
https://elobservadorgt.org/2025/01/29/exploracion-de-niquel-genera-rechazo-en-comunidades-de-livingston/
In a hearing that congress members from the Voluntad, Oportunidad, Solidaridad (VOS) political party held with authorities from Guatemala’s Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) on January 28, it transpired that the mining company Rio Nickel, S.A. has more than a dozen mining exploration applications, almost all of them located in the Sierra Santa Cruz mountain range, Livingston, Izabal.
This block of licenses belongs to a former group of licenses that were granted to Nichromet Guatemala, another company registered in Guatemala that is a subsidiary of the Canadian company Central America Nickel (CAN), in which there are also shareholding interests of the Canadian company Auxico Resources.
Canadian investors move forward in Livingston
In the context of community protests over the presence of a Canadian mining company in Livingston, Izabal, congress members from the VOS party summoned senior officials from the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) to clarify these matters.
Those summoned were the Vice-Minister of Energy and Mines, in charge of the Energy Area, Juan Fernando Castro Martínez; the Vice-Minister of Mining and Hydrocarbons, Carlos Alberto Ávalos Ortiz; the Director General of Mining, Julio Roberto Luna Aroche; and the advisor to the Vice-Ministry of Sustainable Development of the MEM, Enrique Roberto Cifuentes Domínguez, replacing the Vice-Minister of Sustainable Development, Luis Haroldo Pacheco Gutiérrez, who was absent.
Luna Aroche confirmed that the company Rio Nickel, S.A. has 12 mining exploitation requests, of which six are with the Vice-Ministry of Sustainable Development and six are pending review. And, although he claimed it was a relatively new company, in reality Rio Nickel, S.A. was set up in 2007 as a subsidiary of Canadian company Nichromet Extraction Inc. that had established its own subsidiary Nichromet Guatemala, S.A. in 2004.
Today, both Rio Nickel S.A. and Nichromet Guatemala S.A. are subsidiaries of Central America Nickel (CAN), presided over by the Canadian Pierre Gauthier, who has a long mining history in Guatemala.
Although Luna Aroche cited 12 applications, the MEM database only shows 11. The minerals prevalent in all these licenses are: nickel, cobalt, gold, silver, iron oxide and rare earths.
Of the 11 license applications, 9 are in Livingston, Izabal, in the Sierra Santa Cruz. Of the other two, one covers territory in Cubulco, Baja Verapaz and Uspantán, Quiché; while the other is in the foothills of the Sierra de las Minas, between San Cristóbal Acasaguastlán, El Progreso, and Usumatlán, Zacapa.
|
|
|
|
Source: own elaboration, based on MEM.
|
|
|
Canadian interests in Guatemalan nickel
For two decades, Central America Nickel (CAN) has shown great interest in two areas. One, since 2004, is what CAN and its predecessors call the Rio Negro Nickel Project in Cubulco territory, Baja Verapaz.
|
|
|
|
Source: TECHNICAL REPORT on RIO NEGRO NICKEL PROPERTY GUATEMALA, CENTRAL AMERICA. FOR: NICHROMET EXTRACTION INC. BY: Gregory F. Smith, B.Sc., PGeo. April 12, 2005. Revised July 04, 2007.
|
|
|
The second interest area is in Livingston, Izabal, and includes the Santa Anita II mining license, part of an old Nichromet Extraction project encompassing several mining licenses in the Sierra Santa Cruz, in the municipality of Livingston.
It is this Santa Anita II mining license application and its possible exploitation that has sparked the current community and municipal opposition.
|
|
|
|
Note: Almost all the licenses in the image are for nickel exploration. Most of them belong to Rio Nickel and Nichromet (subsidiaries of Central America Nickel). Source: Rio Nickel, S.A. The Nickel-Cobalt Potential of the Santa Anita II Project, Izabal, Northeast Guatemala. Technical Report for Rio Nickel, S.A. by Jorge Cruz Martin, Ph.D., P. Geo. December 20th, 2022.
|
|
|
The Santa Anita II license is located on the borders of the Santa Anita Farm and properties of the Kary Real Estate Company, owned by the Chiquimulteco family group Ruballos Castro and Ruballos Cornejo, with mining interests in the Los Manantiales Quarry in Chiquimula, with a history of criminalization of local leaders.
This area has been explored since the 1960s by the International Nickel Company (INCO-EXMIBAL), and then by COMINCO in the 1990s.
In meetings held between municipal authorities of Livingston and representatives of communities with the departmental representative of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN), Carlos Roberto Rodas Velásquez, he indicated that the MARN has not received Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies from the Rio Nickel mining company.
However, in 2022 and 2023 the MARN published public notices about the presentation of two studies by Rio Nickel on the Santa Anita II mining project, and it is not clear whether an update should have been presented by the mining company at the end of 2024.
In any case, the project is important due to the renewed and growing interest in nickel mining in the Sierra Santa Cruz, but without complying with the obligation to carry out a Prior, Free and Informed Community Consultation.
The community and municipal rejection of the CAN’s Rio Nickel project also goes further, as their complaints are based on the immeasurable environmental and social damage that this type of mining will generate in their territories.
Luis Solando es un Economista y periodista de investigación. Integrante del Equipo de la Asociación Civil El Observador, basada en Guatemala.
|
|
Call by Q’eqchi’ people
Immediate suspension of all mining operations in territories of Q’eqchi’ peoples in eastern Guatemala
Rights Action supports this call of the Q’eqchi’ people for:
- Suspension: Immediate suspension of all mining operations in Q'eqchi' region of El Estor, Panzos, Livingston.
- Investigatory commission: Formation of a commission to investigate violences and harms of mining against Q’eqchi’ people and the environment between 2004-2024.
- Reparations: Preparation of a compensation plan for people and communities that suffered the violences and harms.
- Consultation process: Then, implementation of a consultation process, based on prior and complete information in the Q'eqchi' language to decide if mining operations might continue in the future.
Rights Action calls on organizations and people - particularly in Canada, Switzerland and the U.S., home to the mining companies – to initiate, or continue with your education and activism work to pressure our governments, and our mining companies to stop all mining, and to comply with these fair and balanced demands of the Q’eqchi’ people.
Grahame Russell
[email protected], www.rightsaction.org
More information
|
|
|
Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)
To support land and environmental defenders, and human rights, justice and democracy defense struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
- U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
- Canada: Box 82858, RPO Cabbagetown Toronto, ON, M5A 3Y2
Credit-Card Donations: https://rightsaction.org/donate/
Direct deposits, write to: [email protected]
Donations of securities, write to: [email protected]
Settlement of landmark Hudbay Minerals lawsuits
Oct.7, 2024 press release: https://rightsaction.org
“TESTIMONIO–Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala”
Edited by Catherine Nolin & Grahame Russell (Between The Lines, 2021)
*******
Please share and re-post this information
*******
More info: [email protected], www.rightsaction.org
e-Newsletter: https://rightsaction.org/subscribe
Previous e-Newsletters: https://rightsaction.org/emails
https://www.facebook.com/RightsAction.org
https://twitter.com/RightsAction
https://www.instagram.com/rightsaction
https://www.youtube.com/user/rightsaction
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
