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BACKGROUND
In 2006 and 2007, numerous Maya Q’eqchi’ communities were violently evicted from their traditional lands to make way for the Fenix nickel mining operation. On January 17, 2007, 11 women subsistence farmers (campesinas) were gang-raped by mining company security guards, police and soldiers, during the wholescale destruction and eviction of their community of Lote Ocho.
On September 27, 2009, well-known community and land defender Adolfo Ich Chaman was killed by Mynor Padilla, who was Hudbay Mineral’s head of security at the Fenix mine. Padilla also shot and paralyzed Germán Chub Choc that same day.
In 2010 and 2011, three over-lapping lawsuits were launched by the 11 Lote Ocho women, by Germán Chub, and by Angelica Choc, widow of Adolfo Ich. The lawsuits aimed to hold Hudbay legally accountable in Canada for their actions in and around the Fenix mine in Guatemala. After two years of pre-trial motions filed by Hudbay to dismiss the lawsuits before they could begin, on July 22, 2013, Judge Carole Brown of the Superior Court of Ontario ruled against Hudbay’s arguments and wishes, concluding that Canada was the right place and jurisdiction to legally address these issues, setting a historic precedent for corporate accountability of Canadian companies operating abroad.
It was not until 2024 that the lawsuits were finally settled when Hudbay and the plaintiffs came to an agreement. This was followed by a “quiet period” where neither side would talk to the media. With the quiet period now over, Russell and Rights Action are telling the story in full. It was an extremely difficult journey, with a small, under-resourced team taking on a mining giant working with high-powered Toronto lawyers.
In the report, Russell chronicles serious obstacles and setbacks including repression against the plaintiffs and their supporters in Guatemala, including cases of what appear to be overt corruption. The report chronicles important milestones and achievements along the way, including, in a separate legal action, how Canada’s ambassador to Guatemala was sued successfully for defaming a documentary filmmaker in 2007 who was exposing Canadian mining abuses in Q’eqchi’ communities around the Fenix mine operation.
The report also ties the past to the present, showing Canada’s role in shaping Guatemala’s mining laws in the 1960s, soon after the 1954 U.S.-backed coup ousted the elected government of President Jacobo Arbenz; showing the role of INCO (International Nickel Company) that, fully supported by the Canadian government, first established this very same Fenix mine operation on ill-gotten Q’eqchi’ lands. Russell summarizes how INCO, collaborating with Guatemalan military regimes in power in the 1970s and early 1980s, was similarly involved with cases of serious repression in the Q’eqchi’ communities.
Readers will see how the Hudbay saga and this justice struggle, and what is now happening in 2025, are all part of a long history of meddling in the country.
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