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Expert witness in landmark Hudbay Minerals lawsuits in Canada
Separately, but importantly to Rights Action, lawyers Cory Wanless and Murray Klippenstein, and many others, Ramón acted as an expert witness in the landmark Hudbay Minerals lawsuits in Canada. He provided an expert opinion on whether there was a real risk the 13 Maya Q’eqchi’ plaintiffs from El Estor, Guatemala, would not receive a fair civil trial if the claims were heard in Guatemalan courts. He submitted and was cross examined on his expert report in 2012.
Ramon is now a jailed victim of the same corrupted legal system he was asked to provide expert witness testimony about in the Hudbay lawsuits.
Systemic corruption and abuse of institutions of State and government
Here, a bit of the background context to the criminalization and jailing of Ramon in the malicious Toma USAC case (see Prensa Comunitaria article, below), as well as many other land, environment and rights defenders.
The fundamental problem today is the same fundamental problem going back in recent history to 1954 when a U.S.-backed coup ended 10 years of actual democracy and brought back to power the “traditional elites”.
With the risk of over generalizing, from 1954 through to today the U.S., Canada and Western governments have maintained full economic, military and political relations with 71 years of corrupt governments, State institutions, and military and police forces dominated by the traditional elites known today as the “pact of the corrupt”.
Loosely defined, the traditional elites are those wealthy, powerful economic, military and political sectors of Guatemala that maintain full economic relations with global companies, investors and banks and full military relations with the U.S.
Over these decades, they have maintained control over most sectors of the economy (land, banking and finance, corporate investments, etc.), all branches of government (judicial, legislative, executive), and the police and military. Organized crime (drug trafficking and otherwise) has infiltrated sectors of the traditional elites, and therefore branches of the government, police and military, and therefore Guatemala’s ‘open for global business’ economy.
2023 elections curve ball
The 2023 elections threw a curve ball into the normal state of affairs of the traditional elites. What changed with the elections of President Bernardo Arevalo and VP Karin Herrera in 2023 was that, for the first time since 1954, elections actually succeeded in bringing honest leadership to the Presidency – leadership not part of or controlled by the traditional elites.
Not to worry for the pact of the corrupt!
The complicated, though predictable outcome is that since taking power in January 2024, the President and executive branch have been trying to operate government with two hands and one foot tied behind their back.
The executive branch has little real power over government institutions, and zero power in the legislative and judicial branches. The police and military remain controlled by the traditional elites. The land-owing, financial and corporate elites maintain control over and continue to operate Guatemala’s ‘open for global business’ economy.
In this context, the judicial branch openly uses the legal and penitentiary systems as tools of repression –“lawfare”– to criminalize and oftentimes jail or force into exile countless land and territory, rights and environmental defenders, a majority being Indigenous, and lawyers, judges and prosecutors that actually try to make the judicial system work properly.
For his integrity and courage over the course of decades, Ramon Cadena is one more targeted victim of the corrupt Guatemalan traditional elites.
Rights Action will do our best to support Ramon other criminalized land and rights defenders, and will continue to denounce ‘business-as-usual’ policies of the U.S. and Canadian governments and global corporate and investor interests that turn a blind eye to and oftentimes benefit from this very corruption of the Guatemala State and society.
Next hearing: November 14. More malicious delays to come?
As the Guatemalan courts and judges take vacations for much of December, it is feared the presiding judge in this case will again maliciously delay due process for Ramon, and USAC university students criminalized and jailed in the same case, so they remain in prison into 2026.
We urge folks and groups across Canada and the U.S. to write their elected politicians and government officials to yet again denounce the systemic abuse of the judicial and penitentiary systems in Guatemala, even as Swiss, U.S. and Canadian mining companies and countless other global businesses and investors, barge ahead with business-as-usual, “respecting the rule of law” they endlessly repeat.
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