PBI-Guatemala accompanies Indigenous Ch’orti’ communities as they defend water and territory from mining, coffee production

Published by Brent Patterson on April 24, 2025

On April 24, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“For #WaterDay yesterday PBI accompanies the Indigenous Community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque and the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa in their night walk.

Among other things, the communities thanked Mother Earth for the water. In addition, they declared the area of the source of the La Conquista river Azacualpa as patrimony [ancestral inheritance] of the Ch’orti’ people.

‘We hope that our daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will not be ashamed of the struggle of their parents and grandparents; so that in the future they will continue on the path of ancestrality’ said one of the spiritual leaders of the communities.”

The day before, PBI-Guatemala also posted:

“Today PBI accompanies the San Francisco Quezaltepeque Indigenous Community and the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa Chiquimula in the celebration of #WaterDay.

‘The Ch’orti people have self-convened to make a walk through the sacred points of our culture in defense of seeds, water sources and Mother Earth’ says Gregorio Pérez, ancestral authority and spiritual guide of Camotán.

‘We face an environmental crisis due to illegal logging, dispossession, mining and honey water [the wastewater produced during the wet processing of coffee cherries]’, he explains. ‘Water is a common good and we must protect it, that’s why we are against a Water Law [that currently doesn’t exist], that leaves out Indigenous peoples.’

During the pilgrimage, the Indigenous Authorities have recognized an area on the hill of Piedra de los Compadres [the spiritually significant “stone of friends” rock formation] as a common altar and sacred place for the Ch’orti people of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.”

Threats to water

The Ch’orti’ of Quezaltepeque

PBI-Guatemala has previously explained:

The defense of water leads to confrontations between the Ch’orti’ People with economic interests that have been making private use of communal resources.

Coffee production

Coffee production in the area and, specifically, the discharge of polluting wastewater from the coffee cleaning process into the River Grande and artificial wells is affecting the lives of more than 10 communities and their water sources. The inhabitants, some 150 families, report foul odors, dead fish and skin diseases.

For the past five years, these communities have been unable to use the water sources for fishing, washing or drinking water. In order to defend their right to water, the communities filed a complaint against Ovidio Cardona and his company “Café La Conquista” in 2022. The investigations are being carried out by the environmental prosecutor’s office of Zacapa, but to date there has been no judicial resolution to the problem.

A water well drilled at a cemetery without consent

Another example is the granting of a permit to drill a water well in the community of San José Cubilete at the site of a sacred cemetery for the Ch’orti’ People without prior consultation with the communities.

Regarding this case, the Court of First Instance for Criminal and Narcoactivity of the Department of Chiquimula ruled in December 2023 that the municipality of Quezaltepeque did not conduct a prior dialogue with the communities involved and suspended the drilling of the well.

Mining

The exploitation of resources without their consent is another concern of the Ch’orti’ People who, in 2022, discovered the existence of five applications for mining exploration licenses filed in 2010 by Minerales Sierra Pacífico S.A., a subsidiary of the Canadian company Radius Gold Inc. for the exploration of gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc: “they are still in the application phase, but we are afraid that at any moment exploration could begin, again without us having been consulted.”

Olopa

Mining

PBI-Guatemala has also explained:

The communities of Olopa are confronting the company American Minerals S.A., which was granted a 25-year antimony extraction license in 2012, without prior consultation with the communities. In 2016, when mining activities began, the communities became aware of the negative impacts of these activities on water and the environment, and demanded the closure of the project.

On July 9, 2021, the Guatemalan Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) granted an injunction to these communities, recognizing their right to consultation, as provided for in Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), had been violated. The mining license has thus been suspended, which should result in the cessation of their work.

Accompaniment

Peace Brigades International accompanies both the Indigenous Community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque and the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa.

We continue to follow this.