PBI-Guatemala starts accompaniment of Maya Q’eqchi’ frontline journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc

Published by Brent Patterson on May 12, 2025

Photo: PBI-Guatemala with Carlos Ernesto Choc, February 2024.

The latest Monthly Information Package (April 2025) from the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project notes:

“At our twice-yearly assembly this April, we completed our analysis of the accompaniment request that we received from Carlos Choc, a Q’eqchi’ Maya journalist, human rights defender, and environmentalist known for his important work in journalism, his reporting on human rights violations, and his support for communities that are victims of violations, environmental injustices, and evictions. He works in Q’eqchi’ territory, in the departments of Izabal, Alta Verapaz, and Petén. Carlos was involved in a lengthy legal process in which he was criminalized but ultimately acquitted. However, because he has continued his work, he remains at risk, which led him to request our accompaniment. After reviewing his request, we decided to begin accompanying him this April.”

On May 9, 2025, Choc posted on Facebook: “#Izabal Locating new mining exploration wells in Sierra Santa Cruz. According to the people of the 54 communities of the Sierra Santa Cruz, in Livingston, Izabal, they have found new mining exploration wells, in the area located of the hill 1,019 in a tour they made on the 8th of May, in the sector of the estates of Santa Anita and Santa Anita ll.”

Rio Nickel, a subsidiary of Montreal-based CAN

On May 5, Prensa Comunitaria reported: “the company Río Nickel, which intends to operate in the Sierra Santa Cruz, located in the municipalities of Livingston and El Estor, Izabal, as well as Chahal and Cahabón, in Alta Verapaz.”

And on April 14, 2025, IRTF Cleveland had noted: “On January 28, authorities from Guatemala’s Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) were called to a congressional hearing, at which it was disclosed that Rio Nickel, S.A. (a subsidiary of Canada-based Central America Nickel, or CAN) has more than a dozen mining exploration applications for nickel and other minerals, almost all of them located in the Sierra Santa Cruz region.”

CAN and critical minerals

Central America Nickel describes itself as follows on LinkedIn:

“Central America Nickel Inc. (“CAN”) is a Canadian corporation positioned to become a major global supplier of critical minerals and energy metals, including nickel, lithium and rare earth elements. CAN is focused on sourcing, direct shipping, processing and purification of these minerals using its patented Ultrasound Assisted Extraction (UAEx) technology and other proprietary processes.

CAN controls directly or indirectly, various world-class resource properties including nickel, lithium, and rare earth deposits integral to the transition towards a clean energy and green economy, in Guatemala and the Democratic Republic of Congo, among other regions.”

Canadian history with the Fenix mine

The IRTF article also notes: “The harms caused by metallic mining are well-known to the communities of Panzos, Livingston, and El Estor in the Maya Q’eqchi’ region of the Sierra Santa Cruz mountain range. For sixty years, they have been exposed to the pollution caused by the El Fénix nickel mine in El Estor: contaminating Lake Izabal and other local water sources, threatening fishers’ source of income.”

In 1960, Toronto-based INCO Ltd. began negotiations with the military dictatorship of Guatemala to establish the Fenix mine. By 1965, EXMIBAL, a joint venture between INCO and the Guatemalan state, was granted a 40-year mining licence.

Professor Shin Imai has written: “Colonel Carolos Arana Osorio was responsible for clearing the Indigenous people out of the INCO region in Zacapa-Lake Izabal. He launched what has been referred to as a ‘reign of terror’ in the region, in which the number of people killed is estimated to be between three and six thousand.”

Professor Imai adds: “Major construction began on the El Estor mine in 1974 aided by a $20 million loan from the Canadian Export Development Corporation.”

Vancouver-based Skye Resources bought the mine from INCO in 2004. Skye Resources then merged with Toronto-based Hudbay in 2008.

The mine was purchased by Solway Investment Group in 2011.

In April 2023, Newsweek reported that Montreal-based Central America Nickel (CAN) could purchase the mine with the support of the U.S. Embassy.

Further reading

Past PBI-Guatemala Monthly Information Packages can be read on their website (in both English and Spanish) here.

We met with Carlos in Guatemala in May 2023 and then did a webinar with him on August 18, 2023. More on that at PBI-Canada conversation with Maya Q’eqchi’ frontline journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc (August 19, 2023).