PBI-Guatemala accompanies criminalized members of the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa Chiquimula at court hearing
On October 31, PBI-Guatemala posted on social media:
“Yesterday PBI accompanied members of the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa Chiquimula at the seventh hearing of the criminalization case for their fight against mining in Olopa.
It was the turn of two witnesses to the accusation, a member of the PDH [the Human Rights Ombudsman of Guatemala] and the other from the PNC [the National Civil Police], both were present on the day of the incident they are accused of. Both said they did not see weapons at the scene and they did not notice that the aggressors were tied up, but they saw them calm.
Next November 13 at 9h the defense will present its evidence.”
In the news
At the time of the fourth hearing in September 2025, Prensa Comunitaria provided this background and context:
“This Friday, September 26, the oral and public trial against 10 Mayan Ch’orti’ indigenous authorities of Olopa, in the Criminal Sentencing Court of Chiquimula, accused of illegal detentions by owners of the Cantera Los Manantiales mining company in which three witnesses: Guillermina Guzmán Landaverry, owner of the mining company; his son Rony Leonardo Guzmán Guzmán and Orlando Ramírez gave their statements.
Guzmán Landaverry stated that the Cantera Los Manantiales mining company that exploited antimony, an element used in the chemical and plastic industry, has had an exploitation license granted by the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) since 2017 with a validity of 25 years in the community of Carrizal in the municipality of Olopa, Chiquimula.”
According to the owner of the mining company, it exploited natural resources between 2017 and 2018 normally, but community resistance interrupted exploitation in January 2019.”
Otto Pérez Molina and Canada in 2012
PBI-Guatemala has previously explained: “In 2012, the government of Otto Pérez Molina, through the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), granted the company American Minerals S.A. an exploitation license for the extraction of antimony valid for 25 years in the Los Manantiales Quarry.”
The independent Canadian magazine The Walrus has further reported:
“According to geographers Catherine Nolin [a professor at the University of Northern British Columbia] and Jacqui Stephens … Canada’s ‘pro-business, pro-mining stance, through its embassy’s activities,’ have shaped Guatemala’s development model and, in turn, have helped plunder the resources of Indigenous and local communities.
Documents received through Access to Information requests show that the embassy was active in creating a favourable environment for the operation of Canadian companies. This included forming ties with Otto Pérez Molina, Guatemala’s president from January 2012 to September 2015 who was imprisoned in 2015 for his alleged involvement in a multi-million dollar customs corruption scandal.
Pérez Molina is an ex-military and intelligence officer, trained at the US Army School of the Americas. …According to the National Security Archive, Pérez Molina was allegedly involved in ‘scorched earth campaigns,’ which annihilated entire Indigenous villages during the country’s civil war.”
Ownership of American Minerals S.A.
As noted above, PBI-Guatemala links the extraction licence for the Los Manantiales mine to the American Minerals S.A.
This report by the Costa Rica-based La Ruta del Clima (the Climate Route Association) published in December 2023 with the technical and financial support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation notes on page 36:
“Los Manantiales corresponds to the transnational company Texas American Minerals, and to the Guatemalan company American Minerals, S.A. Also listed are the names Industria de Canteras and Industria de Canteras y Minas S.A. (INCAMIN S.A.) according to Arreaga (2018); and BC Enterprises, Guillermina and Odilio Guzmán according to Albritton (2023). According to one of the people interviewed, the strategy of multinationals is to work through subsidiaries, so that the companies appear to be local, but are linked to foreign capital, in this case Canadian.”
Accompaniment
Peace Brigades International began accompanying the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa in June 2021, following their request based on the serious increase in security incidents, defamation and criminalization processes.
