On February 26, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“Yesterday, #PBI accompanied the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa Chiquimula and its communities in the commemoration of the Seventh Anniversary of Community Resistance against the operations of the mining company Cantera los Manantiales.

The resistance began on 25 February 2016, four years after the mining company obtained its mining licence to extract antimony for 25 years on 3 July 2012. In December 2019, the Supreme Court of Justice ordered the suspension of the mining company’s operations because it violated the right to free, prior and informed consultation with the Maya Ch’orti’ people.

During the commemoration, a reminder was made of the criminalization, in which ten people, seven men and three women, are being criminally prosecuted. Six have been sent to trial and the others are under investigation for the crime of illegal detentions.

Today the activity took place in the community of El Cerrón with the presence of the Indigenous Community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque, the Association of Mayan Lawyers – Nim Ajpu and social and artistic organizations.”

In 2019, Prensa Comunitaria reported:

“The company Cantera Los Manantiales, owned by Ovidio Guzmán, a well-known businessman in Esquipulas, has been operating for 7 years between the mountains of Olopa. Its activity has a direct impact on four communities: El Amatillo, Carrizal and La Prensa de Olopa and Carboneras de Chiquimula.”

And about this gathering, Prensa Comunitaria has also reported:

““As a Mayan people we are joining forces to be able to defend our territory against the threat of mining,” said Marvin Nájera, an indigenous authority from Quezaltepeque, hailing Olopa’s resistance. He reported that in his municipality there are requests for five mining projects.

The communities have denounced the impacts of mining projects, such as the cases of the Porvenir Quarry, in Camotán; El Manantial Quarry, in Olopa; El Pato mining project in Chiquimula, in the afforestation of hills and mountains such as the Merendón mountain.”

PBI-Guatemala has also previously explained: “The Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Authorities of Olopa and Quezaltepeque are fighting for recognition as indigenous communities, the recovery of their spirituality, the defense of their territory and the right to free, prior and informed consultation before the entry of mining projects into their territory. They also seek to minimize the negative impacts of mining activities on the health of the people in their communities, denounce illegal logging and fight against gender violence in their communities.”

PBI-Guatemala began accompanying the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Authorities of Olopa and Quezaltepeque in June 2021.

On February 24, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“#PBIaccompanies

Today we observe the March for Dignification of Victims of Armed Conflict.

This day is commemorated because on February 25, 1999, the Report of the Commission for Historical Clarification was presented. The Commission was established through one of the Peace Agreements, the Oslo Agreement of June 23, 1994, to clarify with all objectivity, equity and impartiality the violations of human rights and acts of violence that have caused suffering to the Guatemalan population.

#WeDon’tForget #GuatemalaNeverAgain”

Emisoras Unidas further reports:

“A march for the National Day of Dignity of the Victims of the Armed Conflict toured the Historic Center on Friday. The aforementioned commemoration is given on February 25 of each year in tribute to the survivors and to dignify the memory of those who lost their lives.

Various organizations, collectives and individuals gathered in front of the Palace of Justice of Guatemala, in zone 1 of the capital, where they carried out a Mayan ceremony, among other activities to honor the victims.

From that point, those present began a mobilization that passed in front of the headquarters of the Congress of the Republic and the Presidential House, until concluding in the Plaza de la Constitución.

They demand dignified reparation for the victims.

The Mutual Support Group (GAM) noted that, on the National Day of Dignity of Victims of Conflict, families seek to express their opposition to policies for oblivion and impunity.

“We will continue to demand memory, truth and justice for all,” the entity said.

Meanwhile, Miguel Itzep, of the Executive Committee of the National Platform of Victims’ Organizations, said that those who participated in the mobilization arrived in the capital from different points, including Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, Quiché, Chimaltenango, Suchitepéquez and Escuintla.

He added that, in addition to this walk, from today different activities began in the interior of the country within the framework of this date.

“Our people, the victims of the conflict, are also there commemorating, but also denouncing the refusal of the State and its agencies not to meet the needs of the victims or fulfill the responsibility of reparation,” he said.

He mentioned that the current authorities abandoned the victims and, in turn, are compensating the ex-military who, in his words, are responsible for what happened in the internal war.”

And Prensa Comunitaria notes:

“The streets of the Historic Center were the scene of the march for the National Day for the Dignity of the Victims of the Armed Conflict that is commemorated every February 25, which was used by the survivors to send a message to the candidates of the 2023 electoral contest, with the filing of an amparo against Zury Ríos, daughter of the coup leader Efraín Ríos Montt.

Feliciana Macario, a member of the National Platform of the Victims of the Armed Conflict, told Prensa Comunitaria that Guatemala’s Political Constitution does not allow daughters and sons and relatives of coup plotters to be candidates for the presidency or be elected.

For us it is an action that goes against the dignity of the surviving families of the Internal Armed Conflict (CAI), said Macario.”

The internal armed conflict (that started in November 1960) killed an estimated 200,000 people and displaced more than one million people by the time of the Peace Accords of December 1996. 45,000 people are still unaccounted, including 5,000 children.

The conflict between state military forces and guerilla combatants was underpinned by the poverty, marginalization and racism against Indigenous peoples.

The United Nations-backed Commission for Historical Clarification determined that the Guatemalan military was responsible for 93 per cent of the atrocities – including forced disappearances, massacres and torture – and that 83 per cent of the victims were Indigenous Maya peoples.

The Commission concluded that acts of genocide occurred during the war.

On February 23, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“PBI accompanies the Human Rights Law Firm in the hearing on the #SamocochCase. 23 PNC [National Civil Police] agents are being processed accused of abuse of power and extrajudicial execution of three people from the Samococh community, Chisec, Alta Verapaz.

At today’s hearing, a Sociological and Gender Expertise presented with an intersectional approach by researcher Dr. Rachel Sieder on the individual and collective consequences of what happened on August 14 and 15, 2014 in the community. In addition, a witness from the community and an official from the PDH Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office declared.

Tomorrow, February 24th, at 8:30h will continue the hearing.”

PBI-Guatemala has previously explained: “More than 20 PNC officers are accused of extrajudicial execution, non-compliance with duties and abuse of authority for having caused the death of three Q’eqchi’ community members from Samococh village in Chisec, Alta Verapaz, during a demonstration [on August 15, 2014].”

The Santa Rita dam

The demonstration appears to have been against the Santa Rita hydroelectric dam on the Dolores River in Alta Verapaz.

Truthout explains: “In Monte Olivo, the state used its full force against the community. On August 14, 2014, 600 police units were deployed to evict a community of a few hundred families along the River Dolores. …In the following days, two other communities, 9 de Febrero and Samococh, both faced similar violent evictions to make way for the dam. These communities were driven out by 1,600 police units, and 22 community leaders were detained.”

That article also notes: “The Guatemalan-based company Hydro Electrical Santa Rita S.A., owned by the elite López-Roesch family, first proposed the Santa Rita hydro project in 2009. The powerful and influential cement company Cementos Progreso, owned by the Guatemalan Novella family, is reported to also have interests in the project.”

Prensa Libre further notes: “The confrontation occurred when dozens of police tried to evict peasants who had blocked the road from Chisec to Raxruhá, Alta Verapaz, to prevent the transfer of two leaders of the Peasant Development Committee [CODECA].”

“The PNC agents who arrived came from Cobán, where the Public Ministry successfully evicted some 160 families who were occupying the Santa Rita and Santa Rita Xalahá Canguini farms. In the first community [Santa Rita], families lived to avoid the construction of a hydroelectric plant [that lacked their free, prior and informed consent].”

That article adds: “The PNC tried to capture local leaders Rafael Chub and María del Carmen del Cid, which generated discontent among the residents and the confrontation.”

Financing of this dam

In 2017, Carbon Market Watch reported: “In October, the private sector lending arm of the World Bank Group (International Finance Corporation, IFC) confirmed the cancellation of a controversial Santa Rita hydroelectric project in Guatemala, approved under the UN’s carbon offsetting scheme Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).”

That article further highlights: “[The dam was going to be built with] financial support of a private equity fund backed by bilateral and multilateral institutions such as the German and Dutch development banks (DEG and FMO), the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECID).”

For more on the raid, please see the Witness Media Lab article/videos at: COMMUNITY REPORTERS DOCUMENT DEADLY RAID ON INDIGENOUS VILLAGES IN GUATEMALA.

We continue to follow this.