Photo by Prensa Comunitaria.
On July 18, PBI-Guatemala posted: “Today members of the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa face a hearing in a process of criminalizing their right to defend their territory Ch’orti’.”
That evening, the Consejo Indígena Maya Ch’orti’ de Olopa Chiquimula posted on their Facebook page an update on that hearing:
“Suspension of the oral and public hearing of 10 Mayan Ch’orti’ people from the municipality of Olopa Chiquimula, including indigenous authorities, defenders criminalized for opposing the mining license for the Los Manantiales quarry.
The judge in charge of the case is unable to hear the case due to an accident. The hearing was rescheduled for February 2025.
Lawyers from the Center for Human Rights and Legal Action (CALDH) requested the interim judge of the criminal sentencing court, Luis Fernando Archila Lima to modify measures for 6 indigenous Mayan Ch’orti authorities who are under house arrest and must sign the control book every month at the Public Ministry, arguing the economic cost and the age to mobilize and their presence in the process voluntarily, this was accepted by the judge.”
PBI-Guatemala has previously explained: “The American Minerals S.A. company has been operating an antimony extraction mining project, ‘Cantera Los Manantiales’, in the municipality of Olopa, department of Chiquimula, since 2016.” The company had been “granted a 25-year antimony extraction license in 2012, without prior consultation with the communities.”
The Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa is also attentive to the operations of Vancouver-based Volcanic Gold Mines Inc., operating as Minerales Sierra Pacífico, on Maya Ch’orti’ territory.
Specific concerns relate to two large licenses that cover Olopa, San Juan Ermita and Quezaltepeque, namely the Carolina project and the Las Pomas project. There are also concerns about the Holly/Banderas project and the Motagua Norte project listed on the Volcanic Gold website.
We continue to follow this.
Published by Brent Patterson on