Rights Action has posted a translation of an article by Simon Antonio Ramon, published in Prensa Comunitaria. The piece is followed by a Rights Action commentary looking at the Corrupt government of President Giammattei, Hypocrisy in U.S. and Canada, and a breakdown of the 60-year nightmare of mining in Q’eqchi’ territories. It is then followed by a call to action.
The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) determined that eight exploration licenses and two mining exploitation licenses located in Sierra Santa Cruz, in the municipality of Livingston, have irregularities. These were granted in 2023 during the government of Alejandro Giammattei, however, the Minister of Environment Patricia Orantes avoided to say if they will be cancelled.
Orantes stated that the investigation of these 10 licenses began after a summons in the Congress of the Republic with district deputies of Izabal, the MARN, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) and authorities of the 54 communities of Livingston, where she committed to investigate whether the procedure through which the licenses were granted followed due process.
The minister’s commitment extended to an on-site inspection of the projects. “Most of the projects did not comply with the environmental evaluation and control regulation requirement of having the opinion of the Authority for the Sustainable Management of Lake Izabal (AMASURLI),” said the official when mentioning one of the irregularities found.
The head of MARN also noted that one of the companies did not carry out the second notice in the Q’eqchi’ language. In addition to this, the eight exploration projects that obtained the license did not obtain the MEM’s opinion, an obligatory requirement.
The companies that own the environmental licenses are Río Nickel, S.A. and Nichromet, Guatemalan subsidiaries of Central American Nickel (CAN), a Canadian company that recently reactivated activities in the last year of former President Giammattei.
You can read the full piece, including links and a link to the original from Prensa Comunitaria, Ministra confirma irregularidades de mineras en Livingston pero no cancelarán licencias, here, Legal investigation into legitimacy of mining licenses of Montreal-based Central America Nickel in Guatemala.
Categories: Accompaniment, Corruption, Criminalisation, Criminalization, Environment, Evictions, Guatemala, Human Rights, Impunity, Indigenous peoples, Justice, Land, Mining, Racism, Resource Extraction, Solidarity in Action, Violence
Guatemala Solidarity Network 
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