Lawsuit Against Major Canadian Mining Company Relating to Murder of Mayan Leader in Latin America

[Judi Lynn]

Nov 29, 2010 10:58 ET
Announcement of Lawsuit Against Major Canadian Mining Company Relating to Murder of Mayan Leader in Latin America

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Nov. 29, 2010) -

On Wednesday, December 1, 2010 at 10:30am, lawyers for the widow of a community leader who was shot and hacked to death in an unprovoked attack by private security forces employed at a Canadian mining project in Latin America will announce a lawsuit brought in Ontario courts against a major Canadian mining company. The murdered man was an outspoken critic of harms caused by Canadian mining activities in his community. To date, no one has been held accountable for his death.

This press announcement comes one month after Parliament voted against Bill C-300, a bill intended to ensure that Canadian mining companies operating abroad act in accordance with Canada's commitments to international human rights standards.

Other participants will include:

Peter Julian, Member of Parliament (Burnaby-New Westminster) and author of Bill C-354: legislation which seeks to ensure corporate accountability for Canadian firms operating abroad. This bill would hold violators accountable for serious human rights abuses, regardless of where they take place, and would allow lawsuits in Canada for a host of universal human rights violations.

More:
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Announcement-Lawsuit-Against-Major-Canadian-Mining-Company-Relating-Murder-Mayan-Leader-1360370.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. I've been searching, and believe the man was Adolfo Ich:

October 18, 2009
MINING & THE DEATH OF A MAYAN TEACHER
HUDBAY MINERALS/ CGN SECURITY FORCES KILL ADOLFO ICH, A MAYAN TEACHER, APPARENTLY TARGETED FOR HIS DEFENSE OF INDIGENOUS AND HUMAN RIGHTS

RIGHTS ACTION Report
October 18, 2009
MINING & THE DEATH OF A MAYAN TEACHER
HUDBAY MINERALS/ CGN SECURITY FORCES KILL ADOLFO ICH, A MAYAN TEACHER, APPARENTLY TARGETED FOR HIS DEFENSE OF INDIGENOUS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
This report is based on eye witness testimony and reports from human rights organizations gathered between September 29 and October 10, 2009.
* * *
VIOLENT IMPOSITION OF THE FENIX NICKEL MINING PROJECT
Toronto-based HudBay Minerals, through its subsidiary the Compania Guatemalteca de Niquel, CGN, is developing the Fenix Project, expected to be one of the world’s largest nickel mines, in a Maya Qeqchi region of Guatemala in which organized crime has come to virtually control the State, particularly the justice system.
HudBay/CGN has fomented paramilitary organizations that commit acts of violence and human rights violations of Maya Qeqchi communities, in direct collaboration with the HudBay/CGN private security force and with the National Civil Police and Army.
On Sunday, September 27, Mynor Padilla, head of security for HudBay/CGN’s Fenix project, killed a teacher (Adolfo Ich) as Adolfo attempted to protect children from the security force’s indiscriminant shooting which left another community member paraplegic and at least four more wounded.

More:
http://www.rightsaction.org/articles/Guatemala_mining_death_101809.html

~~~~~
GANG RAPES, FORCED EVICTIONS & THE ENDLESS NIGHTMARE OF NICKEL MINING IN GUATEMALA
By Grahame Russell, May 2010

“When will Canadian and U.S. lawmakers pass binding criminal and civil legislation so that victims of environmental and health harms and human rights violations caused by global mining companies in places like Guatemala and Honduras can get justice, remedy and compensation for their suffering and losses?”

“When will North American investors – from private funds and investors to retirement pension funds – start demanding that basic and enforceable environmental and human rights standards attach to their investments, not just the “fiduciary duty to maximize profits”?”

Or, to the point, “When will the Canadian mining companies stop mining in Guatemala, stop harming people’s lives, communities and rivers, and just go home?”
These are some of the questions asked last week in the indigenous Mayan-Qeqchi village of Lote 8, municipality of El Estor, on the north side of Lake Izabal in eastern Guatemala.

Recently in Canada, CTV aired a W5 documentary “Lost Paradise” addressing many of the environmental and health harms and human rights violations being caused by Canadian nickel and gold mining companies in Guatemala (specifically Skye Resources, HudBay Minerals and Goldcorp Inc.). To view: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100415/w5_paradise_lost_100415/20100417
In “Lost Paradise”, W5 focuses attention on the illegal forced evictions and burning of homes of Mayan Qeqchi people in a number of poor villages in the municipality of El Estor. Some of these were documented in a 10-minute film on YouTube, the El Estor Evictions. To view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q20YxkM-CGI

More:
http://www.rightsaction.org/Alerts/Guatemala_nickel_nightmare_052710.html

http://www.cpcml.ca.nyud.net:8090/images2010/CanadianMining/AdolfoIch-miminundo.jpg

Adolfo Ich, man in the middle
December 16, 2009
GUATEMALA: 40 YEAR NICKEL MINING NIGHTMARE CONTINUES

~snip~
Harold spoke with us about what happened on September 27, 2009. Haroldo was attending a community meeting in La Unión with the El Estor mayor. They were meeting to plan the reconstruction of their Community Hall that had been destroyed in previous violent forced evictions carried out on behalf of the mining company.
“We are just poor campesinos, why do they come to harm us? Why do they come to violently evict us from our homes? Would Canadians like to be evicted from their homes by Guatemalans? I don’t think so. But that is what they are doing to us: Canadians evicting indigenous Guatemalans from their own lands.”

“On September 27, around 3:30 in the afternoon, we heard gunshots near “La Maya”. Friends that were close called upon us to come but when we got there, we were rapidly surrounded by a squad of 30 to 40 elements from the CGN private security company. They forcedly tried to get us in La Maya, but we managed to hide behind small trees. Bullets were flying and my shoulder was hit by a bullet. That’s where our friend Adolfo was beaten, macheted and killed. May he rest in peace. I ran until El Chupon where I got first aid."

“This is very painful to tell this story as we are innocent people. With the death of Adolfo, the people of El Estor suffered a great lost.”

More:
http://www.rightsaction.org/Alerts/Guatemala_40yrs_mining_121609.html