Central America
Guatemalan town locked in battle against nickel mine
AFP
The inhabitants of El Estor, a town of mostly indigenous Mayans in eastern Guatemala, are living under a “state of siege”, watched over by armed soldiers after their years-long fight against a nickel mine took an ominous turn.
El Estor’s subsistence fishermen, mainly of the Mayan Q’eqchi’ indigenous group, say the Fenix mine is polluting Lake Izabal, diminishing stocks of fish that were abundant just a generation ago.
The mine’s owners deny the allegation, saying adequate environmental protections are in place.
Frustrated, residents mounted a protest against the mine on Sunday that was put down by security forces using tear gas.
The confrontation left four police officers wounded, and resulted in the government declaring a state of siege, complete with a month-long protest ban and a night curfew enforced by 1,000 police officers and soldiers deployed among the community of 100,000 people.
For three weeks before Sunday’s clashes, residents of El Estor had blocked truck access to the mine operated by the Guatemalan Nickel Company (CGN), a subsidiary of the Swiss-based Solway Investment Group.
“This company is bringing us death,” said Cristobal Pop, 44, a fisherman and protest leader who told AFP he will not be deterred by what he sees as the government’s “intimidation” measures.
“I have four children and they will bear the brunt” of the nickel mining operation, he said.
“My children’s future depends on me.”
– Fewer fish, more jobs –
Pop said that when he was a child, Lake Izabal — Guatemala’s largest — was replete with fish.
He says numbers have dwindled since the Fenix mine resumed nickel extraction and processing in 2014.
In 2017, a red slick spread over the lake, which the community blamed on mining pollution.
In resulting protests, Pop was imprisoned and his comrade Carlos Maaz shot dead.
This month, the community resumed demonstrations, accusing CGN of continuing to mine at Fenix despite a 2019 Constitutional Court order for it to suspend operations.
The court ruled in favor of local communities, who said they had not been consulted about the opening of the mine or its effects on them.
The government was ordered to open fresh consultations, but the people of El Estor say they are being excluded.
For its part, Solway said in a statement Sunday it was adhering to the court order. Extraction at Fenix has stopped, it said, but its processing plant was not affected by the ruling and continues to operate.
The company insisted it was doing all it can to minimize the environmental impact of its activities, investing in social infrastructure, and that its El Estor operations provided jobs for more than 1,900 people “and hundreds of local contractors.”
– A community divided –
Guatemala, Central America’s largest economy, exported 56 million kilograms (123 million pounds) of ferroalloys and ferronickel, mainly to China, in 2019, according to World Bank data.
Guatemala’s earnings from the metal grew from $10 million in 2018 to $54 million last year, and this year had already reached $62 million by August, according to Central Bank figures.
El Estor resident Abelino Chub told AFP the Fenix mine was dividing the community.
“Unfortunately, the pro-mining group only sees the money… but not the level of damage that this company is generating,” he said.
At the CGN headquarters, company president Dmitry Kudryakov told AFP the contamination allegations amounted to mere “speculation.”
He insisted the company adhered to international environmental standards, and said the 2017 red stain was a result of bacteria caused by sewage and fertilizer pollution of the Polochic River that flows into the lake.
Central America
Costa Rica faces historic vote on lifting presidential immunity for Rodrigo Chaves
Costa Rica, a country internationally recognized for its democratic and political stability, is heading toward an unprecedented decision: whether to lift President Rodrigo Chaves’s immunity so he can face a criminal trial over alleged irregular management of funds from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI).
On Wednesday, the Legislative Assembly formed a commission of three lawmakers to analyze the accusation against the president, which was forwarded earlier this month by the Supreme Court of Justice. The commission has 20 days, extendable for another 20, to issue a report so that the full Assembly can vote on whether to lift the president’s immunity.
Lifting the immunity would require 38 votes — two-thirds of the legislature — which is largely composed of opposition parties.
If immunity is removed, prosecutors would be able to continue their investigation and potentially question the president. If the motion fails, the case would return to the judiciary and remain pending until Chaves’s term ends in May 2026.
Since the country’s last civil war in 1948 and the abolition of the army later that year, Costa Rica has held uninterrupted elections, every president has completed their term without major issues, and none has ever had their immunity lifted — although several have faced judicial proceedings.
Central America
Honduras sees ongoing killings of land defenders and attacks on press, warns NGO
The Association for Participatory Citizenship (ACI PARTICIPA) denounced on Thursday that killings of land defenders and attacks aimed at silencing the press continue in Honduras.
“We continue to see murders of defenders of land and territory, as well as aggressions to silence the press. In 2024, there were 490 attacks and aggressions that constitute human rights violations,” said ACI PARTICIPA’s executive director, Hedme Castro, during the presentation of the 2024 Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in Honduras.
Castro noted that the aggressions range “from attempts on lives, threats, harassment, intimidation, and smear campaigns, which have become very frequent, to obstruction of work, surveillance, and criminalization.”
She highlighted that, although only seven defenders were killed in 2024 compared to 24 in 2023, “last year we saw a significantly high number of women murdered, and cases of missing children.”
Moreover, Castro criticized the authorities for failing to address the violence. “There is no response from the authorities to reduce the violence in the country; in fact, I believe that the ‘fathers of the nation’ (members of Parliament) are not setting the right example, and the situation in the Legislative branch is actually fueling violence,” she added, referring to frequent violent incidents in Congress.
The ACI PARTICIPA report also notes that the government led by President Xiomara Castro has made “an important effort over the past two years to improve citizens’ access to basic rights, helping to cushion the effects of economic deterioration, although a decent standard of living has yet to be achieved for the majority of Hondurans.”
Central America
Daniel Ortega’s last historic sandinista ally detained in Managua
Former Sandinista revolutionary commander and presidential economic adviser Bayardo Arce Castaño was arrested on Thursday in Managua for alleged irregular transactions involving state-owned assets, according to local media reports.
The arrest was carried out by agents from the Special Operations Directorate of the Police, who raided his residence in the southern part of the Nicaraguan capital. The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) is investigating Arce for “transactions and/or negotiations” that, according to authorities, do not comply with current legal standards.
Arce, 76, was one of the nine historic commanders of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) who led the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. Since 2007, he had served as the economic adviser to dictator Daniel Ortega, and was the last of the historic commanders still aligned with the regime.
The Attorney General’s Office accused Arce of contempt after he refused to appear for questioning about properties registered in his name. Authorities allege that Ricardo Bonilla, Arce’s assistant, was also involved in questionable financial dealings and was jailed after failing to comply with a summons.
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