Central America
Probe accuses Swiss mining firm of hiding Guatemala pollution
AFP
Two subsidiaries of Swiss mining company Solway Investment Group hid reports of pollution in an indigenous area of northeastern Guatemala, an international consortium of media companies said Sunday.
The “Mining Secrets” investigation — in which 65 journalists from 15 countries participated — also accused Solway subsidiaries Guatemalan Nickel Company (CGN) and PRONICO of intimidation and influence peddling.
The investigation run by the Forbidden Stories NGO “reveals the strategies that Solway has used to hide, in collusion with authorities, any element that could infer its responsibility in serious cases of environmental pollution.”
Solway has rejected the accusations, telling AFP in a statement it had reviewed the research in the investigation and found it to be “false.”
According to the investigation, one of those cases was the appearance of a large red slick in Lake Izabal, the largest in Guatemala and which adjoins the company’s nickel processing plant in Izabal department.
Both the company and the state blamed algae for the patch.
That sparked a protest from local fishermen, who blamed the miner for the slick. One protester, Carlos Maaz, was shot dead during a clash with police.
But investigators said documents and emails obtained by Guatemalan hackers “disprove official statements and confirm the fishermen’s intuition.”
According to the investigation, an internal PRONICO communication acknowledged that some mining deposits reached the lake “following heavy rainfall.”
The consortium of journalists, including some from Spain’s El Pais and Le Monde in France, said they had evidence that reporters were spied on, local community leaders were intimidated and manipulated, and the company had relations with a judge and “paid the police to end the protests.”
In October, a group of indigenous people blocked off the town of El Estor, where the processing plant is located, for several days, alleging that the company was failing to comply with a court ruling to cease mining.
The government and the company both insisted that the court ruling only prevented PRONICO from extracting from its Fenix mine but not from continuing to process minerals mined from other plants.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei sent military personnel to the area, while police used tear gas to clear protesters.
Local activists accused security forces of intimidation and carrying out raids.
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.
Central America
Guatemala transfers top gang leaders to maximum security prison after funeral home massacre
At least 10 top leaders from the two main gangs operating in Guatemala were transferred in recent hours to a high-security prison, where they are now in isolation, following the murder of seven people at a funeral home on Tuesday night.
Guatemala’s Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez announced Thursday through official communication channels that the inmates moved are leaders of the Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha gangs, who, in his words, “believed they were untouchable.”
The prisoners were taken from several facilities to the Renovación I Maximum Security Detention Center, inaugurated under the current administration of President Bernardo Arévalo de León and located in the department of Escuintla, about 50 kilometers south of Guatemala City.
The transfer operation involved more than 800 National Civil Police (PNC) officers, who initially faced resistance from the inmates, Jiménez added.
The isolated Barrio 18 leaders include Aldo Duppie Ochoa Mejía (alias El Lobo), Wilder Rodríguez Aguilar, Mayro De León Hernández, Jarvin Leonel Itzoy Cruz, and Manuel de Jesús Rivas Granados.
Also transferred were Jair de León Hernández (alias El Diabólico), Amílcar Galileo Torres Rosales, Nixon Bantes González, Ronal Bosbeli Choc Alemán, and Ángel Gabriel Reyes Marroquín.
The move came after a massacre at a funeral home in the Guatemalan capital, allegedly carried out by members of Mara Salvatrucha while a wake was being held for a supposed Barrio 18 member murdered on Monday. The attack left seven dead and 12 injured.
Jiménez emphasized that the violence in Guatemala is driven by territorial disputes over street-level drug sales and warned: “We will not allow more victims to be created by this gang confrontation.”
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