Indigenous Protesters Blockading Mine Owned by Goldcorp Assaulted, Taken Hostage in Guatemala

Update:
they’ve since been released.

On Feb­ru­ary 28, 2011, approx­i­mate­ly 50 Indige­nous men and women from Mayan com­mu­ni­ties affect­ed by Gold­cor­p’s Mar­lin Gold mine in San Mar­cos, Guatemala, were attacked and tak­en hostage by a group of indi­vid­u­als said to have “strong ties” to the Van­cou­ver-based min­ing com­pa­ny.

Update:
they’ve since been released.

On Feb­ru­ary 28, 2011, approx­i­mate­ly 50 Indige­nous men and women from Mayan com­mu­ni­ties affect­ed by Gold­cor­p’s Mar­lin Gold mine in San Mar­cos, Guatemala, were attacked and tak­en hostage by a group of indi­vid­u­als said to have “strong ties” to the Van­cou­ver-based min­ing com­pa­ny.

For Imme­di­ate Release

San Miguel Ixtahua­can, San Mar­cos, Guatemala, Feb­ru­ary 28, 2011.
by San Miguel Ixtahua­can Defense Front

TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

THE SAN MIGUEL IXTAHUACAN DEFENSE FRONT

REPORTS

FIRST: Today, on Feb­ru­ary 28, 2011, com­mu­ni­ties took action to pres­sure the gov­ern­ment of Guatemala to car­ry out the Pre­cau­tion­ary Mea­sures MC-260–07 grant­ed by the Inter-Amer­i­can Com­mis­sion on Human Rights, which include the tem­po­rary sus­pen­sion of the Mar­lin mine. The action con­sist­ed in peace­ful­ly block­ing the main routes used by the com­pa­ny* in a way that respects the Con­sti­tu­tion of our coun­try, in which we have the right to protest.

SECOND: When the block­ade began, a group of approx­i­mate­ly 20 peo­ple assault­ed Miguel Bamaca, despite the fact that the Pres­i­den­tial Human Rights Com­mis­sion has grant­ed him pro­tec­tiv mea­sures. Miguel Bamaca was beat­en mer­ci­less­ly by a fam­i­ly known as the Mejia fam­i­ly, togeth­er with neigh­bours who work for the com­pa­ny. These peo­ple have strong ties to the com­pa­ny and also to ille­gal busi­ness activ­i­ties. This inci­dent occurred at four thir­ty in the after­noon in a loca­tion known as Siete Platos.

THIRD: On the way back, near the com­mu­ni­ty of San Jose Ixcaniche, approx­i­mate­ly 70 mem­bers of this com­mu­ni­ty inter­cept­ed the bus and began to assault var­i­ous peo­ple who were trav­el­ling in the bus. Among them, our com­rade Anise­to Lopez and oth­ers were beat­en with­out being able to defend them­selves. The attack­ers came armed with guns, stones, knives, sticks, and oth­er weapons. Right now, approx­i­mate­ly 50 peo­ple are kid­napped and being threat­ened by the com­mu­ni­ty of San Jose Ixcaniche and the Mejia fam­i­ly.