A group of Mayan Mam villagers torched the equipment of a company attempting to set up a mine on their land without permission on June 12. Exploradora de Guatemala, a subsidiary of the Canadian company Goldcorp, had been pressuring 20 families in the San Miguel Ixztahuacan municipality to sell their land, but the villagers had consistently refused. When the company began moving mining equipment onto their land anyway, the villagers demanded its removal.
The company promised to remove all equipment by June 10, then failed to do so. It promised again to remove the equipment by June 12, even as it requested police and army assistance — receiving 8 police units (2 of them anti-riot) and 4 vehicles full of soldiers.
On June 12, seeing that the company was not going to remove the equipment, villagers set fire to an exploration drill rig and pickup truck, while police and soldiers stood by and watched.
Unfortunately, due to company pressure, the police filed charges against 7 villagers for the action on June 19.