Join Grahame Russell (Rights Action), Murray Klippenstein and Cory Wanless (lawyers for the 13 Maya Q'eqchi' plaintiffs) as they discuss how they won the landmark Hudbay Minerals lawsuits in Canada, the criminal trial in Guatemala against Mynor Padilla (Hudbay former head of security), and at what cost.
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For nearly two decades, Maya Q’eqchi’ communities have fought a groundbreaking legal battle in Canada against Hudbay Minerals for violence, land evictions, and killings linked to Guatemala’s Fenix nickel mine. From the 2007 mass rape of 11 women to the murder of community leader Adolfo Ich, the struggle set a historic precedent for corporate accountability abroad. Now, with the lawsuits finally settled, a new report reveals the full story—exposing decades of Canadian mining interests, corruption, and repression in Guatemala, and connecting past injustices to ongoing stru
For nearly two decades, Maya Q’eqchi’ communities have fought a groundbreaking legal battle in Canada against Hudbay Minerals for violence, land evictions, and killings linked to Guatemala’s Fenix nickel mine. From the 2007 mass rape of 11 women to the murder of community leader Adolfo Ich, the struggle set a historic precedent for corporate accountability abroad. Now, with the lawsuits finally settled, a new report reveals the full story—exposing decades of Canadian mining interests, corruption, and repression in Guatemala, and connecting past injustices to ongoing struggles today.
to read the full report click here
After the arrest of the five water defenders in January 2023 on politically-motivated charges, IRTF began engaging northeast Ohioans in an international solidarity campaign spanning 31 countries demanding that the bogus charges be dropped and denouncing the political motivations behind their detention given the lack of evidence presented by the Office of the Attorney General in El Salvador.
When the trial finally happened in October 2024, the water defenders were exonerated. Predictably, the attorney general appealed. The political motivation was clear. IRTF agreed with the assessment of the Salvadoran-based organization International Allies Against Metallic Mining that the criminalization of the Santa Marta 5 was part of President Bukele’s plan to roll back the hard-won national ban on metallic mining (which he did successfully in December 2024. See our RRN letter 16 SEP 2025).
The government prevailed when the acquittal was annulled by an appeals court in November 2024. A new trial was scheduled. After a few postponements, the verdict finally came down on September 24, 2025. The presiding tribunal in San Vicente found all five innocent of the charges of murder, kidnapping, and illicit association. Allies are urging the attorney general to not appeal and to stop wasting public time and money on this farce.
A vehicle blocked their car, and its passengers stepped out with their weapons, trying to attack the group. They managed to escape, but the incident was not the first – nor would it be the last time Bertha Zúñiga would face a violent threat.
That encounter came just over a year after Zúñiga’s mother, Berta Cáceres, a prominent Lenca Indigenous rights activist in Honduras, was killed in her home in March 2016, leading to Zúñiga taking the leadership of her group, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).
Zúñiga was a toddler when her mother started the group to defend indigenous Lenca land from commercial interests that local communities say harm and exploit it.
Bertha Zúñiga continues the fight that her mother began against powerful corporate and political interests. Facing death threats, smear campaigns, and even state security leaks, Zúñiga leads COPINH in defending Lenca land and water from destructive projects—undaunted by the risks that cost her mother’s life.
“Year after year, land and environmental defenders – those protecting our forests, rivers, and lands across the world – continue to be met with unspeakable violence. They are being hunted, harassed, and killed – not for breaking laws, but for defending life itself.
- Laura Furones (Global Witness lead author)
Global Witness documented 117 defender killings last year (82%) in Latin America, with 48 in Colombia, which had the most killings globally for the third year in a row. This is followed by Guatemala, where 20 defenders were killed in 2024 – up from four in 2023.
Hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans still lack access to potable water in their homes and many more go days without water due to existing scarcity and contamination of rivers, lakes, and streams—all of which would be exacerbated by renewed mining operations, now allowable due to the government’s repeal of its ban on large-scale metallic mining in December 2024. Since that time, the government has increased its use of the penal system to persecute those who peacefully exercise their right to organize for environmental protections of the nation’s drinking water.
Since December 2024, Catholic and Protestant churches and faith-based civic organizations have been mobilizing their opposition to the repeal. In March 2025, the archbishop of San Salvador presented petitions signed by 150,000 people urging repeal of the December 2024 law. In May, the Episcopal Conference of the Catholic Church in El Salvador reiterated its opposition to metallic mining in a pastoral letter, emphasizing that access to water is a fundamental human right and a shared inheritance entrusted to all people by God.
We echo the popular social movement in El Salvdaor—backed by church leaders—and urge that the government:
(1) reinstate the ban on metallic mining
(2) heed the call of church leaders and the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor to end the persecution and criminalization of those defending the right to clean water
(3) drop all criminal charges against water defenders and human rights lawyer
Alejandro Henríquez and José Ángel Pérez are being prosecuted for the alleged crimes of public disorder and aggravated resistance. The investigation phase is now scheduled to conclude in December 2025.
Defense attorneys confirmed the court’s decision to LA PRENSA GRÁFICA, as did the organization Foro del Agua, which announced the decision on its accounts on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
The organization called the decision “unjust” and “arbitrary,” as it lengthens both men’s time in custody without any evidence of their alleged crimes.
The National Civil Police (PNC) and members of the Armed Forces are harassing and scaring those who publicly call for the release of jailed environmental defenders José Ángel Pérez and Alejandro Henríquez, who were arrested in May after participating in a vigil protesting the eviction of 300 families from the El Bosque agricultural cooperative. Security forces visit people’s homes, follow them in vehicles, take photographs, and interrogate people. One of the questions they ask is whether these spokespersons for these organizations motivate them to protest against the government. "What's being set up is a witch hunt," said Carlos Flores, spokesperson for the Water Forum, as he denounced the government-led effort to dismantle civil society organizations and criminalize peaceful protest.
In July, Amnesty International declared some of these falsely criminalized environmental and human rights defenders as prisoners of conscience, including José Ángel Pérez, Alejandro Henríquez, and prominent human rights and anti-corruption attorney for the human rights organization Cristosal, Ruth López.
We call on the government of El Salvador to end the systematic persecution and incarceration of advocates for the environment, civil and human rights.
The ERC Capital group, owner of the Raaxhá Hydroelectric dam in Alta Verapaz, promotes the electric generation project as “clean sustainable energy.” The name “raaxhá” means “green water” in the local Maya Q’eqchi’ dialect.
But local Indigenous communities north of Cobán saw the threats to their water supply and rallied to stop its construction. In January 2020, the government of former President Jimmy Morales (whose 2016-20 administration was riddled with corruption) approved a permit for the project. The attorney general began a legal process against the director of MARN (Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources) for the illegal approval. Both the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP) and the National Institute of Forests (INAB) noted negative findings in the environmental impact study. Both institutions—responsible for managing the Laguna de Lachuá National Park—foresaw the probable harms of water diversion.
Indeed, since Raaxhá began their operations on the Icbolay River, there has been evident depletion of the river’s water supply with the operation of its hydroelectric dam, contaminating what remains of the water and negatively affecting individuals’ health and the environment. MARN’s complicity in the draining and denial of accessible water for local inhabitants is reflective of a larger pattern of prioritizing the economic development of corporations over the will and well-being of Guatemalans.
Speaking up to denounce the irreversible damage to land and waterways caused by large scale mining operations is dangerous. There were more than 60 registered assassinations of environmental defenders in Guatemala between 2014 and 2024; the majority were in Izabal and Alta Verapaz Departments.
Marco Antonio Zuleta Quevedo worked as a ranger and forest firefighter to protect the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve, the largest cloud forest habitat in Central America. He received death threats for reporting illegal resource extraction. On May 9, he was shot and killed while walking home in Usumatlán, Zacapa Department.
Misael Mata Ascencio was active in the anti-mining resistance formed by 54 communities in the Sierra Santa Cruz region of Izabal Department, where Río Nickel S.A. (a subsidiary of Canada-based Central America Nickel, or CAN) had filed more than a dozen mining exploration applications for nickel and other minerals. While working as a security guard on a farm in his community, he was beaten and shot to death on May 14.
In addition to urging authorities to continue the investigations, we ask that the government invest more time and resources to consult with Indigenous communities about their legitimate concerns regarding mining operations.
