Despite knowing this, Pan American Silver bought Tahoe Resources and with it the company’s flagship Escobal mine in 2019.

The project threatens the Xinka Indigenous and campesino populations in the departments of Santa Rosa, Jalapa and Jutiapa. The project has been marked by criminalization of defenders, repression and violence. There have been assassinations of various activists related to the conflict, including Exaltación Marcos Ucelo (2013), Merilyn Topacio Reynoso (2014), Telésforo Odilio Pivaral González (2015), Laura Leonor Vásquez Pineda (2017) and Ronal David Barillas (2018), among others.

The Escobal mine is located in the municipality of San Rafael las Flores in the department of Santa Rosa in southeastern Guatemala. 

In 2010, Tahoe Resources bought the project from Goldcorp (both Canadian companies), and the exploration permits for silver, gold, lead, and zinc for the Escobal project. According to company reports, the mine is one of the largest silver deposits in the world, topping 265 million ounces in silver reserves.

Since 2010, the peaceful local resistance began to organize. One of the first groups to form was the Committee in Defense of Life and Peace of San Rafael las Flores, which together with the Madre Selva Collective commissioned an analysis of the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) by independent experts who found serious deficiencies and concluded that it should not be approved. Despite this, the EIA was approved by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) in 2011. Shortly after, the company began construction.

Also, beginning in 2010, the broad resistance movement, with the support of the Diocesan Commission in Defense of Nature (CODIDENA), organized protests, sit-ins, and marches. These acts were met with violence by police, military and the mine’s private security forces. Between 2010 and 2015 hundreds of people were criminalized and many people spent days or even months in jail. All were eventually absolved of accusations. Between 2011 and 2016, residents carried out more than a dozen community and municipal referenda in which tens of thousands of people overwhelmingly rejected mining on their territory.

In early April 2013, despite growing resistance to the Escobal mine, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) approved the extraction license. At the same time, MEM rejected more than 200 complaints that residents had filed against approval of the license over concerns about possible impacts on their environment, water and livelihoods. In response, community protests grew and they continued to organize referenda. The government and company responded with repression, violence and militarization of the region.

On April 27, 2013, during one of the peaceful protests organized in response to approval of the extraction license, private security for Minera San Rafael, led by then head of security, Alberto Rotondo, opened fire on community activists gathered outside the mine. Seven people were hurt and four of them sued Tahoe Resources, now Pan American Silver, in British Columbia, Canada. Days after the attack, the Guatemalan government declared a State of Siege in San Rafael las Flores and three other municipalities near the mine to repress the protests and impose the project.

To design their security strategy, Tahoe Resources contracted the U.S. defense and security group, International Security and Defense Management, LLC (ISDM), a contractor with experience in war zones. Under advice of ISDM, the company contracted Alberto Rotondo and the private security company, Grupo Golan, which was founded in 1983 by members of the Israeli Special Forces. The company was active in Guatemala during the internal armed conflict and previously worked for other mining companies where there have been grave acts of violence. At the same time as the exploitation license was approved in 2013, under pressure from the company, the government set up an inter-institutional pilot project in the municipality of San Rafael las Flores under the command of the National Security Commission. Local residents believe it was a military intelligence exercise.

In early 2014, at the height of militarization and criminalization in the region, the company put the Escobal mine into operation. However, the resistance continued and, in June 2017, a peaceful encampment was set up on the side of the main road to the mine, effectively suspending the mine. One month later, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of communities in response to a lawsuit presented by the Center for Legal, Environmental and Social Action (CALAS), finding that the state had discriminated against the Xinka Indigenous people for failure to consult with them. In September 2018, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court confirmed the order to consult and the suspension of the mine, setting out the steps and the standards by which the consultation should take place.

Currently, the mine remains suspended due to the ongoing community protests, with two 24-hour encampments being maintained on both access roads to the mine, as well as a result of the court´s decision. The consultation process is ongoing, although the Ministry of Energy and Mines has continued to demonstrate a discriminatory attitude toward the Xinka people, excluding them from the consultation process. In addition, the consultation process is taking place on the basis of a resolution from the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources on the mine´s area of influence that was made before the consultation process had officially begun. In response, the Xinka Parliament, in representation of the Xinka people, is demanding that the process restart from the beginning in order to ensure their full participation and strict adherence to international standards with respect for Xinka self-determination and their right to free, prior and informed consent.

Project area: Escobal mineral extraction license = 79.9 square kilometers; Pan American Silver owns mineral concessions totaling roughly 3,000 square kilometers in the surrounding departments of Santa Rosa, Jalapa and Jutiapa.