May 8, 2019
(Vancouver/Victoria/Ottawa/Tatamagouche/Washington, D.C.) Ahead of Pan American Silver’s annual shareholder meeting in Vancouver today, the Xinka Indigenous Parliament released a statement calling on the company to stop attempts to engage with communities outside of the court-ordered consultation process over the Escobal silver project. They insist that the company’s community relations taking place in parallel to the consultation are coercive, heighten tensions and jeopardize the free nature of the process.
In their statement, the Xinka Parliament of Guatemala said: “The mining project has greatly affected our ways of life and the company’s actions over the past months have only increased and worsened the conflict in our region.”
“The Escobal mining project represents a threat to the life of Xinka communities in the region. During nine years of resistance to this project, we have been victims of kidnapping, assassinations, criminalization, destruction of our ways of life, as well as the destruction of archaeological sites and sacred places. As a result, the reactivation of this project is untenable, since it would mean deciding between the project and our survival.”
For the full press release, click here.
