That the mining activities of the Marlin Mine in San Miguel Ixtahuacán, exploited by Montana Exploradora, subsidiary of Goldcorp, constitute violations of human and indigenous rights and of Guatemalan law has been a known fact from the onset. Now, the excellent legal researchers of the mining resistance movement in the west of Guatemala, brought to light that the act of buying of the lands of San Miguel constituted a mere crime to Guatemalan law. The person accused of this crime is no one less than the current president of the Supreme Court of Guatemala.

On july 27th, there was a big demonstration of more than 5000 people in the capital of Guatemala, the participants came all the way from the western highlands. In the first rows of the demonstration, the Nobel peace prize winner Rigoberta Menchú, figurehead of the indigenous people in Guatemala and Álvaro Ramazzini the bishop of San Marcos, who continues to question the type of development provided by the extractive industries, were present.

What was already known is that the introduction of the Marlin mine came about without having consulted the inhabitants of the area, and thus violating their rights as Guatemalans, and as indigenous people. Also, known is that at a daily basis, the company Goldcorp is violating the human rights of these inhabitants, threatening their environment through the utilization of the highly toxic cyanide, and the introduction of heavy metals in their waters, and thus putting the human health at stake.

Concerning the purchase of the lands of the people of San Miguel we already knew that treacherous strategies were employed. When the mining company bought lands of these people, they didn’t tell them that the lands were going to be used for open pit mining, but rather they told that they were going to use the lands for development projects, such as an orchid plantation.

The legal brains of the mining resistance wouldn’t give in from finding evidence of the illegality of the purchase of lands. The new evidence, proves that under Guatemalan jurisdiction, the purchase of lands couldn´t have taken place. That is because the lands that were sold to Peridot S.A. – the company in charge of the purchase of the lands, before handing them to Montana Exploradora –, are documented in the property registers of the west of Guatemala as communal lands of the indigenous Mam community. Therefore, the lands couldn’t be sold between individuals, but rather the whole community would have to have had their say of the transaction.

Mr. Erick Alvarez Mancilla, the legal representative of Peridot S.A. at the time, and consequently the person responsible for the legal aspects of the transaction, is now the president of the Supreme Court of Guatemala. That is yet another example of the power relations in this country.

That is why the march came to a stop at the building of the Supreme Court. Rigoberta Menchú spoke of a historic day because this was the first time that the indigenous people of Guatemala went up to the highest ranks of power to claim their rights. Indeed, the demonstrators filed a legal claim against Erick Alverez Mancilla, president of the Supreme Court for violating Guatemalan law by illegally purchasing lands that belong to the Maya-Mam people.