The blame the security guards of Montana Exploradora -Guatemala’s largest mining corporation, subsidiary of Canadian corporation Goldcorp – for violently entering the headquarters of the Association for Integral Development of San Miguel (Adismi), mainly made up by peasants and small estate owners.

The incident took place on June 10th, and the company’s employees tried to “arrest” - a role which does not seem to fall under the jurisdiction of private guards – six women leading the protests in the area.

According to the Guatemalan groups, these persecutions aim to “intimidate the struggles for land and nature and to threaten the lives of the residents”.

The communique claims that Montana has already commited human rights abuses. Its extractive operations are destroying the natural resources only to satisfy the company’s hunger for profits.

Despite the inequality of these conflicts, the warnings of the peasant communities have put the issue of mining impacts up on Guatemala’s political agenda, and the reactions of the corresponding authorities are slowly beginning to be heard.

The newspaper Prensa Libre published last week that eleven mayors of San Marcos department expressed their rejection to Montana Exploradora’s project, saying that the royalties from the activity do not compensate the destruction it causes to natural resources.

“We oppose any work or study that Montana may carry out in our municipalities, as it is the only thing which has led to confrontations between brothers and to deceit, and it has taken over the land of poor people”, one of the residents said.

A local religious leader, cardinal Rodolfo Quezada, urged the Ministries of Environment, Energy and Mining to introduce changes to the laws that regulate the administration of mining resources.

The Guatemalan lawmakers are discussing a reform to the Mining Law, and the groups that resist open-pit mining are calling for the legislative discussion to take into account the protection of water sources in open-pit mining, as well as the environmental pollution, and the need for the popular consultations to be legally binding.