Blog Entry

Maria Cuc Choc: communities face violence related to mining in El Estor, Guatemala

Jen Moore

Latin America Program Coordinator / Coordinadora del programa para América Latina, 2010-2018.

Maria Cuc Choc, a Mayan Q’eqchi’ community leader from El Estor in eastern Guatemala, visited Canada to speak about injustices Indigenous communities have experienced related to Canadian mining operations. She eloquently expresses outrage at the burning of Indigenous villages and the rape of a group of women by company guards and police during a forceful eviction, and describes her great sadness about the assassination of her brother-in-law and community leader, Adolfo Ich Chamán, and related violence that led to a young man from her village becoming permanently disabled.

For more background on the events Maria describes and the three civil lawsuits in Ontario courts related to the above atrocities, go to: http://www.chocversushudbay.com/history-of-the-mine