Elizabeth McSheffrey published this excellent article in the National Observer, a subscribers-only site that provides top-quality independent news, research, and analysis. If you are not a subscriber, we would urge you to sign up; the National Observer assures us that they can waive the subscription fee if you cannot afford it. An excerpt:

In Guatemala, mining companies and their subsidiaries flourish in a “state that was designed for corruption and impunity,” explains Claudia Samayoa, founder of the Unit for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in Guatemala. The government — led by two successive presidents charged with corruption — has an “almost non-existent” will to enforce environmental and human rights law, adds Ursula Roldán Andrade, a co-ordinator for the migrations department at Guatemala’s Institute for Research and Political Management.