“International groups denounce US mining company’s multi-million dollar claim against Guatemala and express solidarity with communities peacefully defending land and life at ‘La Puya’”, 10 of April 2019

The undersigned organizations stand in solidarity with Guatemalan communities in peaceful resistance to Kappes, Cassiday & Associates’ (KCA) Progreso VII Derivada gold project as the company brings a US$300 million arbitration claim against Guatemala to the World Bank´s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) over alleged violations of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). We join in solidarity with the residents of San Pedro Ayampuc and San José del Golfo who are deeply concerned about the grave threat the mine poses to water supplies, ecosystems and the quality of life in the area. We express our dismay at how this suit represents a further attack on Guatemala’s judicial system. The Constitutional Court is already under pressure as a result of President Morales’ decision to defy the Court’s ruling and expel the UN-backed anti-corruption and anti-impunity body, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG by its initials in Spanish). We call on KCA and the Guatemalan government to refrain from intimidating the Constitutional Court justices and that the cases currently before them be allowed to play out and that decisions be made based on the rule of law. As part of this, we call on KCA to drop its suit…