The truth in Guatemala: What lawsuits claiming rape and murder in a Guatemalan jungle mean for Canadian companies abroad - July 8, 2014

…10 other women from the Mayan Q’eqchi’ community…experienced the same ordeal—gang rapes at the hands of police, military and private security from the Fenix nickel mine…during evictions from the homes they’d built on the mine’s property. These and other allegations, including the murder of a community leader and the shooting of another local man, are contained in three lawsuits filed in 2010 against Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals Inc…The simple fact the case has made it this far has already raised the stakes for Canadian companies operating abroad. Last year, when Superior Court of Ontario…ruled the three cases would be tried in Ontario, human rights activists hailed it as a landmark decision…Just last month, another lawsuit was filed against another Canadian Company…In that case, seven plaintiffs filed suit…against Tahoe Resources over alleged shootings at Tahoe’s Escobal Mine…Documents filed by Hudbay…admit won’t begin for another two to five years. In its statement of defence, the company describes an uprising where a mob “wielded machetes and threw rocks and Molotov cocktails” before stealing AK-47s, firebombing a police vehicle and shooting at private security, who “feared for their lives.” Given the context, Hudbay believes CGN’s security forces acted “appropriately and with restraint in some very volatile situations and they did not carry out the acts alleged in the litigation,” says Scott Brubacher, Hudbay’s director of communications…