On 30 September 2021, Maya Ch'orti' Olopa Indigenous Council members María Méndez, Bernardino Pérez and Juan Agustín, as well as the human rights defenders Santos Gerónimo Ramos Méndez and Rosa Margarita Pérez Canán presented themselves for a summons to testify before the judicial body in the municipal capital of Chiquimula. Upon presenting themselves to the judge, they were informed that they needed to testify in a separate case and that there was an arrest warrant against them. The human rights defenders were then arrested.

The Indigenous Council is an ancestral organisation that defends the land and territory from extractive economic activities. Since 2016, several communities have been peacefully resisting the mining company Cantera Los Manatiales, a mine owned by Incamin.