“The lack of access to land continues to be one of the main causes of poverty and high infant mortality rates due to malnourishment. It has also been one of the main historical, and current, causes of violence.” On January 8th and 9th, 2007, the Guatemalan Nickel Company (CGN) [part of HudBay] ordered the eviction of hundreds of Q’eqchi’ Mayan families from five communities in the municipalities of El Estor, Izabal and Panzos, Alta Verapaz…members from a combined National Police-Army force carried out the massive evictions in a violent manner…CGN claims the disputed landholdings as its property…local residents claim the landholding as part of their ancestral rights. The large plot of land was given practically for free to the mining company in the 1960s by the military dictators of the time. A local leader states that, as a result, “no on can say ‘it is mine’”. Two years after the violent evictions, residents of Barrio La Union continue their pacific resistance by living on the fields of La Esperanza...as of February 2009, CGN has set exorbitant prices for the plots…