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Article

24 Apr 2017

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Goldman Prize

Rodrigo Tot, 2017 Goldman Prize Recipient for South and Central America

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…An indigenous leader in Guatemala’s Agua Caliente, Rodrigo Tot led his community to a landmark court decision that ordered the government to issue land titles to the Q’eqchi people and kept environmentally destructive nickel mining from expanding into his community…Fear began to spread in the community. People were worried that they were losing their land and with it, their livelihood…Tot found legal support with the US-based Indian Law Resource Center (ILRC) and Defensoria Q’eqchi, a small human rights organization in Guatemala…On February 8, 2011, two years after the community of Agua Caliente filed its lawsuit, the Constitutional Court issued a landmark decision…[r]ecognizing the Q’eqchi’s collective property rights…The victory has come at an enormous personal cost for Tot. In 2012, two of his sons were on a bus to Guatemala City when they were shot in what appeared to be a staged robbery. One of them died, and the other survived with grave injuries…

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Guatemala: Goldman Prize awarded to Rodrigo Tot, indigenous rights defender opposing mining project

Goldman Environmental Prize 2017 winners announced