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Article

4 Jan 2018

Author:
Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (Canada)

Canadian & Guatemalan govts. pressured to ensure safety of defender Rafael Maldonado, who defends indigenous against Tahoe mine

“Canadian lawyers rally to support Guatemalan colleague fighting world’s second largest silver mine”, 3 January 2018

…Canadian lawyers and international organizations are pressuring the Canadian and Guatemalan governments to ensure the safety of Guatemalan lawyer Rafael Maldonado. The Canadian Bar Association wrote to Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland expressing concern for Mr. Maldonado’s safety on December 20, 2017… Earlier in the fall, the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project… wrote to the Canadian Embassy in Guatemala. Letters were also sent to the President of Guatemala… Mr. Maldonado has actively defended community members concerned about the impacts of Canadian silver miner Tahoe Resources. He has received death threats, his office has been ransacked and shots were fired at his car earlier this year. The director and founder of the… organization where he works, the Guatemala Centre for Social and Environmental Legal Action (CALAS), survived an assassination attempt in 2008, and an employee was murdered in 2016. No one has been charged for…these crimes… In June,2017,…Maldonado successfully argued that… mine should be suspended because… government had ignored the existence of Xinca Indigenous people in the area affected by [the] project… Within two days, Tahoe stocks plummeted 40%. “Canada needs to be seen to be protecting the right to carry out legal representation without being intimidated or murdered” said Shin Imai…