A Guatemalan judge has ordered oil palm company Reforestadora Palma de Petén (REPSA) [part of Grupo Hame] to suspend operations at their Sayaxché plantation, pending an investigation in the environmental disaster in the Pasión River…The court’s September 17th order states that the firm must suspend operations for 6 months…[On September 18th] workers from the…plantation were informed that they would be laid off. [They] responded by taking to the streets in protest over the temporary closure of the company… workers [also] kidnapped three human rights defenders and community leaders…The confrontations turned deadly… [when] Rigoberto Lima Choc…was shot and killed by unknown assailants…Lima had been at the forefront of the movement to hold REPSA accountable for the contamination of the Pasión River... he was the first person to travel to Guatemala City to file public charges against the firm for the ecocide and had spoken openly about the impacts of palm in Sayaxché…