Article
Mayan women victims of gang rapes announce lawsuit against Canadian mining company HudBay Minerals
The filing of this suit against HudBay Minerals follows upon the suit, filed in December 2010, against HudBay for the killing of Adolfo Ich. Rosa Elbira Coc Ich, and ten other indigenous Mayan Q'eqchi' women, announced today a lawsuit...against...HMI Nickel, and its corporate owner, HudBay Minerals, relating to rapes suffered by them...On January 17, 2007, the eleven women were gang-raped by mining company security personnel, police and military during the forceful expulsion of Mayan Q'eqchi' families from their farms and homes...These armed evictions were sought by HMI Nickel in relation to its Fenix mining project...[operated] in part through its Guatemalan subsidiary Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN) [part of HudBay]...The lawsuit [is] filed in HudBay and HMI Nickel's home jurisdiction of Ontario, Canada…Ian Austin, the then-CEO of HMI Nickel, released a public letter in Canada that stated: "[t]he company did everything in its power to ensure that the evictions were carried out in the best possible manner while respecting human rights."