Human rights defender Ángel Estuardo Quevedo was killed in the municipality of Santa Rosa de Lima, Guatemala, on 12 July 2018. He was a member of the Peaceful Resistance movement of Santa Rosa, Jalapa and Jutiapa, and worked to publicize community opposition to the Escobal silver mine, a Canadian mining investment project owned by Tahoe Resources.
On 1 August, dozens of civil society and faith-based groups, including Canadian Jesuits International, signed a letter to Guatemala Attorney General María Consuelo Porras Argueta, lamenting the death of Ángel Estuardo Quevedo and calling for an impartial investigation into his murder, for justice to be served on those responsible and for guarantees of the safety of other human rights defenders. Please read the letter here:
Letter to Guatemala Attorney General (in English)
Letter to Guatemala Attorney General (in Spanish)
Ángel Estuardo and his fellow human rights defenders worked at great personal risk to raise awareness about Tahoe and its subsidiary Minera San Rafael. Before his death, Estuardo had spent a lot of time in Guatemala City at a peaceful resistance camp set up outside the Constitutional Court to inform the public about the violations of Indigenous rights committed by Tahoe and Minera San Rafael. He was awaiting a court ruling about the future of the Escobal mine when he was killed.
The State of Guatemala failed to protect Estuardo, who had received threats in the days leading up to his murder. He joins a growing list of human rights defenders killed in Guatemala since the beginning of 2018 for standing up to protect land, water and the environment.
