Backyard Empire: The U.S. in Latin America · Episode 8 of 14 · 56 min
The Nickel Mine That Got Its Critics Killed
In the 1960s foreign companies won a 40-year nickel concession on Q'eqchi' Maya land at Lake Izabal, Guatemala, on terms so generous that university professors formed a commission to examine the contract. Within months its members were being shot. The episode follows the concession from American to Canadian to Russian owners, the evictions, the lawsuits in Canadian courts, and a 2023 Inter-American Court ruling.
Who's who
- Adolfo Mijangos LópezWheelchair-using congressman and commission member, assassinated in 1971
- Alfonso Bauer PaizCommission member, wounded in an attack
- Julio Camey HerreraCommission member, killed in 1970
- Carlos Arana OsorioColonel who led the U.S.-backed counterinsurgency in the region
- Adolfo IchCommunity leader whose 2009 killing is alleged in the lawsuits
Where it happens
- Lake Izabal, GuatemalaRegion of the nickel concession on Q'eqchi' land
- El Estor, Guatemala+1 more episodeTown with evictions, killings, and protests over the mine
- Zacapa, GuatemalaRegion of the 1960s counterinsurgency campaign
Timeline
- 1965Military government grants EXMIBAL a 40-year lease
- 1969University commission condemns the contract as a giveaway
- November 1970Julio Camey Herrera killed; Alfonso Bauer Paiz wounded
- January 13, 1971Adolfo Mijangos López shot dead
- February 1971Company and government agree on terms favorable to the company
- 2023Inter-American Court rules Guatemala violated Q'eqchi' rights
Still debated
Who ordered the assassinations was never established in court. Whether the company was complicit, a beneficiary, or the direct author of the violence is argued, and Canadian suits were allowed to proceed but did not establish final liability.
← PreviousBlood and Marble: The Amazon Rubber Boom's Forgotten GenocideNext →The British Company That Owned an Argentine Forest — and Massacred Its Workers
