Guatemalan Land Activist Wins Prestigious Goldman Prize

The diminutive, soft-spoken evangelical pastor was recognized for defending his indigenous Q'eqchi community's lands against a mining company and the government. In a statement, Goldman praised Tot for "intrepid leadership of his people and defense of their ancestral land" and noted his fight has come at great personal cost: Latin America is one of the most dangerous regions for environmental activists, with more than 450 of them murdered between 2010 and 2014, according to the London-based group Global Witness. Tot, leader of the Agua Caliente "Lote 9" community in El Estor in Guatemala's eastern department of Izabal, has fought for decades to try to make the government recognize locals' right to fertile farmlands that are also coveted by mining interests for nickel and gold deposits that lie beneath. According to Calas, a Guatemalan environmental and social law nonprofit group, in every case where indigenous communities have opposed mining projects, the government has backed the companies. On March 18, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights agreed to consider a lawsuit brought accusing Guatemala of violating the community's rights to land, natural resources, free determination and self-government by denying their title.

 

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