Guatemalan town calm under martial law after mining dispute
ABC News
Police and soldiers are frisking people at checkpoints and a tense calm reigns in the streets of the lakeside town of El Estor after protests against a mining project erupted into violence over the weekend
EL ESTOR, Guatemala -- Police and soldiers frisked people at checkpoints and a tense calm reigned in the streets of this lakeside town Monday after protests against a mining project erupted into violence over the weekend.
Guatemala’s government imposed martial law and a dusk to dawn curfew Sunday and filled the town of 20,000 residents with security forces. Teams carried out searches at homes and offices looking for protest leaders, while those targets went into hiding.
The police were ostensibly there to make sure protesters do not block trucks from entering and leaving a nickel processing plant, which shares the site with the disputed mine. Protesters contend the operation pollutes Lake Izabal.
The Fenix mine, owned by Guatemala Nickel Co., a subsidiary of Switzerland’s Solway Investment Group, is under a court order to carry out a public consultation process in the community about the project.
