Guatemala Mayan community argues before human rights court

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Lawyers for an Indigenous community in eastern Guatemala made arguments before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Wednesday in a case that could have far-reaching implications for Indigenous communities throughout the Americas.

The community of Agua Caliente, one of 16 Maya Q’eqchi’ communities in the El Estor municipality, is demanding that the Guatemalan government give them title to their land and the right to determine how its natural resources are exploited.

“This case brings to the court, for the first time, a chance to rule on whether governments should act to recognize the rights of Indigenous peoples to permanent sovereignty over their natural resources, as a principle of public international law,” said Leonardo Crippa, an attorney with the Indian Law Resource Center and one of those representing the community, in a statement.

The plaintiffs expect that deliberations by the court seated in Costa Rica could take at least seven months. Mining operations and other exploitation of natural resources on Indigenous lands are frequently sources of conflict in the Americas and that problem is expected to grow as the pressure increases to produce valuable minerals needed for green energy initiatives, the center said.

The cloudy ownership status of lands near Lake Izabal has been the source of disputes in the area for decades.

Rodrigo Tot, an Indigenous leader who won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2017 for defense of community lands, said in a virtual news conference Tuesday that they have awaited justice for more than four decades.

In the 1960s, the government granted a 40-year mining license to a company without setting clearly defined limits and boundaries.

In the 1980s the National Agrarian Transformation Institute...