Following the Guatemalan Constitutional Court's order of a community consultation as a requirement to resume operations at the San Rafael Mine, the company is now claiming that the timelines for the process are not clear.
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
Given the doubts that exist about the term that the government has to complete the process of community consultation, the mining company has decided to make another staff cut, given that it is unknown how long it will be before they can resume mining operations, which were halted on July 3, 2017.
Regarding the issue, last week the Minister of Energy and Mines, Luis Chang, explained that they still do not have a final decision, because there are certain clarifications and extensions that were raised by different entities, therefore there is no set date for carrying out the consultation.
In a statement issued by Minera San Rafael, the manager of the company Andrés Dávila explained that "... Due to the fact that there are no deadlines for the community consultation process to be carried out, in accordance with Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), Minera San Rafael has had to take the difficult decision again today to make a fourth cut of personnel".
Dávila told Prensalibre.com that "... they do not know when the consultation process might start, given that 'there is a delay on the part of the CC when it does not resolve the clarification requests that are pending to make the ruling final. Although at the time magistrates indicated that the State should start the process of consultation 'immediately' magistrates had a period of 48 hours to respond to this request, which expired on Thursday, September 5'."
Following the order to hold community consultations as a requirement for resuming operations at the San Rafael Mine in Guatemala, the authorities are waiting for the ruling to be be made firm in order to start a pre-consultation process.
After more than 300 days of waiting for a decision from the authorities, as a result of an appeal for legal protection filed by the environmental organization Calas, the Constitutional Court (CC) last week ordered a community consultation to be carried out, through the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), into the operations area of the mine, in El Escobal, in the municipality of San Rafael Las Flores, department of Santa Rosa.
At last the Constitutional Court of Guatemala has spoken about the operation of Minera San Rafael, which has been paralyzed for more than a year, ordering a community consultation as a requirement to resume operations.
The project has been halted since mid-2017, when the environmental organization Calas filed an application for a declaration of fundamental rights against the mine, arguing that the Ministry of Energy and Mines had not carried out the community consultations before authorizing the operation licenses.
One year after the suspension of operations at the El Escobal mining project in Guatemala, the company is still waiting for a definitive judicial decision from the Constitutional Court.
In May 2018, the Legal, Environmental and Social Action Center of Guatemala (Calas) filed an appeal for legal protection, arguing that the Ministry of Energy and Mines had not carried out the necessary community consultations before authorizing the licenses.
After seven months of suspended operations, the company that operates the Escobal mine in Guatemala has announced that it is making 250 workers redundant.
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