El Estor Photos
El Estor is a municipality in eastern Guatemala. The majority population are Maya Q’eqchi’ people living in over 50 villages along Lake Izabal and in the mountains to the north, where they and their ancestors have lived for 100s of years. Since the early 1960s, a series of Canadian companies - INCO, Skye Resouces, Hudbay Minerals - and then Solway Investment Group (Switzerland) have operated, or tried to operate an open pit, mountain top removal nickel mine characterized, every step of the way, by corruption and impunity, environmental and health harms, human rights violations and repression.
17 May 2004 Chichipate, El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala In 1981, Pablo Bac, a Q'eqchi' man from Chichipate was disappeared and killed while defending the rights and well-being of the Q'eqchi' people, while they resisted forced evictions by the EXMIBAL nickel mining company, subsidiary of Canadian nickel mining giant INCO. Meeting with Chichipate community members concerned that the EXMIBAL may start up the mine again. Photo: Annika Gerlach
17 May 2004 Chichipate, El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala Meeting with Pablo Bac's father, survivor of the kidnapping of his son in 1981. Photo: Annika Gerlach
7 May 2008 Road from Chichipate to Lote 8 and Lote 9 Another 'new' settlement springs up on land that Skye Resources says is their own. Lote 9 is another community, set beside Lote 8 in the mountains, in resistance to Vancouver-based Skye Resources/CGN mining activity Photo: Catherine Nolin
19 May 2010 Lote Ocho Gathering testimonies of violent evictions, rape, burning of homes in community of Lote 8, on land claimed by Skye Resources / HudBay Minerals. Photo by C. Nolin
19 May 2010 Lote 8 The first woman to stand (in blue) came forward and said "I am scared." After hearing that, one by one, several more women came forward with her to recount the gang rape, loss of pregnancies and death of a young child during the violent evictions. None of us were ready for this. How could we be? The women have not spoken in public of these rapes before -- the trauma of remembering what happened lead to many having headaches and body aches just as if it all happened yesterday. Photo: Catherine Nolin
22 August 2010 Barrio La Unión, El Estor, Guatemala Grahame Russell, JP LaPlante & Catherine Nolin (among others) returned to El Estor after the May 2010 delegation to re-visit the mining affected communities near the HudBay Minerals / CGN Fénix mine Photo: Claudette Bois
24 August 2010 El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala From: mimundo.org Portrait of the women from Lote 8 community in El Estor, Guatemala, who were gang raped by CGN mine security personnel, police and military during the forced evictions of families from the community on January 27, 2007. Since, Rosa Elbira Ich Choc, Margarita Caal Caal and nine other women from the community of Lote Ocho have brought a landmark lawsuit in Canada against Canadian company HMI Nickel (formerly Skye Resources) as well as its current corporate owner, HudBay Minerals. The forced eviction was sought by Canadian mining company Skye Resources with regards to their Fenix Nickel Mining Project. Photo: James Rodríguez
![31 May 2012 Lote 8
Emilio Xoc, 53, recounts:
Difficult for us "how CGN [the Guatemalan subsidiary of HudBay Minerals] is mad because we are telling the truth. We know some of you have returned several times. Thank you. I remember well." Then Emilio](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60ad5f9747592c2e0dfcf935/ff575186-6472-483c-b1fc-7f3e901d0c2f/GUATE++2012+DAY+07+%26+08+088.JPG)
31 May 2012 Lote 8 Emilio Xoc, 53, recounts: Difficult for us "how CGN [the Guatemalan subsidiary of HudBay Minerals] is mad because we are telling the truth. We know some of you have returned several times. Thank you. I remember well." Then Emilio broke down and cried. He gathered himself and then said, "We don't know how long this will go on. How long it will last." Photo: Catherine Nolin
31 May 2012 El Estor Community leader Angelica Choc, widow of Adolfo Ich Chaman - who was murdered on the HudBay company property in September 2009. She lives in the community of La Uníon & is a strong community leader. Strong, brave woman. For info on the lawsuit, see: http://www.chocversushudbay.com/about https://rightsaction.org/hudbay-minerals-archives Photo: Catherine Nolin
18 May 2014 Hiking into Lote 8 with Maria Cuc Choc, sister of Angelica Choc, sister-in-law of the murdered Adolfo Ich. Photo: Catherine Nolin
16 May 2017 La Unión, El Estor, Izabal Maria Choc sharing testimonio for inclusion in the book, with James Rodríguez and Grahame Russell Photo: Catherine Nolin
18 May 2018 Cahaboncito, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala Greetings in Cahaboncito - Grahame & Catherine met by the women and men of Lote 8 Photo from "The Faces & Micro-Geographies of Resistance’" by Robin McKinley
9 January 2020 El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala Grahame Russell and Catherine Nolin return to El Estor (with Brian Gorlick) to meet with the strong and courageous women and men of Lote 8 and La Unión. This photo of the mine demonstrates that the mining operation suspension, as ordered by the Constitutional Court, hasn’t been respected by Solway Investment Group or enforced by the Guatemala government. Photo: Brian Gorlick
7 May 2008 - Barrio Revolución, El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala Barrio Revolución, a community of approximately 90 families, rebuilding after Skye Resources/CGN burned down their community in late 2006 Photo: JP Laplante