Mining company agrees with court decision ordering Guatemala to grant property rights to community

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Solway Investment Group, a Switzerland-based mining company with interests in Guatemala, says it agrees with a regional court’s decision requiring the Guatemalan government to recognize the property rights of an Indigenous community. The company, which was not a party to the case, stressed Monday that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights decision handed down Friday “does not cover the right of the company to conduct mining operations in the areas outside the Agua Caliente community lands.” On Friday, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that Guatemala violated the rights of the Indigenous Q’eqchi’ people to property and consultation by permitting mining on land where members of the community have lived at least since the 1800s.