Lugar

Municipality of San Pedro Ayampuc, Department of Guatemala.

Area of ​​work and rights defended

Resistence against the installation of an electrical distribution plant and a high voltage power station in the municipality and defending the right to water and a healthy environment.

Description of the problem

The Resistance of La Laguna began to organize a protest camp located in the municipality of San Pedro Ayampuc on April 4, 2015. The reason for setting up the protest camp was to express their disagreement with the installation of a distribution plant, and a High voltage power station, by the Colombian company Transportadora de Energía de Centroamérica SA (TRECSA), whose objective is to provide energy to the 20 mining projects that would operate in the vicinity of the municipalities of San Pedro Ayampuc and San José del Golfo.

At the end of 2014, a consultation was carried out in the community, where the majority rejected the operations of the company. The main concerns of the Resistance are possible environmental and health consequences, such as deforestation, the reduction of the amount of water available and the contamination of the water supply with harmful chemicals. The Resistance requests that the municipal and state authorities cancel TRECSA’s construction licence, granted in 2011. Although the licence was finally cancelled in May 2015, the company still has licenses from the Ministry of Environment and Resources (MARN) and the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM).

PBI began to accompany the Peaceful Resistance of La Laguna in November 2015, following threats and attacks received by members of the resistance.