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The Legal Cultutres of the Subsoil Database

ASP1 & ASP2 (Guapinol)

Project Phase / Fase del proyecto:

Access road built. Processing plant in construction since 2018. Extraction and processing due to begin in 2021.

Exploration Start Date / Fecha de inicio de la exploración:
Concession ASP1 registered on 18 March 2015; Concession ASP2 registered on 26 September 2014. Processing plant granted licence in 2018.
Exploitation Start Date / Fecha de inicio de la explotación:
2021
Extraction Type / Método de extracción:
Open pit
Country / País:
Honduras
Company / Empresa:
Parent Company: Inversiones Los Pinares (part of EMCO Group)
Sister Company: Inversiones Ecotek (part of EMCO Group)
Natural Resource / Recurso natural:
Iron oxide
Municipality, Department / Municipio, Departamento:
Tocoa Municipality, Colón Department
Region / Región:
Central America
Legal Actions / Acciones Legales:
1998-2013 Honduran Mining Laws [ASP1 and ASP2]
2006-2017 Constitutional Challenges to Honduran Mining Law [ASP1 and ASP2]
2007- Municipalities Declare Territories Free of Mining [ASP1 and ASP2]
2012-2013 Creation and reconfiguration of Montaña de Botaderos National Park
2015 Law to protect Human Rights defenders and journalists
2016 Ceibita community consent for mining project
2016-2020 Tocoa Municipal consultative assembly to declare “Territory Free of Mining”
2018 Criminal complaints by CMDBCP against local authorities
2018 Eviction of protest encampment
2018 UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders visit to Honduras
2018-2019 Criminal complaints by CMDBCP against private company and State authorities
2018-2022 Criminalisation and detention of CMDBCP environmental rights defenders
2018-2022 Legal challenges to criminalization of environmental defenders
2019 Constitutional challenge to decree modifying Montaña de Botaderos National Park
2019 IACHR issues report on the Situation of Human Rights in Honduras
2019 National Protection System recognises the CMDBCP as a human rights organization
2019 Request for IACHR precautionary measures on behalf of Guapinol human rights activists
2019 Visit of the UN Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises
2020 Human Rights Ombudsperson issues public letter criticising criminal case against Guapinol defenders
2020 UN Universal Periodic Review of Honduras human rights situation
2021 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights report to the Human Rights Council on Honduras
2021 UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued opinion on detained CMDBCP environmental defenders
Political Actions / Acciones Políticas:
2015 Sector San Pedro begins to organise opposition to mining concession
2015- Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods (CMDBCP) is formed
2016 Sector San Pedro communities denounce local officials
2016 Sector San Pedro denounces mayor for cancelling consultative assembly
2018 CMDBCP hold 10-day protest outside Tocoa Town Hall
2018 CMDBCP establishes protest encampment
2019 EU delegation visits Guapinol environmentalist prisoners
2019 CMDBCP is awarded international Human Rights Prize
2020 National meeting of communities in defence of the environment
2020 EU Parliament calls for release of Guapinol environmental defenders
2020 Public presentation of expert legal opinion on judicial persecution and detention of Guapinol defenders
2020 Launch of international experts' report on origins of mining conflict in Bajo Aguán
2020 International campaign demanding release of detained Guapinol activists
2020 Berta Cáceres and Guapinol detainees shortlisted for EU Sakharov Human Rights Prize
2020 Presentation of reports to the Honduran Ministry of Human Rights
2020 Presentation of reports to the Honduran Ombudsperson Office (CONADEH)
2021 UN experts call for release of 8 environmental defenders
Reports / Informes:
2014 Statistical Report on Violent Deaths Related to Land Conflict in the Bajo Aguan 2008-2013 (Spanish)
2016 EITI: A Sufficient Initiative for Fiscal Transparency of Extractive Industries in Honduras? (Spanish)
2016 Socio-Environmental Impact of Mining in the Northwestern Region of Honduras Seen through Three Case Studies (Spanish)
2017 Territories at Risk: Mining, Land and Water in Honduras (Spanish)
2017 Honduras - The deadliest place to defend the planet
2017 List of Mining Concessions in Honduras (Spanish)
2017 Report of the Observatory of Natural Goods and Human Rights of CEHPRODEC (Spanish)
2017 Report of the Observatory of Natural Goods and Human Rights of CEHPRODEC, 2016 (Spanish)
2019 Territories at Risk II: Mining, Hydrocarbons and Electric Power Generation in Honduras (Spanish)
2019 Proposals for the Honduran Justice System in the Treatment and Handling of High Impact Social and Corruption Cases (Spanish)
2019 Visit to Honduras, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
2019 The State of Mining in Honduras, Exploratory Investigation (Spanish)
2019 In the case of Guapinol and San Pedro, does the Human Rights Defenders Protection Mechanism work to protect the life of the defenders of the land, forest and rivers? (Spanish)
2019 Third cycle of the Universal Periodic Review of Honduras, Report on the situation of the human rights of women in Honduras (Spanish)
2020 Honduras's Deadly Water Wars
2020 Universal Periodic Review Honduras, Report on the situation of Human Rights Defenders in Honduras (Spanish)
2020 Guapinol Resists: Origins of the Mining Conflict in the Bajo Aguan (Spanish)
2020 Pretrial Monitoring of the Guapinol and San Pedro Community
References / Referencias:

ACAFREMIN, “Guapinol Resiste: Orígenes del Conflicto Minero en el Bajo Aguán”, dated March 2020, online: https://www.acafremin.org/images/documentos/Guapinol_ESP_Baja_Res.pdf, accessed 16 September 2020.

ACAFREMIN, “Honduras: Demandan a Inversiones ECOTEK por daños sociales y ambientales en la comunidad de Guapinol”, dated 5 February 2020, online: https://www.acafremin.org/es/noticias-regionales/honduras/432-demandan-a…, accessed 16 September 2020.

Global Witness, “Honduras: The Deadliest Place to Defend the Planet”, dated January 2017, online: https://www.universal-rights.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Defenders_Ho…, accessed 16 September 2020.

José Luis Palma Herrera, “La minería en Honduras: análisis espacial de su conflictividad territorial desde la perspectiva de las Ciencias de la Información Geográfica”, Ciencias Espaciales 10(2): 25–61, 2017, online: https://www.lamjol.info/index.php/CE/article/view/5895, accessed 14 January 2021.

Juan Carlos Quiroz and Juan Cruz Vieyra, “Unlocking Central America’s mineral potential: Leveraging transparency to address governance challenges”, The Extractive Industries and Society, 5(3): 255–268, 2018, online: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214790X16302520?…, accessed 14 January 2021.

La Prensa, “Honduras tendrá la primera planta procesadora de pellets de óxido de hierro de Centroamérica”, dated 23 October 2019, online: https://www.laprensa.hn/honduras/1328929-410/honduras-procesadora-pellet…, accessed 16 September 2020.

La Prensa, “Honduras: Se invierten US$120 millones en nuevo proyecto minero”, dated 11 October 2019, online: https://www.estrategiaynegocios.net/centroamericaymundo/1325753-330/stor…, accessed 16 September 2020.

Nick Middeldorp, Carlos Morales and Gemma van der Haar, “Social mobilisation and violence at the mining frontier: The case of Honduras”, The Extractive Industries and Society 3(4): 930–938, 2016, online: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214790X16301836, accessed 14 January 2021.

Share El Salvador, “More background on the Guapinol 13”, dated 2019, online: http://www.share-elsalvador.org/uploads/1/0/8/1/108170557/background_on_…, accessed 16 September 2020.

Share El Salvador, “Witness to the Struggle of the Guapinol, Honduras Environmental Defenders: Criminalization of Protest, Grass Roots Victory, Challenges of Solidarity”, dated 2019, online: http://www.share-elsalvador.org/uploads/1/0/8/1/108170557/witness_to_the…, accessed 16 September 2020.

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