2010 Legal Actions against Montana Exploradora regarding Water Discharge from Marlin Mine

In September 2010, the Minister of the Environment, Luis Ferraté, filed a criminal complaint with the Office of the Public Prosecutor against Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of Goldcorp Inc., to investigate the discharge of residual waters from the Marlin Mine tailing dams because they may have contaminated the Quivichil river, including heavy metal contamination. The complaint attached a note from the Management Unit of the Ministry of the Environment, indicating that the water was discharged without the Ministry’s authorization. The Minister asked the Foreign Ministry to notify the government of Mexico, as the Quivichil river runs into the neighouring country. As a result of this complaint, the Centre for Environmental and Socio-Legal Action (CALAS) confirmed that it would ask the Office of the Public Prosecutor to start an investigation into the crimes of intentional falsification and misrepresentation of public documents (delitos de falsedad material y falsedad ideológica), articles 321 and 322 of Guatemala’s criminal code, because the company had previously confirmed that it was complying with the relevant authorities. Moreover, in 2008, the Constitutional Court had ruled that Montana would only be permitted to discharge water from tailing dams if it was free of contaminants, which implied prior analysis and approval by the Ministry of the Environment.