2020- Guatemalan Government and the Xinka Parliament initiate pre-consultation over Escobal

In February 2020, the Xinka Parliament and the Guatemalan Ministry of Energy and Mines restarted dialogue on the conditions necessary to fufill the Constitutional Court ruling on the requirement to conduct a consultation process with the Xinka people affected by the Escobal mine (see Legal Action entitled, “2017- Judicial Suspension of Tahoe’s Mining Licences“). In October, after a meeting between the Xinka and government representatives a joint statement was issued agreeing the steps to be carried out as part of a pre-consultation process (Earthworks, 2020). The agreements reached to facilitate the pre-consultation process were as follows: 

• “The process will be carried out within the framework of the Xinka people’s worldview, institutions and decision-making systems.
• The pre-consultation and consultation processes will be carried out without pressure or conditions imposed by any of the parties. 
• The meetings will take place at the Xinka Parliament’s office in Cuilapa, Department of Santa Rosa.
• The Ministry of Energy and Mines has accepted and accredited the 59 representatives appointed by the Xinka people as their interlocutors and representatives in the pre-consultation and consultation process.
• The Ministry of Energy and Mines will facilitate the payment of external consultants required and appointed by the Xinka Parliament of Guatemala during the pre-consultation and consultation.
• The Ministry of Energy and Mines will inform the representatives of Pan American Silver Guatemala, owner of the Escobal mine, that the Xinka Parliament of Guatemala considers the company’s activities in the region to be acts of bad faith that violate the “free” nature of the consultation.
• The first activity within the pre-consultation process will be the Assessment of the Cultural and Spiritual Impacts of the Escobal mining project on the Xinka people.” (Parlamento del Pueblo Xinka de Guatemala, 2020)

​However, this process once again stalled until May 2021, when the first pre-consultation meeting was held in offices of the Xinka Parliament. Besides 59 accredited Xinka authorities, those participating included representatives of the Ministries of Culture and Sport, Energy and Mines, Environment and Natural Resources, the Presidential Commission for Dialogue, the University of San Carlos of Guatemala, members of Community Development Councils and the Municipal Council of San Rafael Las Flores. Also present were representatives of the Human Rights Ombudsperson’s Office and of Pan American Silver. The purpose of the meeting “was to identify the entities that will participate as observers and to establish the first set of agreements about how the pre-consultation and consultation process will be carried out” (Parlamento del Pueblo Xinka de Guatemala, 2021).

In June 2021, a second meeting was held which resulted in further preliminary agreements (MEM, 2021). These included that Xinka Parlament would be responsible for a Study on the Cultural and Spiritual Impact of the Escobal Mining Project carried out by an independent expert, Claudia Dary. The methodology and team charged with preparing the report was agreed. In addition, the Xinka Parliament would provide counter recommendations on MEM’s proposal for the consultation process and would present a proposal for the participation of advisors at the next meeting (Prensa Libre, 2021). 

Despite advances in the pre-consultation process, representatives of the Xinka Parliament also remained concerned about the eventual role that their traditional customs and authorities would be allowed to play in the implementation of the consultation.