Julio Anselmo Toc
Julio Anselmo Toc is a Maya Q’eqchi’ human rights defender from El Estor in the Izabal region of Guatemala. He has advocated for the defence of Mother Earth, indigenous territories and indigenous peoples. He is the vice-president of the Gremial de Pescadores Artesanales (Artisanal Fishermen’s Association) in El Estor. This association brings together four artisanal fishing groups, including those from the southern part of the municipality of El Estor and the Polochic river basin. Together with other local organisations, the association seeks to protect the Maya Q'eqchi' communities in El Estor, Izabal, from contamination resulting from nickel mining activities in the region that could affect their lands and endanger their livelihoods.
The associations is part of the resistance against mining exploitation in Izabal, a movement organised by the Ancestral Maya Q'eqchi' Council, the Q'eqchi' communities and the fishermen of El Estor and surrounding municipalities in response to the ongoing violence faced by the communities in their territories. The movement aims to defend the territory and protect Lake Izabal from the numerous human rights violations resulting from the mining activities of Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN), Compañía Procesadora de Níquel de Izabal (PRONICO) and Fenix Nickel Co (mostly funded by US capital through the Swiss-based subsidiary Solway Investment Group).
Currently, two further mining licences are being granted in El Estor territory. The communities have denounced the fact that the companies previously acquired the land and the area surrounding their mining projects through processes historically linked to severe human rights violations against Maya Q’eqchi’ people. These violations have been well documented, and the companies have been granted extraction and export licences over the years without properly implementing prior, free and informed consultation with the affected communities. Julio Anselmo Toc has been a key advocate in denouncing the human rights violations committed by these companies against Q’eqchi’ Indigenous peoples and in promoting the respect and guarantee of a free, prior, and informed consultation with the Maya Q’eqchi’ communities regarding the approval of mining licences in their territories.
Since Otto Pérez Molina assumed the role of President in January 2012, cases of harassment and threats against HRDs have been on the rise. Human rights defenders (HRDs) in Guatemala are subjected to death threats, physical attacks, acts of harassment, surveillance, stigmatisation, judicial harassment, arbitrary detention, forced disappearance and killings. Many of the violations are carried out by clandestine security structures and illegal groups. The exceptionally high level of impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators increases the risk exponentially for HRDs.
