Ex-security officer of Canadian mine in Guatemala convicted of murdering Indigenous leader 

Guatemala City, January 8 (RHC)-- In Guatemala, the former security head of a Canadian-owned mine has been convicted for the 2009 assassination of Adolfo Ich, an Indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’ community leader and land protector. 

Mynor Padilla pleaded guilty this week in what The Guardian newspaper described as a rare conviction over human rights violations linked to Canadian mining corporations in Central America. 

Padilla worked in the region’s largest nickel mine in eastern Guatemala, which at the time of Ich’s killing was owned by Hudbay Minerals.  Adolfo Ich was a leading voice of resistance against the mine and its destruction of Indigenous territory.