Guatemalan court acquits ex- Hudbay guard of murder

TORONTO •A court in Guatemala has acquitted a former security guard for a Canadian- owned mining company of murdering an indigenous activist and leaving another paralyzed in a ruling that comes amid a landmark lawsuit in Canada, lawyers for the plaintiffs say.

At the time of the inci- dents in 2009, Mynor Padilla was head of security for a mine owned by Torontobased Hudbay Minerals.

The widow of Adolfo Ich, the wife of the paralyzed man and 11 other indigenous Mayan Q’eqchi are suing Hudbay in what observers have called a precedent for holding multinational mining companies liable in their home countries for alleged abuses at mines they operate abroad.

Toronto lawyer Murray Klippenstein, who represents Ich’s widow, said the acquittal was not unexpected given a justice system in the central American country that Human Rights Watch and others have denounced as rife with “rampant” corruption.

Klippenstein said Canadian courts offer the best hope for justice.

The company has said the claims in the lawsuit have no merit and that it has been falsely accused of displaying a pattern of human rights and even environmental abuses.