National Post (National Edition)
FORMER HUDBAY SECURITY CHIEF PLEADS GUILTY
TORONTO • The former chief of security for a nickel mine once owned by a Canadian mining company in Guatemala has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in that country in connection with an alleged homicide and serious assault on Indigenous activists that stretch back over a decade.
On Wednesday, a judge in Guatemala accepted criminal pleas from Mynor Ronaldo Padilla Gonzalez, including admissions, translated from Spanish, to `homicide in an emotional state' and `culpable violence,' according to lawyers in Canada who represent plaintiffs in a civil case here related to the same incidents, who were monitoring the case through an associate in the Guatemalan court.
Both pleas related to clashes at the Fenix nickel mine, in eastern Guatemala, once owned by Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals
The development is significant because Hudbay has spent nearly a decade battling civil litigation in Canada related to the same violent episodes, and had denied that Padilla was connected to the violence. Now, that line of defence conflicts with Padilla's own admissions.
“This pulls the rug out from Hudbay's main denial right now,” said Murray Klippenstein, of Klippensteins law firm in Toronto, who represents the plaintiffs suing Hudbay in Canada.
To be sure, his criminal plea in a Guatemalan court has no direct impact on Hudbay's civil liability in Canada, except that it may force the mining company to reconsider its defence, and could potentially ramp up pressure to settle the case. It is one of three landmark cases filed in Canada that seek to hold mining companies accountable for overseas human rights abuses through a legal claim of corporate negligence, but the other two cases have both settled.
Hudbay released a statement acknowledging Padilla had pleaded guilty in his criminal proceedings in Guatemala.
“We will review the court's decision once it is released. Any agreements made in the Guatemalan court do not affect our view of the facts or Hudbay's liability in relation to civil matters currently before the Ontario court,” the company said.
The Hudbay stock fell 0.6 per cent to $9.47 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The litigation against Hudbay connects back to a series of allegations between 2007 and 2009, against dozens of personnel from the Fenix mine in eastern Guatemala, along with police and military violently expelled members of the remote Indigenous Mayan community of Lote Ocho from their homes, and clashed with mine protesters and the local community.
During an expulsion in 2007, eleven Mayan Q'eqchi' women allege they were gang-raped. Later, in 2009, one community leader, Adolpho Ich, was assaulted with a machete, then shot and killed, while another community member was shot and paralyzed.
Hudbay purchased the Fenix mine in 2008 for $451 million, and inherited liability at that time for the actions of the previous owners, although it also faces allegations that its own personnel, including Padilla, were involved in abuses.
Since 2011, 13 Indigenous community members have filed claims in an Ontario
court against Hudbay for negligence, alleging the mine owners had planned and co-ordinated their expulsions and funded the groups that committed the violence against them.
In 2013, a judge ruled the company can be sued in Canada for the events in Guatemala, and the case remains ongoing even though Hudbay sold the Fenix mine in 2011 for $170 million to Solway Group, a Swiss-based mining and metals company.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, Murray Klippenstein and Cory Wanless, have already reviewed tens of thousands of documents in the case, and expect to be back in court in Toronto this spring for another hearing on more discovery.
“Based on the evidence we've seen, we can prove a high degree of negligence in how they managed the Fenix mine,” Wanless said.
Meanwhile, in Guatemala, Padilla, the former chief of security and a former ranking military officer in Guatemala, was arrested, and detained.
In December, he agreed to plead guilty to a role in the violent clashes.
According to interviews with Klippenstein and Wanless, a judge in a court in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, has now accepted Padilla's pleas related to at least two separate incidents.
First, he agreed to plead guilty to homicide in an emotional state and pay compensation to Angela Choc, whose husband Adolfo Ich was shot and killed during a mine related protest. Per that agreement, Padilla accepted two years in prison, which has already been served.
Second, he agreed to plead guilty to culpable injury and pay compensation to German Choc Chub, whose husband was shot and assaulted and remains in a wheelchair. Per that agreement, Padilla also agreed to 10 months in prison, which was also served as pretrial detention.
In 2017, he was tried in a Guatemalan court and acquitted by a judge, but it was overturned on appeal.
Padilla could not be reached for comment.
Previously, Hudbay had denied that Padilla or any mine security forces were involved in the death of Ich.
“The defendant is not aware of how Ich came to his unfortunate death,” lawyers for Hudbay wrote in 2015, adding “Ich was not grabbed by Padilla … and executed in cold blood as alleged ….”
In addition to the suit against Hudbay, other plaintiffs filed lawsuits alleging human rights abuses overseas against two other mining companies, Tahoe Resources Inc. and Nevsun Resources Ltd. — both companies have since been acquired and no longer exist. Those cases have settled on undisclosed terms.
In 2019, however, Vancouver-based Pan American Resources Inc., which purchased Tahoe, publicly apologized to the plaintiffs as part of the settlement.