CALAS – Centre for Legal, Environmental and Social Action (translated by Breaking the Silence) (version en espanol aqui)
Mr. Telesforo Odilio Pivaral Gonzalez was Member of the Community Resistance in El Volcancito, in the municipality of San Rafael Las Flores, Santa Rosa, Guatemala and Member of the Committee in Defense of Life and Peace of San Rafael Las Flores.
Yesterday, Sunday, April 5, 2015, at approximately 10am, near the community of Las Nueces (San Rafael Las Flores, Santa Rosa, Guatemala), Mr. Telesforo Odilio Pivaral Gonzalez was murdered. Mr. Pivaral Gonzalez was 33 years of age, a farmer, husband, father of six children, and active member of the Committee in Defense of Life and Peace of San Rafael Las Flores. The Committee is in active resistance to the “El Escobal” mining project, owned and operated by the transnational mining company Tahoe Resources and its Guatemalan subsidiary Minera San.
Mr. Pivaral Gonzalez had left his home in El Volcancito to do business in the community of Las Nueces, which is nearby. While waiting for public transportation on the side of the road, he was riddled with bullets by unidentified men. He received 5 bullet impacts in his cranium, face and neck, which immediately killed him. The National Civil Police (PNC), the local Public Prosecutor’s Office in Casillas, Santa Rosa and the National Forensics Institute (INACIF) are aware of the case and have begun the investigation process.
CALAS energetically condemns this act and by way of this urgent action denounces it nationally and internationally. Through this means, the information has been shared with the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office (PDH), the Unit for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (UDEFEGUA), as well as Front Line Defenders, Protection International, Amnesty International, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, and the United Nation’s High Commission on Human Rights (OACNUDH) through its Guatemala office.
In solidarity with his widow, children and family; as well as the Community Resistance of El Volcancito and especially with the Committee in Defense of Life and Peace of San Rafael Las Flores, Santa Rosa.
We demand that the Guatemalan justice system in this case so that it does not remain in impunity.
Centre for Legal, Environmental and Social Action (CALAS) – Justice for Nature
Guatemala, April 6, 2015
10:20am