Painting of 13 people standing and sitting with a purple and turquoise background. Painting by Pati Flores.
PUBLIC & MEDIA ADVISORY
13 BRAVE GIANTS: How We Won the Landmark Hudbay Minerals Lawsuits in Canada and the Mynor Padilla Criminal Trial in Guatemala, and at What Cost!
Incredible story of successful precedent-setting lawsuits against Hudbay Minerals told in full for the first time. This new report by Rights Action director Grahame Russell is being published today (Oct. 1, 2025).
The report details the remarkable struggle for corporate accountability, spanning nearly 20 years, that has had important legal and political impacts in Canada. Russell, the legal team (Murray Klippenstein and Cory Wanless), and the 13 Maya Q’eqchi’ plaintiffs are able to speak openly about the ordeal, now that a “quiet period” agreed upon in the 2024 settlement is over.
BACKGROUND
In 2006 and 2007, numerous Maya Q’eqchi’ communities were violently evicted from their traditional lands to make way for the Fenix nickel mining operation. On January 17, 2007, 11 women subsistence farmers (campesinas) were gang-raped by mining company security guards, police and soldiers, during the wholescale destruction and eviction of their community of Lote Ocho.
On September 27, 2009, well-known community and land defender Adolfo Ich Chaman was killed by Mynor Padilla, who was Hudbay Mineral’s head of security at the Fenix mine. Padilla also shot and paralyzed Germán Chub Choc that same day.
In 2010 and 2011, three over-lapping lawsuits were launched by the 11 Lote Ocho women, by Germán Chub, and by Angelica Choc, widow of Adolfo Ich. The lawsuits aimed to hold Hudbay legally accountable in Canada for their actions in and around the Fenix mine in Guatemala. After two years of pre-trial motions filed by Hudbay to dismiss the lawsuits before they could begin, on July 22, 2013, Judge Carole Brown of the Superior Court of Ontario ruled against Hudbay’s arguments and wishes, concluding that Canada was the right place and jurisdiction to legally address these issues, setting a historic precedent for corporate accountability of Canadian companies operating abroad.
It was not until 2024 that the lawsuits were finally settled when Hudbay and the plaintiffs came to an agreement. This was followed by a “quiet period” where neither side would talk to the media. With the quiet period now over, Russell and Rights Action are telling the story in full. It was an extremely difficult journey, with a small, under-resourced team taking on a mining giant working with high-powered Toronto lawyers.
In the report, Russell chronicles serious obstacles and setbacks including repression against the plaintiffs and their supporters in Guatemala, including cases of what appear to be overt corruption. The report chronicles important milestones and achievements along the way, including, in a separate legal action, how Canada’s ambassador to Guatemala was sued successfully for defaming a documentary filmmaker in 2007 who was exposing Canadian mining abuses in Q’eqchi’ communities around the Fenix mine operation.
The report also ties the past to the present, showing Canada’s role in shaping Guatemala’s mining laws in the 1960s, soon after the 1954 U.S.-backed coup ousted the elected government of President Jacobo Arbenz; showing the role of INCO (International Nickel Company) that, fully supported by the Canadian government, first established this very same Fenix mine operation on ill-gotten Q’eqchi’ lands. Russell summarizes how INCO, collaborating with Guatemalan military regimes in power in the 1970s and early 1980s, was similarly involved with cases of serious repression in the Q’eqchi’ communities.
Readers will see how the Hudbay saga and this justice struggle, and what is now happening in 2025, are all part of a long history of meddling in the country.
https://rightsaction.org/articles-reports/13-brave-giants-report
Available for interviews and more information:
- Grahame Russell, grahame@rightsaction.org, www.rightsaction.org
- Cory Wanless, lawyer representing plaintiffs, cory@phillipsbarristers.ca, www.phillipsbarristers.ca
- Murray Klippenstein, lawyer representing plaintiffs, murray.klippenstein@klippensteins.ca, www.klippensteins.ca
- Plaintiffs (on request and needing substantial lead time to coordinate)
Cover image: 13 Brave Giants by Pati Flores, 2017.
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Rights Action (U.S. & Canada)
Since 1995, Rights Action funds land, justice, human rights and democracy struggles, environment, community development and emergency relief projects in Guatemala and Honduras. Rights Action works to denounce and hold accountable the U.S. and Canadian governments, global companies, investors and banks (World Bank, etc.) that help cause and profit from exploitation and poverty, repression and human rights violations, environmental harms, corruption and impunity in Honduras and Guatemala.
Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)
To support land, environment, democracy, human rights and justice defenders and projects in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
Canada: Box 82858, RPO Cabbagetown, Toronto, ON, M5A 3Y2
Credit-card donations: https://rightsaction.org/donate/
Direct deposits, write to: info@rightsaction.org
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TESTIMONIO-Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala
Edited by Catherine Nolin & Grahame Russell, Between The Lines, 2021
https://www.testimoniothebook.org/
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