Pan American Silver: Stop Ignoring the Xinka People
Dear Michael Steinmann, President & CEO, Pan American Silver,
On May 8, 2025, the Xinka People held a press conference in the central plaza of Guatemala City to announce their decision concerning the future of your company’s Escobal silver mine. Your recent statements to investors and the company’s filings acknowledge that this event took place but conveniently fail to mention the message that the Xinka delivered.
After a thorough review of the projected environmental, cultural, and social impacts of reopening the mine, and amidst harassment and threats against Xinka leadership, the Xinka People denied consent for the Escobal mine. They underscored the failure of the Guatemalan government to guarantee their rights to a healthy environment, water, language, identity, culture, and territory. By withholding their consent, the Xinka are demanding that the Escobal mine be permanently closed.
The Xinka People’s decision could not be clearer.
But Pan American Silver continues to act in bad faith and to misrepresent the process as if it were a negotiation in order to reopen the mine. The company’s latest corporate presentation referred to the consultation as a “formal dialogue process to achieve agreements amongst the main participants in the process: Xinka indigenous communities, MEM and PAS Guatemala (Pan American’s subsidiary in Guatemala).”
But this is not the case. The Constitutional Court-ordered consultation obliges the Guatemalan government to seek the free, prior, and informed consent of the Xinka People in order to reopen the mine in keeping with Indigenous People’s rights recognized in international law and jurisprudence.
The process is between the Xinka People and Guatemalan authorities. And despite the threats to their safety and well-being throughout the consultation process, the Xinka People have not backed down. They remain clear that their “no” is non-negotiable and their self-determination must be respected.
Imposing the mine without the Xinka People’s consent will ignite the conflict that marred the early years of the project. Community leaders experienced intense repression, violent attacks, and legal persecution. The government ordered a military state of siege to ensure the start of operations in mid-2013. Since the consultation began, threats and harassment have persisted, including shooting attacks and the murder of Noé Gómez. Others, including the past president of the Xinka Parliament, have had to flee the country with their families to ensure their safety.
As the consultation process winds to a close, Pan American Silver must publicly reverse its misleading statements and instead definitively close the Escobal mine. The company must respect the Xinka Peoples’ inherent rights to land, territory, a healthy environment, and self-determination.
