Recently, the international media has focused considerable critical media attention on a nickel mining operation in Guatemala owned by the Switzerland-based Solway Investment Group.
“In Guatemala, the “Devil’s Metal” is ravaging local environments”
Beginning on March 6, 2022, “Forbidden Stories and its partners are lifting the veil of Solway Investment Group, which owns the mine, and revealing its best-hidden secrets.” (https://forbiddenstories.org/in-guatemala-the-devils-metal-is-ravaging-local-environments)
Based on a trove of leaked company documents, a consortium of 20 international news outlets are reporting how Solway Investment Group paid off Guatemalan security forces, ignored court orders, and consorted with the highest echelons of the military-backed government to obscure pollution, crush local dissent, and continued to illegally operate its nickel mine.
Outlets include:
Guatemala’s Prensa Comunitaria, https://www.prensacomunitaria.org/2022/03/diez-claves-para-leer-la-investigacion-miningsecrets/
The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/mar/06/indigenous-groups-oppose-restarting-guatemala-nickel-mine
TESTIMONIO addresses the mining operation of Solway Investment Group, along with those of other mainly Canadian and also American mining companies.
The “Fenix” nickel mine, on Maya Q’eqchi’ territories of eastern Guatemala. First built in the 1960s and 70s by INCO (International Nickel Company), the mine was owned by Canadian companies for over 50 years, before Solway Investment Group took over in 2011.
“The third party”
In late 2020, Professor Catherine Nolin (UNBC) and I published a letter explaining how Springer Nature quashed publication of TESTIMONIO at the 11th hour, finally admitting to us that if they published our book, they might be sued by “the third party”.
Public Letter, Nov. 20, 2020: https://mailchi.mp/rightsaction/why-did-swiss-publisher-refuse-to-publish-canadian-mining-in-the-aftermath-of-genocides-in-guatemala
“Spiked. BC Profs Protest after Publisher Drops Book on Canadian Mining. UNBC researchers’ book alleging wrongdoing in Guatemala was accepted, reviewed, then cancelled”, by Andrew MacLeod, TheTyee, November 25, 2020, https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/11/25/BC-Profs-Protest-Publisher-Dropping-Mining-Book/
In October 2021, Between The Lines published the book with basically the same manuscript that had been accepted, praised, and then quashed by Springer Nature. Between The Lines invited us to write a preface to the book, explaining what happened with Springer Nature, which we did.
Might Swiss-based Solway Investment Group be “the third party” that pressured the Swiss-based Springer Nature to quash publication of TESTIMONIO?
Grahame Russell, Rights Action
grahame@rightsaction.org
cc: Dr. Catherine Nolin, Professor and Chair, Geography Program, University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), http://www.unbc.ca/catherine-nolin, catherine.nolin@unbc.ca
Springer Nature
https://www.springernature.com/gp
Springer International Publishing AG
GEWERBESTRASSE 11,
Cham, Switzerland
Dr. Robert K. Doe
Executive Publishing Editor
Earth Sciences, Geography and Environment
robert.doe@springernature.com
Juliana Pitanguy
Publishing Editor, Latin American Studies
Springer, Dordrecht
Juliana.pitanguy@springernature.com
