Mr. Quelvin Otoniel Jiménez Villalta:

Corporate responsibility in Guatemala does not exist. The economic lead of the country has a preferred phrase about legal certainty but they only look for legal certainty when it suits them. They try to keep control of justice and judicial bodies in Guatemala.

The Xinka people achieved a historic court ruling. A precedent was set in the constitutional court by a case around a mining company. However, one of the magistrates who gave that ruling is now in exile from the country because the economic leads of Guatemala cannot forgive this ruling which showed up how the institutions in Guatemala are weak in regulating mining. The ruling proved there is no monitoring of mining activity in the country on the part of the state and there is no corporate responsibility. In fact, the state does not have the capacity to even follow up or monitor companies, and even less to be able to sanction them. Rather, the state is subject to the interests of transnational corporations.

To finish up, as regards the binding treaty, the Xinka people have asked President Arévalo - we had a meeting on 3 September this year - that the Guatemalan state take a stronger role in the negotiations around the binding treaty. Representatives of the Xinka community have another meeting with the president tomorrow and will reinforce this ask to take a stronger role in the negotiations.

We have also seen that the constitutional and supreme courts go back on the previous recognition of indigenous rights in the country. They have rolled back on those at the petition of transnational corporations.