Who are the Xinka and why do they matter for mining in eastern Guatemala?

In the 2018 census (INE), 264,167 people self-identified as Xinka (1.8% of the population), against only 16,214 in 2002;… the jump reflects the identity-claim movement that the Escobal litigation itself catalyzed (figures confirmed against IWGIA and INE's Compendio Estadístico de Pueblos). The Xinka people, not Maya, with their own language family, live in Jutiapa, Jalapa and Santa Rosa, exactly the eastern mining corridor (Escobal, Cerro Blanco). Judgment 4785-2017 settled their existence in the area of influence in court after their presence had been denied in the project's studies: denying or understating indigenous presence in the environmental impact assessment is the most repeated original error in the record (the same finding MICI made at Ixquisis).