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In depth

The Constitutional Court's Escobal ruling (Exp. 4785-2017) and the suspension

Dossier
Social license and prior consultation23-licencia-social.md
Domain
Social license and prior consultationlicencia-social
Room
Law/ley
Audited
Audited

Escobal's license (silver; San Rafael Las Flores, Santa Rosa–Jalapa) was suspended by the courts in 2017 — the Supreme Court (CSJ), in an amparo by CALAS against the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) for discrimination and failure to consult the Xinka people — and confirmed by the Constitutional Court (CC) on 3 September 2018 (Exp. 4785-2017): it orders a C169 consultation of the Xinka in 4 stages, recognizes them as an indigenous people under C169's objective and subjective tests, orders review of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) area of influence, quarterly water monitoring and a health baseline, with the license suspended meanwhile. It is the 'suspend until consulted' precedent, and the mine has been in care and maintenance since 2017.

The research is written in English; quoted figures, source names and the titles of legal instruments stay in the language their source published them in.

Figures

CC Escobal judgmentObservatorio P10 CEPAL
3 Sep 2018 (File 4785-2017)2018
Mine suspensionPan American Silver / Earthworks
since 2017 (care & maintenance)2017-2026

Sources

Organizations named in the answer

  • CALASThe organization that brought the amparo against the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) over Escobal (2017) for discrimination and failure to consult the Xinka people; it obtained the license suspension that the CC upheld.Other

Directory of organizations

Related records

This layer is research: read from public sources by the archive's own team, every claim cited with the date it was consulted, and audited where it is marked so. It has not entered the verified store — no figure here was fetched back from its source or stamped with a retrieval time — so it wears no red provenance numeral and never mixes with the verified figures.