Guatemalan town calm under martial law after mining dispute
By SONIA PÉREZ D.
Associated Press
EL ESTOR, Guatemala (AP) — Police and soldiers are frisking people at checkpoints and a tense calm reigns in the streets of the lakeside town of El Estor after protests against a mining project erupted into violence over the weekend. Guatemala’s government imposed martial law and a dusk to dawn curfew Sunday and filled the town of 20,000 residents with security forces. Teams carried out searches at homes and offices looking for protest leaders Monday, while those targets have gone into hiding. The police are ostensibly there to make sure protesters do not block trucks from entering and leaving a nickel processing plant that shares the site with the disputed mine. Protesters contend the mine pollutes Lake Izabal.
