Rodrigo Tot

Protectionist/Activist – Agua Caliente, Guatemala

Rodrigo Tot is an indigenous Q’eqchi leader in Guatemala. He represents an isolated, small Q’eqchi farming and fishing community of about 270 members in the long-running fight to secure legal ownership over their communal lands. He is the recipient of the 2017 Goldman Environmental Award for leading his community to a landmark court decision that ordered the government to issue land titles to the Q’eqchi people, and keep destructive nickel mining from expanding in his community.

A man of few words but sharp and to the point in his speech, Tot, who never received a formal education and who learned to speak Spanish listening to others, recalled how government officials and executives of Hudbay Minerals, the company that operates the Fenix nickel mine, never spoke with the indigenous community.

At the age of 19, Tot followed a group of 64 Maya Q’eqchi and settled on Agua Caliente Lote 9, one of 16 lots in the departments of Izabal and Alta Verapaz that were demarcated in the late 19th century. They took steps to legalize their land rights, and as of 2002, Lote 9 was fully paid for. However, the community still lacked a definitive land title. Different mining companies, such as Compania Guatemalteca de Niquel (CGN) and Solway Group, a Russian conglomerate, have claimed ownership of part of Lote 9.

The victory came at an enormous personal cost for Tot when in 2012, two of his sons were shot on a bus in what appeared to be a staged robbery. One of them died, and the other suffered grave injuries. The community continues its fight to secure its land title. The Guatemalan government has yet to enforce its court ruling and the mining company continues to pursue its expansion.

Back up in Lote 9 lands, there was no shortage of ideas or plans for the community’s future. Locals want children to have a chance to study past sixth grade. They want to plant fruit tree seedlings and a diverse mix of subsistance and market crops. They want a community truck system to take harvests to market instead of having to hike down the mountain with a sack of pineapples on their backs. They want to keep fixing up their roads to make it all possible.

There’s one goal above all others, though, and that’s securing a definitive land title.

Article: Mongabay

Video 1) Goldman Environmental Prize
Video 2) Acceptance Speech