A protest in October 2021 resulted in a 30-day military enforced 'state of siege' in the area, raids on local homes and media outlets, and several arrests.

[8] Initial mining rights in the area were granted by military leaders following the US-backed 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état.

In 2012, local peasants filed a lawsuit in Canada against HudBay Minerals and two of its subsidiaries over the killing of a prominent Mayan community leader at the Fenix Mining Project.

[13][14] The lawsuit alleges that on September 27, 2009, security personnel employed at the Fenix mine surrounded, beat and hacked at Adolfo Ich Chamán with machetes before shooting him in the head at close range in an unprovoked attack.

[14] A warrant was issued for the arrest of the head of mine security, Mynor Ronaldo Padilla Gonzáles in 2009,[16] although he remained a fugitive and stayed on the company's payroll for several more years.

[8] A non-governmental organization said the murder was “targeted killing of a well-known community leader.” [13] Amnesty International has said that the murder allegations are "very serious, and Amnesty International calls for a swift, full and impartial investigation into the death of Adolfo Ich Chamán and other incidents of violence, to make the results public and to bring those responsible to justice”.

[17] HudBay states that it and CGN have cooperated fully with all investigations conducted by Guatemalan authorities in connection with the incidents which occurred on September 27, 2009, in El Estor.

[23] In February 2022, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights heard a land-claims case from Mayan villagers impacted by the mine.

The case is part of a years-long claim beginning in 2002, when area residents bought their land back from the Guatemalan government, but never received title.

[4] In May 2017, the water in Lake Izabal turned red for a period of weeks, and local fishermen began protesting the mine.

[24][25] In 2019, a media investigation involving several outlets and coordinated by the French consortium Forbidden Stories found evidence of a smear campaign and suspicious economic payments that may have undermined the consultation process that followed the 2019 court ruling.

Communities on land claimed by the mine expressed fears that they would be displaced, and reported catching deformed fish in Lake Izabal.

[25] The investigation examined millions of leaked internal documents belonging to mining company Solway's Guatemalan subsidiary, and found that several pollution events were not reported, some of which could have led to criminal prosecution.

After three weeks of blockades, on October 24,[7] a confrontation where four police officers were wounded resulted in the government making an emergency declaration that restricted personal freedoms, imposed curfews, and deployed 1000 soldiers to El Estor (a community of 10,000).