Residents and authorities in 14 municipalities of western Honduras are demanding a reform of the mining law, saying it is an attack on the environment. They gave the government an ultimatum to remove the mining transnational Maverick from the Guiyasote ecological reserve. Juan Carlos Elvir, mayor of Santa Rosa de Copán, told Tierramérica, the law is “one of the most anti-patriotic because instead of generating development, it opens the way for destroying the environment and grants mining concessions that violate all logic.”

The Roman Catholic bishop of western Honduras, Luis Alfonso Santos, is also calling for the expulsion of Maverick, because according to the national environmental law, mining operations cannot take place on nature reserves. “If by the end of April the mining company is not out of Guiyasote, the people and their officials are going to stop traffic in the west until our voice is heard,” he said.

Of the country's 112,492 square km, at least 35,000 are held in mining concessions