Twelve security contract workers stationed at Tahoe Resources’ Escobal mine in Guatemala were attacked and kidnapped on Friday evening.

After being held up and suffering injuries at the hands of the kidnappers, the workers were eventually released and handed over to the Guatemalan Civil National Police, who escorted them back to the city of Jalapa, Tahoe reported on Saturday.

Tahoe said that the workers were unarmed and “remained peaceful” the entire time.

“On behalf of everyone at Tahoe…I would like to express our sincere sympathies and concerns to the families of the twelve contractors who were abducted and injured on Friday night,” Tahoe president and CEO Jim Voorhees said in a press release. “We are treating these developments with the utmost seriousness and are taking appropriate measures to ensure the safety and security of all of our employees and contractors, their families and local community members.”

The company said the kidnappers were part of a group that refers to itself as the “Peaceful Resistance Group of Mataquescuintla,” and had, earlier in the week, set up a roadblock at the entrance to the municipality of Mataquescuintla, about five kilometres away from the mine, halting and inspecting cars that drove past. 

Tahoe has enlisted the assistance of the president and vice-president of Guatemala, the ministries of energy and mines and environment, the human rights ombudsman, the Catholic Church, and diplomatic missions to attempt to put an end to the blockade.

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Escobal has been the site of protests and unrest in the past few years. Tahoe had its mining license suspended by the Supreme Court of Guatemala in July 2017 as a result of a lawsuit against the country’s energy and mines ministry by anti-mining group CALAS that alleged the ministry violated the Xinca Indigenous people’s right to consultation before granting a license to Tahoe subsidiary Minera San Rafael.

Operations at the mine have been halted for more than a year, and Tahoe said in its release that the “lack of legal certainty” on the mine’s permit has allowed several attacks to occur, including attacks on supplier vehicles and helicopters, threats to community members and other kidnapping attempts.

In June 2017 protestors who claimed mining work at Escobal was causing seismic activity in Casillas, a town located roughly 20 kilometres from the site, blocked access to the mine.

And seven local farmers who joined a “peaceful protest” outside Escobal in April 2013 allege that they were shot at close range by the mine’s security guards and suffered serious injuries as a result. Last year, the British Columbia Court of Appeals granted the farmers the right to have the case heard in Canada.