News

Updates from Argentina and Guatemala

Prosegur in Argentina

Council closes major Prosegur cash in transit base in Argentina

City council officials from Cordoba, the second largest city in Argentina, have closed Prosegur’s cash in transit base in the city. The Prosegur base was shut by the council on Wednesday for not having building consents, unapproved sewage discharge and a lack of security procedures.

According to council official José María Fernández, Prosegur’s cash in transit base in Cordoba has over 3,300 square meters of unauthorized building space, and was discharging sewage without the consent of the council or the provincial government.

In addition to a lack of building and sewage consents, Prosegur’s Cordoba premises had exposed cabling and insufficient fire extinguishers.

Prosegur in Guatemala

Spanish Police Officer removes camera from Prosegur protesters in Guatemalan street

A uniformed Spanish police officer left Embassy grounds in Guatemala City yesterday and forcibly took the camera of seven Guatemalan union representatives in the street. The seven union representatives were taking a photograph of themselves in front of the Spanish Embassy, after delivering a letter to Spanish diplomats, as part of a week of action against human rights abuses at Spanish security company Prosegur.

The Spanish police officer claimed that the trade unionists had no right to take a photograph in the street in front of the Embassy, and after seizing the camera, proceeded to delete the photographs. A scuffle then ensued with trade unionists wrestling their camera back off the Spanish police officer, informing him he had no authority to act in a Guatemalan street and that Guatemala was no longer a Spanish colony. The union representatives attempted to take another photo in the street, but were physically prohibited from doing so by the Spanish police officer outside of Embassy grounds.  

The photograph of the union members, with their signs, was taken on a mobile phone without the knowledge of the Spanish police.