There were no expectations of conflict in areas such as Guatemala, Colombia, Honduras, and elsewhere prior to upticks in investment. Then the role of the Canadian government from the 1990s has been to promote the investment regardless of the expectation. The idea has been to contain opposition, to discredit opposition, to make them appear to be minoritarian elements driven by outside agitators, and so on, even when there have been community-organized popular referendums in several Guatemalan cases, which have rejected the presence of Canadian mining corporations. I think respecting the expression of popular will from the grassroots, not just Latin American governments, which aren't always representative of the Latin American populations, is a key that the Canadian government and its representatives abroad ought to keep squarely in mind.
On September 28th, 2017. See this statement in context.