Over the last two weeks of May, residents of Santa Cruz Barillas, Guatemala have been surprised on three separate occasions by military presence in their communities. The area has been under high surveillance ever since a state of martial law was declared in the month of May 2012 and community members active against a hydro-electric dam were named “terrorists and drug traffickers” by the Perez Molina administration.

Our friends at the Peruvian organization Alianza Arkana have published a report outlining the deception of Argentinian company Pluspetrol as they manage their reputation as a socially responsible company, despite the years of contamination of Indigenous territories in the Amazon.

The lead up to this summer’s World Cup is already dominating international news with every manager’s squad selection being scrutinized while analysts attempt to predict the tournament’s winner.

Greenpeace has been closely monitoring another world-wide phenomenon: illegal deforestation.

The Navajo Nation Council voted on May 30, 2014 to approve a $544 million settlement reached with the Federal Government over mismanagement of the tribe’s trust fund assets. The settlement is considered the largest made by the government with an individual tribe.

The suit was filed by the tribe in 2006 for “damages, interest, fees, costs, and other relief against the United States”. The terms of the agreement include the demand for a report of assets that continue to be held in trust by the government. 

Press release by Greenpeace International

Amsterdam, 27 May 2014 - Illegal and corrupt behaviour by foreign-owned companies engaged in establishing large palm oil plantations not only threatens local communities and forested areas th

Over a hundred Maya people from Southern Belize gained access to their traditional communal lands that have been expropriated by Texas oil company US Capital Energy in a staged peaceful protest in May.

Press Release by the Maya Leaders Alliance

June 26^th, 2014, Punta Gorda Town. One year after the decisive judgment of the Belize Court of Appeal that upheld Maya Customary Land Rights, Maya people of the 39 villages in southern Belize came together at Indian Creek village, Toledo. This was The Gathering of the Children of the Earth.  This historic event led by the Toledo Alcaldes Association and the Maya Leaders Alliance is an affirmation of the Maya Peoples solidarity for creating a more dignified and just Belize!

Herakles Farms, a US company, has been chopping down miles of dense forest without the full authority to do so -- and in the face of desperate pleas and resistance from local communities.

The palm oil project will also destroy precious chimpanzee and forest elephant habitat if it goes ahead.

Aurelio Chino Dahua, the "apu," or traditional leader and president of the Quechua Federation of the Upper Pastaza, attended this year's UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in May in New York city, with the support of Cultural Survival in partnership with the Rainforest Foundation US. Cultural Survival coordinated a meeting for him with both the outgoing and the incoming Special Rapporteurs on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya and Victoria Tauli Corpuz, respectively.

By Jordan Engel