The president of Guatemala declared a state of martial law in the town of Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango, suspending civil liberties as a result of unrest in the community instigated by proposed hydroelectric project "Cambalam." The town has been invaded by 600 military and police, arrested 17 people and invaded more than 20 homes, under the pretense of combating drug-trafficking.
Attacks on the Saudi-owned rice plantation in southwestern Ethiopia left five people dead on April 28, 2012, including one Pakistani worker and four Ethiopians, with at least another eight people injured.
The attack took place about three miles from the headquarters of Saudi Star, an agriculture company owned by Ethiopian-born Saudi billionaire Mohammed Al-Amoudi.
Inupiat tribal leader, Caroline Cannon, is one of this year's recipeints of the Goldman Environmental Prize for her exemplary work towards stopping oil exploration and drilling in the Alaskan Arctic.
The Goldman Environmental Prize is awarded annually since 1990 to six grassroots environmental activists, one from Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. The prize includes a monetary award of US$150,000 per recipient.
On April 3, President Martinelli signed into law a bill that reestablishes the validity of Mineral Resource Mining Code, established in 1963 but which had been abolished by the Martinelli government in 2011. The code defines who may hold and profit from mining concessions in Panama, and establishes sanctions for those who continue mining projects without authorization.
The Sixth Summit of the Americas taking place in Cartagena, Colombia on April 14-15, 2012. Indigenous groups are asking for a specific chapter in the Summit's declaration that addresses matters which concerns them.
The following was blog entry was posted by Rocky Kistner of the National Resource Defense Council
April 3, 2012
In the Dakotas, members of the proud Lakota Nation rose in protest this week to join a 48-hour hunger strike in opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline-and all tar sands pipelines-they say will destroy precious water resources and ancestral lands in the U.S and in Canada.
A Moscow News article describes the battle lines between environmentalists and Indigenous Peoples on one side and Russia’s Gazprom company on the other, leaving the future of the sacred Ukok Plateau uncertain. Environmentalists and Indigenous organizations are urging Gazprom to choose an alternate route that would spare the Ukok Plateau from desecration.
Building the pipeline across the Ukok would be “moral violence against people,” said Urmat Knyazev, a deputy in the Altai republic’s legislative assembly.
We have just learned that the Cambodian Government has granted four more landconcessions in the core area of the Prey Lang forest. If these go ahead, it could mean“game over” for the forest, say Kuy community members who are struggling hard to protect the forest.
Local authorities in Cushing, Oklahoma forced Native Americans protesters of President Obama’s pro-Keystone speech to hold their event within a cage constructed in Memorial Park, miles away from the president’s event.
The Indigenous Environmental Network had the following report:
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.