More than 1,000 Ngöbe people – men, women, and children – took to the streets in different parts of Panama this week to protest a proposed change in the country’s mining law. Nine Ngöbe people were reported wounded and 22 jailed, including three children. Environmental and human rights organizations and students carried out parallel protests against the mining law reform at the National Assembly.
Various rural and Indigenous groups blocked at least four major highways in Guatemala on February 6, demanding that the Congress approve a cohort of bills put forth by Indigenous groups, including Bill 4087, the community radio bill.
Chilean forces continue to target peaceful Rapa Nui individuals, including unarmed women and children occupying their ancestral land. Over the past five months, Rapa Nui clan members have been peacefully reclaiming their ancestral territories. There is now overwhelming military force on the island.
Dear members of the Cultural Survival team,
We, indigenous peoples Juruna, Xipaya, Arara of the Volta Grande, Kuruaia and Xicrin of the region of Altamira, Guajajara, Gavião, Krikati, Awa Guajá, Kayapo of Mato Grosso and Pará, Tembé, Aikeora, Suruí, Xavante, Karintiana, Puruborá, Kassupá, Wajãpi, Karajá, Apurinã, Makuxi, Nawa of Acre, Mura from Amazonas, Tupaiu, Borari, Tapuia, Arapiuns, Pataxó, Tupiniquim, Javaé, Kaingang, Xucuru, Marubu, Maiuruna and Mundukuru from the states of Amazonas and Pará and from the other states of the Amazon region and Brazil, farmers and riverine peoples
* Brazil agency OKs start-up of huge dam in Amazon
* Consortium has go-ahead to clear forest, start site
SAO PAULO, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Brazil's environment agency approved on Wednesday the start-up of the Belo Monte power dam, a controversial $17 billion project in the Amazon that has drawn criticism from native Indians and conservationists.
The agency, Ibama, issued licenses to the consortium in charge of Belo Monte to start the construction site and to clear 238.1 hectares (588 acres) of forest land, about the size of Monaco.
The following letter from Christopher Louie Ocampo, of the Commission on Human Rights, Philippines, was sent to Cultural Survival's campaign partner Jeff Nettleton, of the organization PIPlinks. The letter announces the Commission's resolution that Australian OceanaGold Philippines Inc (OGPI) has violated human rights in Dipidio.
Our campaign partners in South Korea have created an excellent website to continue our campaign to restore the Saemangeum wetlands. Please go to http://www.restoresaemangeum.com/ to send email messages to the South Korean ambassador of your country, or to the president.
A year and a half following the deaths of at least thirty three indigenous and non-indigenous civilians and police near the town of Bagua, Peru, anthropologist Frederica Barclay suggest that the Peruvian government has failed to implement any significant changes toward greater consultation with indigenous peoples whose territories are being affected by sprawling logging, oil, hydroelectric and mining concessions in the Peruvian Amazon.
Cultural Survival is celebrating good news with the Indigenous Peoples of Didipio in the Philippines! The Philippines Human Rights Commission has asked the government to consider cancelling an Australian company’s mining permit because of “gross violations of human rights” that they have committed against
In an article posted on the websites of the Broward and Miami New Times, journalist Jean Friedman-Rudovsky picks up where our Global Response campaign left off: she exposes the emptiness of Walmart’s claim that its “Love, Earth” gold jewelry comes from socially and environmentally responsible mines and manufacturers.
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.
