In a major victory, the judicial power of San Luis Potosí, Mexico has suspended mining concessions in the territory of Wirikuta, sacred to the Wixarika (Huichol) people.

A surprise decision was made by courts in Guatemala on September 11, 2013 as two former employees of the Spanish dam company Hydro Santa Cruz were declared innocent of the assassination of  Q’anjobal community leader Andres Fransisco Miguel who was killed on the night of May 1, 2012.

Global Exchange has compiled a list of the top ten “most wanted” corporations of 2013 based on issues like unlivable working conditions, corporate seizures of Indigenous lands, and contaminating the environment, just to name a few. 

The Federal Environmental Review Panel that will decide on the fate of the “New Prosperity” Mine in British Columbia, Canada came to a close at the end of August after 63 days of intense testimony.  The panel was attended by members of the Tsilhqot’in Nation, including youth, elders, chiefs, and spiritual leaders from across British Columbia.

Eleven people were shot and killed on Saturday night, September 7th in San José Nacahuil, a small Kaqchikel community of San Pedro Ayampuc, just outside of Guatemala City, Guatemala.

During the last week of August 2013, Cultural Survival's team traveled to Belize for the implementation of one of our newest community radio projects. This new project is aimed at improving integration for Indigenous communities in Central America through community radio. As a result of this project, we are expanding our Guatemalan community radio network to include a radio station in Belize and a radio station in El Salvador.

Punta Gorda Town, Toledo, Belize

From Alaska to Oklahoma and Wisconsin to Montana, we witness stories about the importance of saving Native American languages and meet some of the people who are working hard to heal these national treasures.

Plymouth, IN: On May 13, 2013 students from several universities left Kansas on a two-month journey to Washington, DC, to save the Wakarusa Wetlands, Lawrence’s only remaining indigenous wetland prairie, from becoming the South Lawrence Trafficway (SLT). They referred to their journey as the Trail of Broken Promises and beginning this September they will continue to endorse the protection of Native American sacred places by traveling with the Trail of Death Association’s 6th Commemorative Caravan.

On August 21 – 23, leaders and representatives of twenty Maya Q'anjob'al communities in northern Huehuetenango and Chiapas, Mexico, gathered in San Juan Ixcoy, Huehuetenango to discuss the ongoing imposition of large-scale development projects on their territory and to continue generating strategies for unified resistance moving forward.

On August 18-19, 2013, our team at Cultural Survival started our second round of 12 exchanges between community radio stations in Guatemala. Our exchange program provides the opportunity for horizontal learning between community radio stations. They are able to share stories, experiences, strengths and weaknesses in order to help each other improve the technical, thematic and relational aspects of their radio stations.