Following the standard now synonymous with Canadian mining, Vancouver-based Continuum Resources has reactivated the historic “Natividad” mine site, an area of Oaxaca that’s been looted since before the 17th Century. Largely on Zapotec land, the site is reported to be Oaxaca’s richest gold and silver mine.

Historically, thousands of Zapotec have worked the mine, but today the consequences of development are too well understood. Over the course of 230 years, more than a million ounces of gold and 23 million ounces of silver have been extracted from the site, but …

The Native Federation of Madre de Dios River and tributaries (FENAMAD) has denounced the governments actions toward granting mining concessions to indigenous lands in Peru, and have announced they must resort to self-defense in order to defend their right to the land.

They say the concessions are for one, a violation of the constitution and the ILO convention. But it is also causing conflict, and principally contributing to the “plundering of our territories, contamination of rivers and watersheds, destruction of the forest, fleeing animals” and putting pressure on hunting, causing difficulties …

Guatemala and Honduras - a Global Investors “Oasis”
from Rights Action, www.rightsaction.org

It has been said that “the problems of the South are the demands of the North,” and Central America is rife with poverty and exploitation and environmental destruction due in (large) part to “development” economic policies imposed by and beneficial to the global north.

On-going militarism in Central America - including the physical presence of American soldiers - facilitates mainly North American efforts to secure access to resources for North American investors and business interests, in
particular minerals, petroleum, land, water, coffee and cheap labour.

“Free” trade agreements, including DR-CAFTA (Dominican Republic …

Mapuche reconvene historic parliament
by Lisa Garrigues
Today Correspondent

PANGUIPULLI, Chile - One hundred years.

That’s how long it’s been since the call of the traditional Mapuche instrument, the kull kull, has rung out in the Chilean valley of Koz Koz to announce the beginning of a Mapuche parliament.

This year’s parliament, which brought together almost 4,000 members of the Mapuche Nation from Chile and Argentina, was held in the valley of Koz Koz from Jan. 14 - 18. It commemorated the parliament of 1907, when Mapuche longkos, or chiefs, came together for the last time after the Chilean government invaded and took over their …

This is a new opportunity we are offering the Chilean state: the opportunity to correct the historical relationship that it has maintained with the Mapuche people, characterised by subjection, colonialism, assimilation and ethnocidal integration

By Daniela Estrada

SANTIAGO, Jan 8 (IPS) - The Mapuches, Chile’s largest indigenous group, are tired of the promises of social justice and greater participation in decision-making voiced by the last three centre-left governments. Their leaders thus met with President Michelle Bachelet to propose a new working relationship.

“The president acknowledged the Chilean state’s ‘historical debt’ to the Mapuche people, agreed to appoint a special interlocutor to engage in …

On Aug. 16, members of the Shipiba indigenous community of Canaan de Cashiyacu seized nine oil wells operated by the Maple Gas Corporation in Maquia district, Ucayali province, in the Peruvian Amazon region of Loreto. The Shipiba are protesting the failure of Maple Gas to fulfill accords it signed a year ago, and demanding that the company now leave the area.

Robert Guimaraes of the Inter-Ethnic Development Association of the Peruvian Jungle (AIDESEP) said the company’s unfulfilled promises include payment for the use of the land and programs to monitor the health of the population. The Shipiba say Maple Gas never …

Kantipur Report, KATHMANDU, Aug 10 - While World Indigenous Day was being marked around the globe Wednesday, the indigenous people of Nepal have agreed on a democratic republic for bringing about reform in the country.

Thousands of indigenous people from around the country gathered in Kathmandu, took out a cultural possession along city thoroughfares and chanted the slogan “Democratic Republic, Election for Constituent Assembly and State Reforms, the desire of indigenous people.”

Reading out the 24-point Kathmandu Declaration 2006 issued by a meeting of the indigenous people, Dr. Om Gurung, general secretary of Nepal Federation of Indigenous Peoples (NEFIN), said the constituent …

SIMONORWA, COLOMBIA, July 21st 2006-08-20

We are still here in our Sierra Nevada despite the suffering after more than five hundred years since the arrival of the Spanish which for the white man was a great conquest which resulted in the imposition of his laws and beliefs and which for us, the indigenous peoples meant extermination, destruction, humiliation, slavery, the profanation our Sacred Sites. Our suffering does not seem to be at an end. On the contrary it has intensified as at this point in time Our Territory continues under the threat of those that ignore our age old spiritual traditions.

DECLARATION …

This Commonwealth Day (13 March) Survival International is calling for Commonwealth countries to put the genocide of tribal peoples behind them by signing up to international law. Only two Commonwealth countries - Fiji and Dominica - have ratified the key international law protecting tribal peoples’ rights, International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 169.

Many Commonwealth countries have tribal or indigenous peoples living within their borders - for example Australia, Bangladesh, Botswana, Canada, Guyana, India and New Zealand. The policies of others such as the UK have a direct impact on tribal peoples through development aid and their work at the UN. Yet …