The farmers of Daechuri and Doduri have long resisted the Korean government’s attempts to force their eviction in order to make way for the expansion of the “Camp Humphreys” (K-6) US Military Base. After years of legal battles, in December 2005, the Central Land Expropriation Committee approved a request for imminent domain acquisition of the two villages, instantly making the farmers criminals trespassing on federal property.
Three months later, the farmers marched to the local government office to declare that Daechuri and Doduri were autonomous from Korea. They renounced their citizenship and burned their residency cards. They had also began protesting on a daily basis.
One month after that, the government started a campaign of violence and intimidation against them. At first hundreds, then thousands of military riot police and plain-clothed thugs were sent in to force them off …
For months now, the community of Cutumay Camones, which resides near Santa Ana, El Salvador, has been protesting against the construction of a new landfill site that threatens to contaminate their drinking water. The landfill is positioned directly above a local aquifer, just 700 meters away from the community spring.
The government doesn’t care in the least. Not about the thousands of threatened families that make up the community, not about the Ombudsman’s recommendations to immediately halt construction because of the forthcoming water contamination, and not even about the Court of Accounts who found the deal with Presys (the private company to run the site) to be completely illegal.
The government just seems to hold everybody in contempt. Unfortunately, for the community that’s meant violence. Since September 15, the government has repeatedly sent in riot police to attack …
Under the cloak of justice and benevolence, ethnic violence heavily increased around the world last month, providing the backdrop for several emerging conflicts and the advancement of dozens more facing Indigenous and landless People.
Propaganda continues to be utilized by both states and corporations, and indigenous leaders continue to be assassinated while innocent people are punished for standing up and defending themselves.
On the bright side, Indigenous People around the world continued working to protect the land and defend their ways of life. De facto sovereignty is becoming more and more commonplace and the nature of struggle continues to evolve while new relationships and alliances are being forged on every land.
May the work of Indigenous People continue to move forward like this. For the sake of future generations, it must.
November 30
Action needed to protect Mt. Tenabo
The …
This ten-minute video, “Por el Territorio Wichi” (For the Wichi Territory) brings you to the heart of Indigenous struggle. It looks at the Wichi of northern Argentina, who’s land has been steadily invaded over the last 100 years.
Since then, loggers have felled their forest, and settlers have introduced cattle. These cattle not only turn the land already stolen from the Wichí into desert, but also break into the tiny plots of land which the Wichí have managed to hold on to, destroying their crops. The Wichí have been left almost landless and without their livelihood. The local Salta authorities have, since 1966, repeatedly promised to recognise Indian territory in their province - but have failed to fulfil one single promise. On the contrary, they have worked with the landowners to continue to deny the Wichí their land, handing it to settlers, and authorising its deforestation. The local government wants to …
This 12-minute video, produced by the Seventh Generation Fund, discusses the Defenders of the Black Hills, “a group of volunteers, without racial or tribal boundaries, whose mission is to ensure that all of the provisions of the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868 are upheld by the federal government of the United States.”
In doing so, these volunteers are also upholding the Constitution of the United States which, in Article Six, states that “treaties are the Supreme Law of the land.” Until the
Treaties are upheld, the actions of the Defenders are to restore and protect the environment of the Black Hills and the surrounding Treaty Area to the best of their ability.
The Black Hills themselves stretch across western South Dakota, northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana. More than 60 indigenous nations had been traveling to the Black Hills for millennia to conduct spiritual ceremonies.
“At one time, …
Rights Action sent out a reminder today about the ongoing legal case against the group of Mayan Farmers known as the GoldCorp 7.
If you’re not familiar with the case—in January, 2007, residents of the communities neighboring Goldcorp’s open pit, cyanide-leeching mine in San Marcos set up a blockade in an effort to start a dialogue with the company. Prior to this, the community repeatedly tried to talk with the company so their concerns could be addressed, but GoldCorp refused to talk.
About ten days into the blockade, and to the surprise of some, the company agreed to sit down and talk with the community, providing they first removed the blockade. The community promptly did so. But on the day of …
The following message is a request for action in support of the Wayuu People in the Alta Guajira region of Colombia. For more information, please visit organizacionwayuumunsurat.blogspot.com.
Thanks to Ana for posting this on her blog
URGENT SUPPORT FOR THE WAYÙU INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN COLOMBIA
The displaced community of Bahìa Portete found in the Alta Guajira once again denounces the latest incursión of the paramilitary group CONTRAINSURGENCIA WAYUU under command of the alias “ PABLO ” into their ancestral territory that has once already been bathed in blood. This time the unfortunate victims of these mercenaries were: CHICHI EPINAYU of 35 years of age that was horrbily killed yesterday November 23 and JULIAN EPINAYU of 68 years of age who was kidnapped for who knows what purpose or if he is even dead or alive. After being subject to …
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