Category: Action Reports

24th May 2011
For more than two weeks, thousands of people have blocked an international border in Peru — and almost no one in the English-speaking world seems to have noticed.

The story has fallen through the cracks, but here's what's happening:

A proposed mining project on the shores of Lake Titicaca has provoked outrage among Peruvians. Protests are growing in the southeastern part of the country.

About 10,000 people gathered in the city of Puno this week, shouting "Mina no, agro si" (roughly "Mines no, farms yes"). Shops, schools and public transit all shut down.

The protests were sparked by the announcement that a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company Bear Creek would be allowed to build a silver mine near Lake Titicaca.

Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world and the largest lake in South America. The lake was considered sacred by the Incas and is a major tourist draw today.

The protesters say mining would pollute Lake Titicaca, the Desaguadero River and its tributaries. They are demanding the cancellation of all mining and oil concessions and the repeal of the decree that allows mining in the border area.

Bear Creek says the proposed project offers a "low-cost 'pure silver' mine" in a "mineral-rich nation with a favorable investment climate."

The Peruvian government said it would dispatch the military to control the protest and clear the road linking the two countries.

Bolivian businessmen estimate they have lost between $7 million and $16 million because of the blockade. The president of the Chamber of Exporters of Bolivia, Goran Vranicic, told Efe that daily losses total $1 million.

The protest began on May 9 with the closing of the Desaguadero border crossing. The route is still blocked with large rocks, logs and barbed wire.

About 600 trucks are stuck on the Bolivian side of the border, and in the last couple of hours, many of the trapped truckers have begun returning to the Bolivian capital of La Paz. The closure largely affects Bolivian cargo headed to Peru or to third countries through Peruvian ports (Bolivia doesn't have access to the sea).

In April, after a protest left three dead in the nearby region of Arequipa, the Peruvian government canceled the Tia Maria mining project.

May 22, 2011
The land acquisition for the proposed mega steel project of Posco in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district has been postponed following stiff resistance from villagers supporting as well as opposing the venture.

The State Government had to stop the land acquisition work on Friday after the villagers supporting the venture protested, demanding that the process be completely stopped till their six-point demands are met.

As many as 33 members of the United Action Committee (UAC), the group supporting the project, were arrested on Thursday when they blocked the entry of officials engaged in the land acquisition work. On Sunday, a large number of villagers supporting the UAC organised a rally in the area earmarked for the project reiterating their demands.

Meanwhile, Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, the outfit that has been strongly opposing land acquisition for the project since 2005, has also decided to intensify its agitation in the coming days.

The Samiti has been demanding that the Government not acquire any land till the authorities organised Palli Sabha meetings in various villages to take the consent of the thousands of families that were to lose their land and livelihood sources.

The agitating villagers, who had staged a protest on May 18 when the authorities resumed land acquisition, have termed the Government action “illegal”.

The land acquisition work had shown little progress during the three days when administration officials entered the area amid heavy police presence to carry out the exercise. While the 1.52 acres of forest land was acquired by demolishing betel vineyards on May 18, it dropped to 72 decimals on May 19 and .27 acres on May 20.

In another development, the High Court has issued notices to the State Government and others on a petition challenging land acquisition for the project. The petition will come up for further hearing on May 25.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/article2040318.ece?homepage=true

On April 15, Purepechas from the indigenous community of Cherán detained a group of five loggers who were attempting to transport illegally-logged timber from their land.

Hoping to turn the loggers in, the Purepechas later informed local authorities about what had happened. But, two hours after doing so, a police car arrived in the community with two pick-ups that were occupied by more than a dozen heavily-armed men.

The armed men proceeded to open fire on the community, seriously injuring one person, Eugenio Sánchez Tiandón, who was shot in the head and remains in a coma.

Following the attack, the Purepecha, with few other options, declared an emergency “state of siege” and closed off all access points to the community.

The self-imposed state of siege is ongoing.

According to a May 5 report by Amnesty International, on April 23, “the community presented the five illegal loggers to representatives of the Federal Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR) along with 140 complaints from residents.”

Four days later, another group of illegal loggers tried to gain access to the community; but they, too, were stopped by the Purepecha.

Unfortunately, the community came under fire once more–only this time, the armed men didn’t have a police escort. Two community members, Pedro Juárez Urbina and Armando Hernández Estrada, were killed in the attack.

It has been over three weeks since the two Purepecha men were killed on April 27; however, the community reports that warnings of reprisals have been sent to community leaders by the armed gang, which is believed to have ties to the main drug cartel in Michoacan.

According to the very latest reports on the “Cheran rebellion” as it’s been labelled by the press, the Mexican government has sent troops and federal police to patrol the outskirts of the community; something the Purepecha had been calling for since the state of siege began. But it remains to be see if they’ll actually do anything.

Providing some background, a community spokesperson recently told reporters that Cheran has been under attack for the past three years. Speaking on the condition that he remain anonymous, the spokesperson said that, since 2008, a total of nine people have been killed and five others have been disappeared.

In that same amount of time, Illegal loggers have deforested nearly 80 percent of the region’s 30,000-acre forest. “But during the past year, the groups seem to be supported by organized crime groups,” the spokesperson said.

Video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEHuoEdI1Kc