Tribal Solidarity – Page 16

Indigenous Communities in Oaxaca, Mexico Fight Corporate Wind Farms

More than five centuries after Colombus’ arrival in the Americas, the invasion of European powers continues to threaten traditional ways of life in indigenous communities in Mexico. The conflict against the corporate takeover of the ancestral lands of the Huave, or Ikoots people, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca is just one of the struggles continuously being played out in the face of trans-national development policies such as Plan Puebla Panama (now known as Proyecto Mesoamerica).

The Ikoots people of Oaxaca have inhabited the Isthmus of Tehuantepec for more than 3000 years, pre-dating the better-known Zapotec culture in Oaxaca. They are a fishing society that depends on the ocean for their livelihood; the Ikoots peoples’ history is so integrated with the sea that they are also known as Mareños (“Oceaners”). Now Ikoots communities are struggling to defend their ancestral lands from multinational corporations who want to build wind turbines in the water along the coast, in the very ocean that has supported their way of life for centuries.

In April of 2004, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) sponsored a study to accelerate the development of wind projects in the state of Oaxaca, which found that the best area for wind project development was in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the heart of the ancestral Ikoots territory. [1] The proposed Parque Eolico San Dionisio (San Dionisio Wind Park), a wind farm to be constructed in the ocean along the coast, would consist of 102 wind turbines in the water outside the town of San Dionisio del Mar (and 30 more outside neighboring Santa Maria del Mar), two electric transformer substations, six access paths and additional support structures. [2] It would take up 27 kilometers of coastline. The multinationals implementing the project have also informed the Mexican government that they will need to install 5 mooring docks in the Laguna Superior, a coastal lagoon that local communities heavily depend on for fishing. [3]

The construction of wind turbines would have a devastating effect on both Ikoots society and the environment. The community fears that the vibration from the machines would destroy the aquatic life in the area, which is the economic basis of survival for Ikoots communities such as San Dionisio del Mar, San Mateo del Mar and San Francisco del Mar. “This is the life of the poor: we fish so we can eat and have something to sell, to have a bit of money. They say that now that the wind project is here, they’ll give us money for our land and sea, but the money won’t last forever. We don’t agree with this. How are we going to live?” says Laura Celaya Altamirano, a resident of Isla Pueblo Viejo and the wife of a fisherman. [4] The wind turbines also present a threat to migratory birds and would damage the ecosystems of the local mangrove swamps. In addition, the proposed construction would desecrate Ikoots sacred territory, namely the Isla de San Dionisio and the Barra de Santa Teresa (known by the Ikoots communities as Tileme).

The proposed location for the aquatic wind farm is San Dionisio del Mar, a town of about 5000 residents. The project in San Dionisio is being implemented by a consortium called Mareña Renovable, which consists of the global investment bank Macquarie, based in Australia; the Dutch investment group PGGM; and the Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan. It includes turbines constructed by the Danish Company Vestas Wind Systems, and the involvement of two wind power companies: Grupo Preneal of Spain, and DEMEX of Mexico. The project also has funding from the Inter-American Development Bank. [5] The electricity from the farm would be used to power such corporate giants as FEMSA (based in Mexico, the largest beverage company in Latin America), Coca-Cola, Heineken, and other multinational corporations. [6]

A total disregard for the environment and the livelihoods of local people is par for the course when multinationals step in to take over communal lands for profit. In the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, wind power companies have been exploiting local communities for years, pressuring farmers (most with little formal education) to sign contracts they often don’t understand in order to give up their rights to land that has been held communally for generations. “Oaxaca is the center of communal landownership. There is probably no worse place to make a land deal in Mexico," says Ben Cokelet, founder of the Project on Organizing, Development, Education, and Research.[7] Developers held meetings with locals in which model windmills the size of dinner platters were shown; they were led to believe they could continue farming around them. Later they were shocked to see 15-to-20-story turbines constructed, taking up acres of their land. Developers pay the farmers a pittance in exchange for their land, often paying only 1/5^th of what they would pay for similar land in the US, or 1/7^th of what they would pay the Mexican government for the same land. And, in a move that exacerbates tension in the community, local leaders are given better deals for their land in order to make the process more appealing to the rest of the population: "The first guy or two that bites gets [$8] per square meter. That's a hundred times better contract than the other people," says Cokelet. “But the 98 percent of farmers who sign afterwards sign on for rock-bottom prices. Those one or two people who bite – they don't bite because they're lucky. They bite because they know someone. And their job … is to sell it to all their neighbors." [8]

There are currently 14 wind farms built on land in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, with 4 under construction in 2012 and 3 more scheduled for 2013. [9] According to the Declaración de San Dionisio del Mar, released on September 17 by the indigenous rights organization UCIZONI (La Unión de Comunidades de la Zona Norte del Istmo – The Union of Communities in the North Zone of the Isthmus), the communities affected by the 14 existing wind farms have not benefited from lower electricity rates; rather, the intention of the farms is clearly to serve the interests of transnational corporations such as Coca-Cola, Walmart, Nestle, Bimbo and others. [10] The wind turbines in San Dionisio are the first proposed turbines to be built in the sea. Ikoots communities would not even benefit from the jobs created by the wind turbines; the construction and maintenance of the wind turbines would most certainly be given to employees of the multinational corporations funding the project, not to local fishermen.

The Ikoots community of San Dionisio del Mar did not consent to this project, nor were they even informed that it was under consideration. The International Labour Organization, a United Nations agency dealing with labor rights, specifically states in its Convention 169 (Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples) that “special measures… be adopted to safeguard the persons, institutions, property, labour, cultures and environment of these [indigenous] peoples. In addition, the Convention stipulates that these special measures should not go against the free wishes of indigenous peoples.” Mexico ratified this convention in 1990. [11] In this case, there was no public forum or announcement regarding the construction of the wind farms.

“A common practice of foreign businesses is to ‘buy’ [via bribes] the local PRIista authorities,” says Carlos Beas Torres, a leader and co-founder of UCIZONI and a well-known activist for indigenous rights. In 2004, Alvaro Sosa, the then-president of the “comisariado de bienes comunales” (essentially, the commissary for the territory held in common by the community), signed a preliminary contract renting a section of land to the Spanish corporation Preneal without the knowledge of the town’s residents. The 30-year contract that gave the multinationals access to 1643 hectares of land; Sosa did not inform the community of this action and accepted bribes in exchange for his consent.[12] The people of San Dionisio del Mar did not find out about the existence of this contract until late in 2011, when the municipal president, Miguel López Castellanos (a member of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, or PRI), again without consulting the community gave his permission for the consortium Mareña Renovables to begin construction of wind turbines in exchange for a payment of between 14-20 million pesos (between $1-1.5 million USD). The multinationals claim to have given him 20 million pesos, but Lopez Castellanos only admits to receiving 14 million pesos. [13]

Upon this discovery, the residents of San Dionisio held a public assembly where they demanded that the municipal president revoke his consent for the wind farm, which he refused to do. In February, representatives from the community met with DEMEX in Mexico City to request that the contract process start over, but were turned down. [14] Thus the struggle for control of the Ikoots’ ancestral land began.

Not surprisingly, an intense resistance movement against the wind farm has surged in San Dionisio del Mar. The townspeople have initiated a legal battle in the Tribunal Unitario Agrario (Agrarian Unitary Tribunal), the government agency in charge of settling agrarian disputes, in an attempt to nullify the contract. However they are also taking direct action in an attempt to defend their land. In late January 2012, community members took possession of the municipal palace in San Dionisio in protest, ejecting municipal president Miguel López Castellanos, creating the Asamblea General del Pueblo de San Dionisio (General Assembly of the People of San Dionisio), and declaring themselves in resistance.[15] In April, the San Dionisio communal assembly prevented employees of the multinationals from laying out access roads in the Barra de Santa Teresa, and set up a permanent watch to make sure the contractors do not return. [16] In September, community members organized a national encuentro (or gathering) in San Dionisio, with the participation of around 300 people from 25 different indigenous and activist organizations from 6 different states in Mexico.[17] The intent of the encuentro was not only to raise awareness on what was happening on Ikoots land, but also to create a large-scale national plan of action to resist megaprojects such as the wind farms. “It’s practically a second Spanish Conquest; they’re coming again to snatch our land with a contract that is completely advantageous, draconian and in violation of our rights as indigenous people,” says Jesús García Sosa, a representative of the Asamblea General. [18]

The resistance movement continues to grow despite threats and intimidation, as well as actual physical attacks on community members committed by opposing political factions. The general consensus is that these factions are being paid by the multinationals involved to hamper resistance to the development project. On August 25, a representative of the Asamblea General named Moisés Juárez Muriel was brutally attacked while walking home in the evening by two men who beat him with stones. He was taken by two compañeros in resistance to the IMSS-Complamar clinic, where he was refused treatment because the clinic was under control of the municipal president. [19] In mid-September, immediately after the conclusion of the encuentro in support of the Ikoots community members in resistance, a group of heavily armed individuals surrounded the municipal palace that the community members were occupying, pointing guns at and intimidating the people who were guarding the building. [20]

Resistance movement leaders have also received public death threats from political parties and anonymous sources. On October 6, a group of PRI agitators marched through San Dionisio, making specific death threats against Bettina Cruz Velazquez, a well-known human rights activist and founder of the Asamblea de los Pueblos Indígenas del Istmo de Tehuantepec en Defensa de la Tierra y el Territorio (Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Defense of Land and Territory). Cruz Velazquez is deeply involved in the resistance movement against the wind project. Human rights groups in Mexico have formally asked the governor of Oaxaca, Gabino Cué Monteagudo, to guarantee her safety. [21] Carlos Beas Torres of UCIZONI has received threatening phone calls for his public stance in opposition of the project. [22]

In some cases, attempts to stop resistance support have led to clashess. In mid-October, two organizations, El Frente por la Defensa de la Tierra (The Front for the Defense of the Earth) and UCIZONI sent a caravan of support attempting to bring food and supplies to the community in resistance in San Dionisio. A blockade was set up by armed PRIista sympathizers of the municipal president, Miguel López Castellanos, to keep the caravan from passing. [23] A violent confrontation ensued.

“The store owners in San Dionisio belong to the PRI and refuse to sell food to the people resisting the wind project,” says Carlos Alberto Ocaña, whose father (a native of San Dionisio) was the driver of the first truck in the supply caravan. “When the caravan approached the town, it was stopped by a blockade of about 70 people. They had guns, machetes, and gasoline for setting the cars on fire. My father was in the first truck with five other people. They PRIistas in the blockade pulled them out of the truck and started beating them.” The police eventually arrived, but the caravan was unable to pass the barricade to reach San Dionisio and eventually it was forced to turn back without delivering the supplies.

On October 17 and 18, members of the Asamblea General of San Dionisio, UCIZONI, la Asamblea de Pueblos Indígenas del Istmo en Defensa de la Tierra y el Territorio, la Alianza Mexicana por la Autodeterminación de los Pueblos (Mexican Allaince for the Self-Determination of the People, AMAP), and a half dozen other groups held protests in Mexico City. They held rallies in front of the Interamerican Development Bank, Mitsubishi, Coca-Cola, Vestas, and the Danish embassy. Their goal was twofold: to impede the construction of the wind park in San Dionisio, but also to publicly denounce the environmental and cultural damage that threatens the Ikoots communities of the Isthmus. They were received and allowed to present written complaints at the Interamerican Development Bank, Vestas, and the Danish embassy. oca-Cola-FEMSA refused to meet with them. [24] As of this writing, the Ikoots communities’ struggle against corporate takeover continues; in November representatives of the community will travel to the Netherlands, with the support of Dutch unions, to present a letter of protest in person to the Dutch investment company PGGM. In the words of Asamblea General representative Jesús García Sosa, “We will not allow that business and government to yet again displace us from our territory, which symbolizes our very life, our mother, our father; we can’t sell it to them or put a price on it, much less in exchange for projects of death and plunder.” [25]

On October 30th, President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, who was in Oaxaca to inaugurate a new highway, also travelled to inaugurate the Piedra Larga Wind Park. Calderon saluted the project, citing it as a solution to poverty and climate change, and mentioning the “additional income” the residents of the town Unión Hidalgo would receive for allowing the turbines to be installed on their communal land.

Meanwhile, 300 meters outside the park, theirn entrance blocked by national police, nearly 200 people from different communities in the region including San Mateo del Mar, San Dionisio del Mar, San Francisco del Mar, Unión Hidalgo, Juchitán, Santa María Xadani and the UCIZONI, protested the park’s opening. [26]

FOOTNOTES

1. Noticias de Oaxaca, Oct. 14 2012 .

2. Noticias de Oaxaca, Aug. 20 2012 .

3. Noticias de Oaxaca, Apr. 21 2012 .

4. Noticias de Oaxaca, Aug. 20 2012.

5. Recharge News, Mar. 12 2012.

6. Noticias de Oaxaca, Apr. 23 2012.

7. Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 26 2012.

8. Ibid

9. Noticias de Oaxaca, Oct. 11 2012.

10. UCIZONI statement, Sept. 17 2012.

11. International Labor Organization Convention 169.

12. La Jornada, Aug. 23 2012.

13. Noticias de Oaxaca, Aug. 20 2012.

14. Christian Science Monitor, Feb. 28 2012.

15. El Sol del Istmo, Jan. 30 2012.

16. Noticias de Oaxaca, Apr. 21 2012.

17. Despertar de Oaxaca, Sept. 28 2012.

18. Noticias de Oaxaca, Aug. 20 2012.

19. Quadratin Oaxaca, Oct. 9 2012.

20. Ibid.

21. E-Oaxaca, Oct. 15 2012.

22. Quadratin Oaxaca, Oct. 9 2012

23. E-Oaxaca, Oct. 11 2012.

24. La Jornada, Oct. 17 2012:

25. Noticias de Oaxaca, Aug. 20 2012.

26. Eco Noticias Huatulco. Oct 30, 2012.

EF! Winter Moot 2013: 22-24th February, near Preston

A weekend get-together for people involved in ecological direct action, from fighting opencast coal, fracking, GM, nuclear power to road building. There’ll be discussions and campaign planning – with the emphasis on the tactics and strategies we use, community solidarity and sustainable activism.

Update: full transport details and programme at link below.

Indigenous Communities Rise Up in Mexico

For the second time in less than two years, an indigenous community in the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacan has erected barricades and seized control of security matters. Located in the Purepecha highlands of the Pacific coast state, the small community of Urapicho in the municipality of Paracho has been under the self-declared control of the people for about a month now.

The news was publicized this week with the posting of a video on YouTube that shows armed and masked men, some clothed in military-style camouflage clothing, attending a sand-bagged checkpoint, where motorists are searched. Two anonymous, masked spokespersons explain the reasons behind the uprising and the goals of their movement.

Residents say they have been under assault from criminal bands which have a strong foothold in the region. The Spanish-speaking spokesman mentions four people who were forcibly disappeared in 2009 and 2010, including a woman named Bautista. “We don’t know her whereabouts,” he says.

The Purepecha community is located between the towns of Paracho, long known for its locally produced guitars, and Cheran, a larger indigenous community that rose up in April 2011 and seized control of the local government. Still barricaded and under community guard, the Cheran rebellion broke out after locals grew frustrated by violence and government inaction in stopping the clear-cutting of the area’s remaining forests. Like Urapicho, numerous deaths and disappearances blamed on organized crime have been reported in Cheran.

The Urapicho uprising occurs amid escalating social conflicts that have political temperatures at the boiling point in Michoacan. In different parts of the state, multiple conflicts pit student, teacher and indigenous groups against the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)-led state government, as well as legislators from the PRI and allied Green Party against the center-left PRD, PT and MC parties.

On Sunday, October 14, tensions exploded when the Federal Police recovered buses that had been seized by protesting students from three rural teachers’ colleges. In the raid, scores of students were detained, buses burned and several officers injured.

In response, anywhere between 15,000 and 40,000 demonstrators, the estimates depending on the source, crowded the state capital of Morelia October 17 denouncing President Calderon and demanding the resignations of state Government Secretary Jesus Reyna Garcia and PRI Governor Fausto Vallejo, who was elected to office in a controversial November 2011 election.

Contingents representing the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE), the Purepecha Nation and other organizations participated in the mobilization. A large group of students encircled the state attorney general’s office, while a second group numbering in the hundreds blocked one of Morelia’s highway exits.

As the week ended, the CNTE vowed to continue protesting in Morelia until the remaining 8 students detained on October 14 were released. Outside the state capital, protesters reportedly occupied the town hall of Paracho and threatened to blockade access to other municipalities.

more ingo at http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/2012/10/19/indigenous-communities-rise-up-in-mexico/

Under the watchful eye of engaged youth, Pangea and the PLA’s “City Concept” plan was halted by tribal council

Sacaton, AZ- At the October 17, 2012 Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) Tribal Council session, Pangea, LLC and the Pecos Landowners Association (PLA) attempted to rush forward their plans pertaining to the construction of a city and freeway within the reservation. Pangea sought the tribal council’s approval for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which granted Pangea and its investors exclusive rights to develop over 5500 acres of tribal land on the reservation’s western end along the route of the proposed Loop 202 freeway, which GRIC voted against last February. The PLA attempted to pressure tribal council to approve the Pangea corporation’s initiative for yet another community vote on the Loop 202.

But to their surprise, Pangea and the PLA were confronted by young people wearing breathing masks and No Build 202 shirts who sought to hold both Pangea and the PLA accountable to last February’s Loop 202 vote. In that vote, GRIC voters voted in favor of the No Build option for the freeway. The Gila River youth, whose breathing masks symbolized the environmental toxins that freeways bring to the land and air, were at the tribal council meeting to demand that their elected officials uphold the No Build voice of the people.

“I can’t vote yet, but if I could, I would have voted No Build too. The people who want the freeway should think about what my generation will go through if all we have to inherit is freeway pollution”said 14 year old Lily Miles, of Komatke and Vah-ki, who was one of the twelve who wore medical breathing masks and No Build shirts in solidarity with the community’s No Build voice.

Since the historic Loop 202 vote, many GRIC members, especially the youth, have felt their tribal leadership has not fully upheld the community’s No Build stance. This suspicion is heightened since GRIC Governor Mendoza allowed Pangea to consult with GRIC’s Office of General Counsel for their City Concept and freeway plans. In addition, Governor Mendoza presented the PLA initiative that calls for another Loop 202 vote at the September 26th GRIC Legislative Standing Committee (LSC).

If approved by the GRIC Tribal Council, the massive Pangea City Concept, the size of over 5000 football fields, would be the largest construction project in the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Gila River Indian Community. The GRIC No Build supporters who attended the Wednesday council session were compelled to raise their voices against Pangea and the PLA in the tribal council chambers without saying one word. Their breathing masks and No Build 202 shirts, stating “Biohazard 202” spoke to the looming desecration of Muhadag Do’ag (South Mountain) and to the negative impacts the proposed freeway would bring to the environment and overall community health.

“Our tribal leaders must be held accountable for where their allegiances lie,” said Renee Jackson of Vah-ki, who was one of the No Build supporters who wore breathing masks and Biohazard 202 shirts during the meeting. “Our representatives must be transparent in where they stand on the issue of the freeway”.

While council went to executive session to decide the merit of Pangea’s MOU and the PLA voting initiative, the twelve youth engaged pro-freeway Gila River landowners in the hallways outside council chambers. The youth shared their concerns regarding the environmental, health and cultural impacts the City Concept would bring to their future while council was in executive session and closed to the public. The mere presence of these twelve helped give a voice to the 720 GRIC members who voted for No Build, and their breathing masks showed the potential danger the freeway would bring.

“Today we showed where the youth stand and we showed that there are youth who care. Pangea and the PLA’s city concept is a danger to our future and both are biohazards to the land and to the mountain,” said Andrew Pedro, 18 years old, from Sacaton, who printed the Biohazard shirts. “People were asking me for more t-shirts, and I believe that this is the first of more visual demonstrations to come.”

“I felt like it was my responsibility to be here and get informed about what is happening around me and in my community because I will be inheriting this land too.” said Karma Miles, 11 years old, from Komatke and Vah-ki.

Despite the differences the youth had with fellow GRIC landowners, the youth presented themselves in a respectful matter, and even helped PLA elders by setting up chairs during executive session.

After nearly an hour in executive session, Tribal Council decided that eleven key points needed to be met before any MOU regarding Pangea’s land use plans could be approved. The eleven points center around public safety, budgeting, jurisdiction, and land management issues that were not addressed within the MOU submitted by Pangea. Council clearly declared that all points must be met before Pangea’s MOU could be brought back before the council. Additionally, the misleading Save the Mountain initiative was held to standard GRIC Community Council Secretary’s Office (CCSO) procedure regarding signatures verification. The PLA submitted their Pangea-backed initiative to the GRIC Community Council Secretary’s Office (CCSO) on September 27 with the backing of 1,527 landowner signatures. Tribal council declared that each signature must be verified first before council would consider the initiative. As with the per capita initiative, a previous people’s initiative in Gila River, the signatures could take the CCSO four to six months to verify, especially with reports of missing tribal enrollment numbers with the signatures submitted, as reported by Community Council Secretary Linda Andrews at the council meeting. The Save the Mountain initiative, which Pangea and PLA deemed” first ever Peoples Initiative through the People’s rights under the GRIC Tribal Constitution”, does not save the mountain because it calls for the rejected freeway to be constructed on tribal lands along the foothills of Muhadag Do’ag (South Mountain).

Despite the steps that are legally required to approve a voter initiative, a Pangea representative pressured council to move forward and approve the pro-freeway initiative. GRIC member Joey Perez of Pangea attempted to have council set a much shorter time frame for approval, by citing the 14th amendment of the GRIC constitution, which declares council has 60 days to make a decision on any initiative bought forth to them. The Pangea corporation’s interpretation, as stated by Perez, was that the 60 days started on September 27, when the signatures were submitted, which would force council to possibly reconsider another Loop 202 vote by the end of the year. But Perez, Pangea and the PLA were soon confronted with standard GRIC procedures regarding initiatives: signatures must be verified before the initiative can be considered by the council.

The reason why the Pangea corporation and pro-build supporters disregard the No Build victory and are attempting to rush the tribal council to schedule another vote on the proposed freeway is because in 2013 federal land leasing regulations for tribal allotted lands become much more restrictive. Changes to Title 25 of the BIA’s Code of Federal Regulations will require 100 percent of landowner consents before the BIA will approve any new leases pertaining to the use of tribal allotted lands for businesses. This would make the Pangea City Concept, which is centered around the construction of the Loop 202, subject to heightened federal regulations.

The decision by Council to hold Pangea and the PLA transparent and accountable to the process was a long overdue first step in reversing its nine months of inaction regarding the No Build vote. Pangea and the PLA were expecting to walk out of the tribal council meeting with another Loop 202 vote scheduled, and their land development plans to be unopposed. But Pangea and the PLA left the October tribal council session in defeat when confronted with the gaping holes of their fraudulent campaign to bulldoze over 5500 acres for a Pangea city, and by the faces of the young people whose future health depends on the preservation and protection of Muhadag Do’ag, and their lands.

“It was a wonderful day, a small victory once again,” said Lori Thomas, of Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment. “The youth who were present were awesome. It was good to see them engage in the issue. A small battle was won but the fight still rages on.”

For the youth who attended this round of the bigger fight to completely stop the Loop 202, it showed that their involvement will be crucial for the future of the community, and that a new form of expression is needed so that their voices can be heard by the Pangea corporation, the PLA, as well as by the GRIC tribal council and Governor Mendoza.

“We made an impact by representing all the No Build supporters who can’t be here, to go to these meetings and be heard,” said Ana Morago, 18 years old, of Stotonic. “We aren’t bused in, like the way Pangea brings in their people. And even though we didn’t speak, our actions and how we presented ourselves spoke louder”.

For more information regarding the struggle against the Loop 202, please contact us at: gricagainst202(at)gmail.com or at our Facebook page: Gila River Against the Loop 202

Ongoing Protests Over Brazil’s Anti-Indigenous Decree

On July 17, Brazil’s Office of the Solicitor-General (AGU) issued Decree 303/2012, which dramatically scales back indigenous rights that are guaranteed by the country’s constitution. The law contains a provision that would permit the construction of “strategic” infrastructure projects such as roads, hydroelectric dams and mines in indigenous territory without consulting the affected peoples and communities.

In addition, the law allows military occupation of indigenous land at any time, prohibits any future designation of indigenous lands EVER, and otherwise infringes on indigenous people’s control of their own territory.

The law has sparked large protests across Brazil. According to Intercontinental Cry:

“On August 10, more than 50 indigenous leaders occupied the headquarters of the AGU to demand the revocation of Decree 303; On August 20, sixteen different Indigenous Nations in the State Mato Grosso came together to show their outrage against the Decree and the recent gutting of the FUNAI, Brazil’s Buerau of Indian Affairs; and on September 4, the Guajajara shut down BR-316, a federal highway that connects the cities of Belém in the state of Pará, and Maceió in Alagoas. …

“Most recently, on September 24, about 500 Pankararu marched against the “anti-indian” decree; and on September 28, the Tembé set fire to illegal logging machinery and trucks within their territory in the municipality of Nova Esperança do Piriá, Pará, Maranhão border. As well, on October 2, the Guajajara headed out again–this time with the Awa–to occupy the Carajás Railway[pt] which links the municipalities of Mineirinho and Auzilândia in the northern state of Maranhão. The railway is owned by mining giant Vale.

“The APIB says that many more mobilizations are on the way in the south, northeast and north of the country.”

(Malaysia) Indigenous blockade expands against massive dam in Sarawak

Indigenous people have expanded their blockade against the Murum dam in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, taking over an additional road to prevent construction materials from reaching the dam site. Beginning on September 26th with 200 Penan people, the blockade has boomed to well over 300. Groups now occupy not just the main route to the dam site, but an alternative route that the dam's contractor, the China-located Three Gorges Project Corporation, had begun to use.

"The major works on the construction of the dam have been paralyzed over the last one week. The drivers have left home and let their cement tankers, lorry trucks and trailers with building materials had been hauled over and park at the road side near the blockade site," the Sarawak Conservation Alliance for Natural Environment (SCANE) said in an update on the blockade. "The access to the construction site of Murum hydroelectric dam project is totally blocked on all directions with the setting-up of second road blockade by the Penans."

The Penan are protesting what they say has been disdainful treatment from the government-owned corporation overseeing the 900 megawatt dam project, Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB). The dams construction, which will inundate 24,500 hectares of native land, will lead to the involuntary resettlement of seven indigneous communities, who still remain in the dark about many of the details of the resettlement plan. In addition, the tribe alleges that SEB has been intentionally destroying important sacred and historical sites.

"We will not remove the blockade or move out of here until our demands are resolved and fulfilled by the government," Labang Paneh, a representative from Long Wat village, said in a statement.

Families, including elderly and children, have set up makeshift camps near the blockade and appear to be in it for the long haul.

A government minister spent two days with the Penan investigating the blockade and speaking with them about their grievances.

"I went in and I saw the situation from the view of these Penans whose lives are being uprooted and whose future looks so uncertain," Liwan Lagang, Sarawak Assistant Minister for Culture and Heritage, told The Star. "I found out that indeed, they had not been properly consulted and their concerns not addressed by those handling the construction of the project."

For decades the Penan people have seen their customary forests felled for logging, plantations, dams, roads, and other big infrastructure projects with the Sarawak government refusing to recognize their land rights. Traditionally, the Penan were nomadic hunter-and-gatherers, but today most live in settled villages, but still depend on the forests for their livelihood.

Assistant Minister Lagang added that "contractors involved in the dam project are making millions of ringgit in the project. They must be considerate and exercise better social corporate responsibility and good public relations with the local affected natives."

Sarawak already produces far more energy than the state uses leading critics to allege that numerous massive dam projects are merely means for corrupt officials to siphon off state funds and collect bribes. The state recently completed the 2,400 megawatt Bakun Dam, which produces double the energy consumed by Sarawak during peak times. Bakun resulted in the forced resettlement of 10,000 people.

(USA) Lummi and Allies Unite Against Coal Exports

Lummi tribal leaders burned a mock cheque from coal companies during a protest at Cherry Point, Wa., Oct 2012 (Photo by: Alan Berner / The Seattle Times)

LUMMI INDIAN RESERVATION, BELLINGHAM, Wash.—A fleet of boats piloted by Native and non-Native fishers gathered today in the waters off Xwe’chi’eXen (Cherry Point, Wash.) to stand with the Lummi Nation in opposition to the proposed Gateway Pacific coal terminal at Xwe’chi’eXen.

“We have to say ‘no’ to the coal terminal project,” said Cliff Cultee, Chairman of the Lummi Nation. “It is our Xw’ xalh Xechnging (sacred duty) to preserve and protect all of Xwe’chi’eXen.”

A ceremony of thankfulness, remembrance and unity was held on the beach during the event. Lummi Indians maintain the largest Native fishing fleet in the United States, and Lummi fishers have worked in the Cherry Point fishery for thousands of years.

If constructed, the terminal would be the largest coal terminal on the West Coast of North America. It would significantly degrade an already fragile and vulnerable crab, herring and salmon fishery, dealing a devastating blow to the economy of the fisher community.

“This is not about jobs versus the environment,” said Jewell James of the Lummi Nation’s Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office. “It is about what type of jobs are best for the people and the environment.”

Another gathering of Lummi Indians and non-Indian residents from the local and regional community was held at Xwe’chi’eXen on Sept. 21 to call for the protection and preservation of Xwe’chi’eXen, which is the location of a 3,500 year old village site, and a landscape that is eligible for registry on the National Register of Historic Places.

A Lummi Nation Business Council Resolution declared Lummi “will continue to safeguard our ancestral and historical areas” and the ability of its members to “exercise treaty, inherent and inherited rights.”

The Lummi Nation is participating in a broad intertribal coalition to defeat the project and to ensure that the natural and cultural legacy of Xwe’chi’eXen is protected in perpetuity.

This article originally appeared on Terri Hansen’s website, Mother Earth Journal

(Peru) Despite Promised Reforms, Another Mine Resister Killed in Peru

Peruvian pol

Peruvian police are becoming notorious for using lethal force against protesters. In this picture, police respond with force to protests which rocked the Amazon region in 2009.

Despite government promises of reforms in the way natural resource concessions are handled, another anti-mines protester has been killed in Peru. This marks the 19th person killed in a natural resource-related conflict since President Ollanta Humala took office in July 2011.

Clashes between police and protesters broke out in the Ancash region on Wednesday Sep. 19, when police tried to break up a blockade of a road leading to Barrick Gold’s Pierna mine. Locals blame the mine for contaminating their drinking water and using up their water supply.

The company temporarily shut down the mine following the killing.

The violence came even as Peru’s Congress debates reforms to the way mining concessions are handled, including the creation of a new oversight body to evaluate mining concessions, separate from the agency responsible for promoting them.

The government has also been touting its new policy of consulting with affected communities regarding oil and gas concessions in the Amazon, but communities in resistance to such projects have expressed skepticism about what such consultation will actually mean.

“Which communities will be consulted? What are the terms and conditions? Indigenous peoples need answers to these questions, because there is a great deal of mistrust,” said congressmember Verónika Mendoz.

“We think it is good that they will hold a consultation. But how can they remedy all of the damage they have done to us in the last 40 years in just a short time? They need to explain that to us first,” said Achuar indigenous leader Andrés Santi, president of the Federation of Native Communities of Corrientes.

Indigenous Peruvians Occupy 9 Oil Wells

Community members in Canaan de Cachiaco

By: Ronald Suarez, President of the Network of Peruvian Indigenous Communicators, Ucayali

*Correction: Maple Energy is a company listed in London and Lima, Peru. It is not a Canadian company.

Over 400 villagers in the Native Community of Canan de Cachiaco in the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon have taken control of nine oil wells, belonging to oil company, Maple Gas, in oil lot 31B.

Community members took over the oil wells on September 2nd, and continue to hold them as a result of 37 years of oil contamination in their territory by the company.

The community leader, Basilio Rodriguez Venancio, said the action was made necessary because the company did not consider the environmental impact assessment carried out by an independent consultant.

One of the oil wells occupied by members of the Canaan de Cachiaco community in the Peruvian Amazon, September 2012

The community is demanding that the company pay them compensation for the use of their lands and for the environmental damage they have suffered for 37 years. Such damage includes the contamination of their rivers, their only source of drinking water, and the contamination of their soils due to the company´s use of chemicals and heavy minerals, which the population says has significantly affected the productivity of their land.

Several community members testified that they have become sick due to the company’s negligence and contamination of their drinking water. There have been several instances in the past years of cancer and ¨unknown deaths¨ that the community attributes to company abuses.

The community awaits the arrival of state representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Mines and Ministry of Environment, scheduled for Thursday, September 13th, to resolve this conflict.

Meanwhile the villagers are still stationed in the camp until authorities settle their claims.

For more information on the case of Canaan de Cachiaco, and the neighboring community, Nuevo Sucre, watch this video.

Brazil tribes occupy contentious dam site

30th June 2012

About 150 indigenous people are protesting a massive dam they say will dry up the river their livelihood depends on.

30th June 2012

About 150 indigenous people are protesting a massive dam they say will dry up the river their livelihood depends on.

A cluster of 12 men from the Xikrin tribe chant in their native language while marching together, arms interlocked, stomping their feet against the dry red dirt. They say this is their call of resistance from the Amazon.

The Xikrin are joined by about 150 indigenous people from three other tribes – the Arara, Juruna, and Parakana – that are occupying one of the work sites at the Belo Monte dam construction site in what is becoming a high-stakes standoff. The occupation, which is entering its second week, has halted a part of the construction on what will be the world's third-largest hydroelectric dam.

At the site of the protest, visited by Al Jazeera on Wednesday, the tribesmen were carrying clubs and spears and had built rudimentary sleeping quarters in what has essentially become a non-violent sit-in. An anthropologist was with them, typing away at her laptop as the indigenous people articulated their demands.

The tribes are occupying a road, built by the dam builders, which cuts through part of the Xingu River's waterways. The road blocks the natural flow of the waters.

The occupation of the site began at about 11 am on June 21 and played out like something from a fictional Hollywood movie. The indigenous people arrived at the work site in half a dozen small boats, charged the area, and announced that they were taking over. The construction workers, seeing the tribesmen with their faces painted for combat and armed with spears, immediately fled for safety.

"The workers were scared, so they immediately ran when we arrived," said Bepumuiti, from the Juruna tribe. "They probably thought they were going to die."

The tribesmen confiscated the keys to more than three dozen dump trucks and heavy machinery left behind.

What the indigenous people want

Last year, a series of conditions were agreed upon with the indigenous people to reduce the impact of the construction of the dam on their communities. Some of the conditions included the demarcation of indigenous lands, the construction of health facilities and schools, and means of transportation for the tribal people when the rivers dry up.

In exchange for their agreement, the indigenous said they would not forcefully oppose the dam construction.

The problem, the indigenous now say, is that while the construction of the dam steams ahead, the promises made by the consortium building the dam and by government-led Norte Energia – the energy company overseeing the dam – have yet to be fulfilled.

So the tribes decided to invade. This was a historic and significant move, because the decision was made without the assistance or knowledge of local or international NGOs or government rights bodies, who in the past often assisted tribes during protest movements.

"We would not be here today if the builders and the government would have done what they promised us," Bebtok, a tribe elder from the Xikrin tribe, told Al Jazeera. "In my community, nothing has been done. There is no quality health post, there is no school, they have not built a road for us. My road is the river and that is going to be dried up."

Since October, the tribes most affected by the construction of the dam have been receiving a budget of about $15,000 from the government, through which they can request anything they want, such as gasoline for their boats, food or construction material.

But the tribes have been told that the money – called "emergency assistance" in government parlance – will stop later this year, infuriating the tribal people at the very moment they are starting to feel the negative impacts of the dam, they say.

The indigenous people are now also starting to see the impact the construction is having on their lives. Surara, from the Parakana tribe, showed Al Jazeera how a road built on the construction site through a natural waterway of the Xingu river has already started to dry out one side of the river.

"We were always navigating this river because we know this river like the palm of our hands," Surara said. "And today, as you can see, it's very dry. That is sad for us."

Surara predicted that, at the current pace of construction, in two years the tribe will no longer be able to reach their community by boat because of the changes in water levels. The tribes have a new list of demands they want fulfilled before they say they will end their occupation.

Response from government and builders

The tribes' occupation of the dam seemed to catch the dam builders and the government by surprise. In response, Norte Energia has taken what seems like a peculiar approach that involves two very opposite responses, using the carrot and the stick at the same time. Three days after the occupation began, a judge rejected a request to have the indigenous evicted by force from the area.

At the same time, Norte Energia is providing the indigenous people three meals a day at the occupation site. Often times, a representative from the company will show up at the site during a meal and ask the indigenous people for the keys back to their heavy machinery. So far, the tribes have refused to hand them over.

Last week, Norte Energia refused an Al Jazeera request for an interview on the matter. Norte Energia has said in the past that the economic and social assistance packages to help the tribes will be implemented at various points during the entirety of the project, as previously agreed upon.

Behind the scenes, the company is facing a daunting task. Not only do each of the four tribes involved in the occupation have their own set of demands, but there are also as many as 35 different sub-communities within the tribes taking part in the occupation, and each have their own interests and requests they want met.

Activists face arrest

Pressure is building on multiple fronts. Construction of the dam ramped up earlier this year, and there are strict timetables to get the dam up and running by late 2014.

Aside from the indigenous protest, several other tense issues surrounding the dam are coalescing at the same time.

In Altamira, the closest city to the dam site, 11 people – all unaffiliated with the indigenous protest now occurring – are fighting arrest warrants after being accused of helping organise an anti-dam protest earlier in June that the dam builders say led to property damage. Local TV channels have been airing video of broken windows and the burning of office equipment at the construction site.

The activists facing possible arrest all deny they were involved, and say any protests they organised were peaceful and legal. They include, among others, a Catholic priest, a nun, some members of Xingu Vivo Para Sempre – a local anti-dam NGO – as well as a local fisherman featured in an Al Jazeera report in January

Police have an open investigation, and have yet to formally announce if charges will be filed. However, even the threat of jail time has sent a chill through the tight-knit community of local anti-dam activists.

How will it end?

On Thursday, in the city of Altamira, more than 60 of the indigenous occupiers met with a high-level delegation from Brasilia that included the president of Norte Energia.

The meeting lasted nearly four hours, and was closed to the media. The indigenous people discussed their demands to end the protest, but no agreement was reached. Norte Energia said they needed to take the requests back to Brasilia for analysis. A new meeting was set for July 9. In the meantime, the tribes say their occupation will continue. It was also agreed by all sides that work will continue on the parts of the construction site not under the control of the tribes.

"This was a very friendly conversation; the tribe elders are very wise and measured," said Carlos Nascimento, president of Norte Energia, in a brief press conference after the meeting. "There are some young tribesmen that want some improvements, and as much as we can, we will do anything in our power so these kinds of things will not happen again."

The indigenous seemed determined to keep up the fight for as long as it takes. "What we asked for, the dam builders did not give us an answer to, so we will only leave the construction site when they bring an answer to us on paper," Giliardi, from the Juruna tribe, said after the meeting. "And as long as they don't do anything in our communities regarding infrastructure, we are not leaving the occupation."

Meanwhile, more boats loaded with indigenous people are arriving at the protest site every day. It is an indication that this standoff in the Amazon could drag on for days to come.