Category: Global

Glob­al

Moscow, Russia: ELF Torch Excavator and Dozer During New Year Festivities

Dur­ing the night of Decem­ber 31 – Jan­u­ary 1 we torched 2 vehi­cles used in devel­op­ment project in South­ern Moscow. Secu­ri­ty didn’t expect us to show up as they were busy drink­ing them­selves into obliv­ion at the guard­house. So we used 2 jel­ly cans of gaso­line and some rags to destroy unguard­ed machin­ery.

Dur­ing the night of Decem­ber 31 – Jan­u­ary 1 we torched 2 vehi­cles used in devel­op­ment project in South­ern Moscow. Secu­ri­ty didn’t expect us to show up as they were busy drink­ing them­selves into obliv­ion at the guard­house. So we used 2 jel­ly cans of gaso­line and some rags to destroy unguard­ed machin­ery. No harm came from our actions (only harm being made was that to the developer’s purse).

We ded­i­cate this action to anar­chists from Belarus, those who stay impris­oned. Guys, we remem­ber you, we miss you and wait for you to become free again. We ask for ABC Belarus to help us in spread­ing this infor­ma­tion and let­ting our impris­oned com­rades know of our words and deed. We hope the news will help to light­en up the mood and keep you warm and smil­ing in the grey prison real­i­ty.

As for our ecode­fence activism, we are not plan­ning to make a U‑turn. Unlike Mrs. Chiriko­va [self-pro­claimed leader of mass protests dur­ing Khim­ki for­est strug­gle — trans.] we are not look­ing for a com­fort­able chair in local admin­is­tra­tion. So we can afford to do what needs be done. We don’t accept moan­ings like: “Vio­lence is bad, we shouldn’t be torch­ing vehi­cles, we should get more sig­na­tures under peti­tion, so as to be heard by fed­er­al gov­ern­ment.” This reminds us of the fears of a per­son who’s afraid to loose the good­will of pow­ers-that-be. If we allow some­body to com­mit vio­lence against our­selves, it means we’re rais­ing the white flag. It is time to ques­tion the ratio­nale behind con­tin­u­ous with­draw­al under the blows of author­i­ties. It is time to stop hid­ing your inabil­i­ty to act behind phras­es like: “we shouldn’t act, this is vio­lent tac­tics” or “this is too macho-ist” or “this is ille­gal”. If you want to ask for per­mis­sion to protest, you must under­stand that you’re in fact sell­ing your­selves. Only uncon­trol­lable forms of resis­tance can hope to remain free. Any protest coor­di­nat­ed from under lib­er­al umbrel­la orga­ni­za­tion is doomed to a fail­ure. Gath­er your strengths, stay free and be wild, god damn it!

Blockade of Mine Site Enters Third Day

mb_wide_maules-20140115000958462076-620x349 14th Jan­u­ary 2014 Activists have block­ad­ed the Maules Creek mine site at Bog­gabri in New South Wales, Aus­tralia, for three days now.

mb_wide_maules-20140115000958462076-620x349 14th Jan­u­ary 2014 Activists have block­ad­ed the Maules Creek mine site at Bog­gabri in New South Wales, Aus­tralia, for three days now.

On Mon­day, 30 pro­tes­tors, includ­ing mem­bers of Abo­rig­i­nal groups and the orga­ni­za­tion Leard For­est Alliance, descend­ed on the site, with some lock­ing them­selves to heavy machines.

Yes­ter­day, 10 more pro­tes­tors joined the group, re-enforc­ing an ad-hoc encamp­ment and lock­ing down to bull­doz­ers.

The Leard For­est is set to be destroyed by the open pit coal mine, and the heavy machines are sup­posed to start clear­ing for­est for Wite­haven Coal’s oper­a­tion. The for­est is impor­tant habi­tat, as well as a cul­tur­al and bur­ial site for Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple in the area.

Activist group the Leard For­est Alliance said the heavy vehi­cles were at the site to begin clear­ing for­est for a road and rail­way line to ser­vice White­haven Coal’s $767 mil­lion open-cut coalmine. The alliance says the mine will destroy Abo­rig­i­nal cul­tur­al and bur­ial sites and valu­able for­est and ani­mals.

Peru: Achuar Indigenous Leader on Prison Hunger Strike

Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 13th, 2014  Achuar indige­nous leader Segun­do Gar­cía San­di began a hunger strike Jan. 7 to demand his free­dom at Huayabam­ba prison in Iqui­tos, Peru. Gar­cía San­di was arrest­ed Dec.

Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 13th, 2014  Achuar indige­nous leader Segun­do Gar­cía San­di began a hunger strike Jan. 7 to demand his free­dom at Huayabam­ba prison in Iqui­tos, Peru. Gar­cía San­di was arrest­ed Dec. 5, on charges of tam­per­ing with an oil pipeline run by Argen­tine com­pa­ny Plus­petrol through his people’s ter­ri­to­ry in the remote north of Lore­to depart­ment. He claims he is being held ille­gal­ly with­out evi­dence, but a habeas cor­pus action filed by his sup­port­ers has met with no response by Peru’s judi­cial author­i­ties.

Gar­cía Sandi’s orga­ni­za­tion, the Río Cor­ri­entes Fed­er­a­tion of Native Com­mu­ni­ties (FECONACO), asserts the arrest is retal­i­a­tion for his demands for envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice. FECONACO reports that five Achuar chil­dren died in Decem­ber as a result of con­t­a­m­i­na­tion relat­ed to oil oper­a­tions in the area, and that a state of emer­gency announced by Envi­ron­ment Min­is­ter Manuel Pul­gar-Vidal in Octo­ber for the Cor­ri­entes Val­ley, call­ing for spe­cial mon­i­tor­ing, is going unen­forced. The Envi­ron­ment Min­istry in Novem­ber took the rare step of fin­ing Plus­petrol $7 mil­lion for con­t­a­m­i­na­tion to the Lore­to rain­for­est. (Servin­di, Jan. 11; La Región, Lore­to, Jan. 8; Mar­iátegui blog, Jan. 7; La Región, Dec. 20; AP, Nov. 27)

Australian Anti-Logging Blockade Enters Second Day

tripod-stony-creek12th Decem­ber For the sec­ond day 40 con­ser­va­tion­ists have main­tained a for­est protest action at Stony Creek in East Gipp­s­land. Police Search and Res­cue arrived at the site this after­noon.

tripod-stony-creek12th Decem­ber For the sec­ond day 40 con­ser­va­tion­ists have main­tained a for­est protest action at Stony Creek in East Gipp­s­land. Police Search and Res­cue arrived at the site this after­noon. They pro­ceed­ed to tie-off cables con­nect­ed to the tree sit, to release the log­ging machin­ery. Police climbed the tree-sitter’s tree, remov­ing the plat­form and the protester’s per­son­al belong­ings, includ­ing blan­kets, food and water. The tree-sit­ter remains perched on branch­es at the top of the tree. Two peo­ple are still  at the top of tripods on the road, con­tin­u­ing to block access to log trucks. Log­ging con­trac­tors have began felling trees with­in the log­ging coupe.

“The com­mit­ment of these ded­i­cat­ed peo­ple, will­ing to face arrest or dif­fi­cult con­di­tions in the tree-tops, demon­strates their resolve to see our  forests and endan­gered wildlife pro­tect­ed for the future” said Miran­da Gib­son, spokesper­son for Still Wild Still Threat­ened.

“The destruc­tion of forests that are home to threat­ened wildlife dis­plays repeat­ed dis­re­gard for the  the government’s own sci­en­tists and is an afront to the tax-pay­er who foots the bill. ” said David Cald­well, Goonger­ah Envi­ron­ment Cen­tre (GECO).

Maya People of Sipacapa Issue International Call for Solidarity

11th Dec The Maya Peo­ple of Sipaca­pa issued an inter­na­tion­al appeal for sol­i­dar­i­ty this past week­end, in the midst of ongo­ing protests against Gold­corp Inc.’s min­ing activ­i­ties in San Mar­cos, Guatemala.

11th Dec The Maya Peo­ple of Sipaca­pa issued an inter­na­tion­al appeal for sol­i­dar­i­ty this past week­end, in the midst of ongo­ing protests against Gold­corp Inc.’s min­ing activ­i­ties in San Mar­cos, Guatemala.

The Maya began protest­ing with campesino com­mu­ni­ties on Decem­ber 4,2013, set­ting up two sep­a­rate block­ades on the Inter-Amer­i­can High­way — at Kilo­me­ter 170 in San­ta Cata­ri­na Ixtahuacán, Sololá and Kilo­me­ter 242 near Pajapi­ta, San Mar­cos.

Accord­ing to the appeal, issued by The Mayan Coun­cil Of Sipaca­pa on Decem­ber 7, Gold­corp and its sub­sidiary EntreMares de Guatemala are vio­lat­ing a com­mu­ni­ty deci­sion to reject any min­ing exploita­tion in Sipaca­pa.

The Maya are now demand­ing the with­draw­al of both the company’s per­son­nel and its machin­ery from Sipaca­pa, and request­ing ”that cen­tral gov­ern­ment author­i­ties respect the com­mu­ni­ty con­sul­ta­tion car­ried out in 2005.”

They are fur­ther demand­ing an end to any ongo­ing efforts to force them to accept the new mine as well as the pres­ence of var­i­ous gov­ern­ment offi­cials “To resolve this issue, since the only thing we seek is peace”, state the Maya Peo­ple of Sipaca­pa, adding, “The pres­ence of the mine is caus­ing social con­flict, on a fam­i­ly lev­el and on a com­mu­ni­ty lev­el, and it is destroy­ing our social har­mo­ny.”

In addi­tion to their demands, the Maya Peo­ple Of Sipaca­pa are ask­ing “our sis­ters and broth­ers from oth­er nations to accom­pa­ny us in this strug­gle which [is] in ben­e­fit of all.”

Below, please find the Decem­ber 7 Appeal from the The Peo­ple Of Sipaca­pa, in Eng­lish and Span­ish. Eng­lish trans­la­tion by Rights Action.

The Peo­ple Of Sipaca­pa, Via The Mayan Coun­cil Of Sipaca­pa, Informs:

  • To all sis­ter­ly and broth­er­ly peo­ples, nation­al and inter­na­tion­al author­i­ties, nation­al and inter­na­tion­al social and human rights orga­ni­za­tions;
  • To the Min­istry of Ener­gy and Mines, the Min­istry of the Envi­ron­ment and Nat­ur­al Resources, the Min­istry of the Inte­ri­or; and
  • To EntreMares (Gold­corp Inc.):

Sipaca­pa Already Said No To Min­ing Exploita­tion.

“Sipaca­pa Is Not For Sale”

In 2005, the pop­u­la­tion firm­ly reject­ed min­ing explo­ration and exploita­tion in its ter­ri­to­ry, as was doc­u­ment­ed in the acts of the com­mu­ni­ty con­sul­ta­tion car­ried out in good faith on June 18, 2005 in each com­mu­ni­ty of the munic­i­pal­i­ty.

Since that time, the com­mu­ni­ty has con­tin­ued to defend that posi­tion. The pop­u­la­tion does not want its land destroyed by metal­lic min­ing, which only leads to social con­t­a­m­i­na­tion (con­flict), envi­ron­men­tal con­t­a­m­i­na­tion, health prob­lems, dete­ri­o­ra­tion of wildlife and eco­nom­ic injus­tice, as we see in the sis­ter munic­i­pal­i­ty of San Miguel Ixtahuacán, depart­ment of San Mar­cos.

Nev­er­the­less, on April 30, 2012, the Min­istry of Ener­gy and Mines – through its gen­er­al direc­tor of min­ing – issued a min­ing explo­ration license to the com­pa­ny EntreMares de Guatemala (owned by Gold­corp Inc.), called the “Chocoyos” license, to exploit gold, sil­ver, nick­el, cobalt, chromi­um, cop­per, lead, zinc anti­mo­ny and rare earth ele­ments in an area of 23 square kilo­me­ters.

For these rea­sons, we have been protest­ing peace­ful­ly since Decem­ber 4, 2013, to reject the pres­ence of explo­ration machin­ery and per­son­nel from EntreMares/ Gold­corp. We demand the with­draw­al of this machin­ery and the com­pa­ny per­son­nel from the ter­ri­to­ry of Sipaca­pa, and request that cen­tral gov­ern­ment author­i­ties respect the com­mu­ni­ty con­sul­ta­tion car­ried out in 2005.

We request and demand that they cease to force us to accept the pres­ence of the EntreMares/ Gold­corp mine in Sipaca­pa. We con­tin­ue to be intim­i­dat­ed by the pres­ence of the Nation­al Civil­ian Police.

We also demand the pres­ence of the depart­men­tal gov­er­nor, the direc­tor of Ener­gy and Mines, the Min­is­ter of Ener­gy and Mines and the Human Rights Pros­e­cu­tor. We request their pres­ence in our munic­i­pal­i­ty to resolve this issue, since the only thing we seek is peace. The pres­ence of the mine is caus­ing social con­flict, on a fam­i­ly lev­el and on a com­mu­ni­ty lev­el, and it is destroy­ing our social har­mo­ny.

We ask our sis­ters and broth­ers from oth­er nations to accom­pa­ny us in this strug­gle which in ben­e­fit of all. Munic­i­pal author­i­ties should not be pro­mot­ing destruc­tive projects.

Munic­i­pal­i­ty of Sipaca­pa, San Mar­cos

Decem­ber 7, 2013

URGENT: Q’eqchi Leaders Attacked with Machetes on Eve of Megadam Construction

August, 2013 funeral for two Q'eqchi children killed in an assassination attempt against an opponent of Hidro Santa Rita's planned dam on Guatemala's Dolores River10th Dec From

August, 2013 funeral for two Q'eqchi children killed in an assassination attempt against an opponent of Hidro Santa Rita's planned dam on Guatemala's Dolores River10th Dec From Guatemala Sol­i­dar­i­ty Project:

Four lead­ers of the Q’eqchi com­mu­ni­ty Monte Oli­vo were attacked and severe­ly injured with machetes by employ­ees of the San­ta Rita hydro­elec­tric com­pa­ny who also car­ried firearms. Police were called but refused to arrest the attack­ers. On Wednes­day the com­pa­ny plans to begin con­struc­tion of a hydro­elec­tric dam that would flood com­mu­ni­ties and destroy the local ecosys­tem. The dam is being con­struct­ed in vio­la­tion of nation­al and inter­na­tion­al law which require con­sul­ta­tion of the com­mu­ni­ties, which strong­ly oppose the project. In August the com­mu­ni­ty was also attacked and two chil­dren were killed in ret­ri­bu­tion to human rights com­plaints filed by the com­mu­ni­ty.

We are extreme­ly con­cerned that fur­ther vio­lence will occur this week in sup­port of the ille­gal dam. The GSP con­demns the attack and calls for the imme­di­ate arrest of those respon­si­ble, includ­ing the intel­lec­tu­al authors of the attack. The GSP calls for the sus­pen­sion of con­struc­tion and imme­di­ate can­cel­la­tion of the ship­ment of machin­ery to the region.

Take Action

1 Call Edgar Vil­lanue­va at the Gutemalan Embassy in the Unit­ed States at (202) 745‑4953 or (202) 745‑3873 and demand the imme­di­ate arrest of those respon­si­ble, includ­ing the intel­lec­tu­al authors of the attack. Also ask for sus­pen­sion of con­struc­tion and imme­di­ate can­cel­la­tion of the ship­ment of machin­ery to the region.

2 Sign our new peti­tion call­ing for jus­tice for Saquimo Setana, a Q’eqchi com­mu­ni­ty locat­ed near­by Monte Oli­vo which has also par­tic­i­pat­ed in mobi­liz­ing against the dam.

3. Sup­port our part­ners through a con­tri­bu­tion to the Guatemala Sol­i­dar­i­ty Project. We are a vol­un­teer run orga­ni­za­tion and all funds go to our part­ners in Guatemala. The best way to donate is to send a check to our fis­cal spon­sor, “UPAVIM Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment Foun­da­tion” to UPAVIM, PO Box 63, Marsh­field, VT 05658. Please write “GSP” in the notes/memo sec­tion of the check. Or donate online by vis­it­ing http://www.upavim.or/donate Click on the yel­low donate but­ton, then YOU MUST WRITE ‘Guatemala Sol­i­dar­i­ty Project’ for the pur­pose. We thank our fis­cal spon­sor UPAVIM for help­ing us ensure that your con­tri­bu­tions are tax deductible and that all funds (oth­er than bank trans­ac­tion) go to our part­ners in Guatemala.

Algonquins Erect Land Protection Camp within Wildlife Reserve, Stop Illegal Logging

1453293_10152090539047387_1242693521_n 10th Decem­ber  This past Spring, Quebec’s Min­istry of Nat­ur­al Resources—without mean­ing­ful­ly con­sult­ing the Algo­nquins of Barr

1453293_10152090539047387_1242693521_n 10th Decem­ber  This past Spring, Quebec’s Min­istry of Nat­ur­al Resources—without mean­ing­ful­ly con­sult­ing the Algo­nquins of Bar­riere Lake—issued per­mits for the 2013–14 oper­at­ing year to Res­olute For­est Prod­ucts and oth­er large log­ging com­pa­nies who have sub­se­quent­ly clear-cut vast tracts of the for­est this past sum­mer and fall, up to last week, when the Algo­nquins stopped the unau­tho­rized log­ging, which has been tak­ing place in vio­la­tion of signed Agree­ments with the First Nation.

Res­olute For­est Prod­ucts and oth­er log­ging com­pa­nies have already dam­aged many sen­si­tive area sites on the Bar­riere Lake Tri­lat­er­al Agree­ment Ter­ri­to­ry, includ­ing sen­si­tive area sites which the Que­bec Min­istry of Nat­ur­al Resources and the log­ging com­pa­nies know to be of par­tic­u­lar cul­tur­al and eco­log­i­cal impor­tance.

Today the Algo­nquins have erect­ed a Land Pro­tec­tion camp with­in the La Verendrye Wildlife Reserve at the Poigan sec­tor, to stop unau­tho­rized log­ging from dam­ag­ing Algo­nquin cul­tur­al sites and crit­i­cal wildlife habi­tat until an already agreed upon Mea­sures to Har­mo­nize Process is re-estab­lished on an urgent basis. The Algo­nquins of Bar­riere Lake are demand­ing that the Que­bec gov­ern­ment:

  • Coop­er­ate in a mea­sures to har­mo­nize process to iden­ti­fy and pro­tect cul­tur­al and eco­log­i­cal sites.
  • Hon­our the 1991 land­mark Bar­riere Lake Tri­lat­er­al Agree­ment and relat­ed 1998 Agree­ment with Que­bec on Co-Man­age­ment and Resource Rev­enue Shar­ing among oth­er issues.

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Bullying tactics drive Penan to abandon dam blockade

The abandoned Long Singu longhouse last week after the government rushed through the Penan's move to the unfinished relocation site. 9th Dec Mem­bers of the

The abandoned Long Singu longhouse last week after the government rushed through the Penan's move to the unfinished relocation site. 9th Dec Mem­bers of the Penan tribe from the Malaysian state of Sarawak have bowed to over­whelm­ing pres­sure and aban­doned their 77-day protest against the Murum dam.

Faced with ris­ing waters approach­ing their vil­lages, lack of food at the protest site and the announce­ment that the bridges that led to their vil­lages were going to be dis­man­tled, the Penan felt they had no choice but to halt their block­ade and accept the move to a new gov­ern­ment reset­tle­ment site.

When asked why they had agreed to move one Penan man said, ‘ The water is already very close to our vil­lage. It’s very high’. A local activist told Sur­vival, ‘They went with a very heavy heart, they are not hap­py’.

As part of the agree­ment the Penan were promised a fur­ther RM8000 (approx­i­mate­ly US$2,500) com­pen­sa­tion, tak­ing the total com­pen­sa­tion per fam­i­ly to just over US$7,000. How­ev­er, their oth­er demands includ­ing, cru­cial­ly, the need for more land for plant­i­ng and for­est for hunt­ing and gath­er­ing, have been ignored.

The Penan rely on hunting and gathering in their forests to survive.

The for­est is cru­cial for the Penan. Even the government’s own stud­ies showed that the Murum Penan rely on the for­est for 75% of their sus­te­nance. With­out more for­est it’s hard to see how the Penan will sur­vive in the relo­ca­tion site.

Despite being pres­sured to move, the build­ing of the new site is not yet fin­ished. Two of the long­hous­es are still being worked on. Water sup­plies have not been con­nect­ed; the promised school and clin­ic have not been built and the road con­nect­ing the vil­lages is not com­plet­ed.

The impound­ment (flood­ing) of the dam before all the affect­ed fam­i­lies had agreed to move has caused world­wide out­rage. Despite promis­es from the Sarawak gov­ern­ment that the relo­ca­tion process would meet inter­na­tion­al stan­dards the Penan were not prop­er­ly con­sult­ed and the relo­ca­tion process was shroud­ed in secre­cy.

Sur­vival was told, ‘Peo­ple believed that it would be dif­fer­ent this time, but it has shown to be lies. The gov­ern­ment nev­er took their demands into con­sid­er­a­tion’.

The lawyer act­ing for the Penan has promised that despite this move the Penan will still protest and will con­tin­ue to push for jus­tice in the courts.

Ecuador Bans Environmental Group

ecuador indigenous woman faces police 8th Dec The

ecuador indigenous woman faces police 8th Dec The crim­i­nal­iza­tion of Ecuador’s indige­nous and envi­ron­men­tal move­ments con­tin­ues, as the Cor­rea gov­ern­ment pri­or­i­tizes extrac­tion at all costs. From World War 4 Report:

Ecuador’s gov­ern­ment ordered closed the envi­ron­men­tal­ist Fun­dación Pachama­ma Dec. 4, with the Inte­ri­or Min­istry say­ing it was “affect­ing the pub­lic peace.” The Envi­ron­ment Min­istry issued its own state­ment accus­ing of the orga­ni­za­tion of “inter­fer­ence in pub­lic pol­i­cy.” Plain­clothes police were sent to seal off the group’s offices in the morn­ing. The action stemmed from the pre­vi­ous week’s protests at the XI Round for sell­ing oil leas­es in the Ecuadroan Ama­zon. Pres­i­dent Rafael Cor­rea accused Pachama­ma and anoth­er group, Yasunidos, of attack­ing the Chilean ambas­sador, Juan Pablo Lira. Pachama­ma denies the alle­ga­tions, say­ing its mem­bers were not even present at the protest in front of the Hydro­car­bons Min­istry. Fun­dación Pachama­ma plans to appeal the government’s deci­sion.

“The real rea­son the gov­ern­ment has tar­get­ed Fun­dación Pachama­ma is because of the effec­tive­ness of their work,” said Bill Twist of the Pachama­ma Alliance, the group’s sib­ling orga­ni­za­tion based in San Fran­cis­co.  ”This is an attempt to keep them from doing their work, and chill their rights to free speech and assem­bly.”

Yasunidos is a group that is col­lect­ing sig­na­tures to demand a ref­er­en­dum on devel­op­ment of the Ish­pin­go-Tam­bo­cocha-Tipu­ti­ni oil bloc, locat­ed with­in Yasuni Nation­al Park. State com­pa­ny Petroa­ma­zonas is set to begin devel­op­ing the ITT bloc in 2014, and is seek­ing pri­vate part­ners for pro­duc­tion in the zone.

In June, the Cor­rea admin­is­tra­tion issued a Exec­u­tive Decree 16, instat­ing new strin­gent pro­ce­dures for NGOs to obtain legal sta­tus. Human Rights Watch, protest­ing the clo­sure of Fun­dación Pachama­ma, said the group was the “first vic­tim” of the decree, which it charged “con­tra­venes the rights of free expres­sion and asso­ci­a­tion.”

In a state­ment, Fun­dación Pachama­ma accused the Cor­rea gov­ern­ment of vio­lat­ing its own con­sti­tu­tion: “We have the right to dis­sent the deci­sion of the author­i­ties, the process that has been imple­ment­ed and alter­na­tive­ly pro­pose that the oil remain under­ground to pre­serve one of the great­est rich­es of our coun­try, its cul­tur­al and bio­log­i­cal diver­si­ty. The cur­rent Con­sti­tu­tion oblig­es the gov­ern­ment to find a new devel­op­ment mod­el that respects our country’s Pluri-nation­al­i­ty, Human Rights, Rights of Nature and ‘Sumak Kawsay’ or ‘Liv­ing For­est.’… We believe it is ille­git­i­mate to imple­ment process­es affect­ing indige­nous ter­ri­to­ries and not include the pres­i­dents of indige­nous nation­al­i­ties and peo­ples…”

The state­ment also said the group “extends sol­i­dar­i­ty” to the Devel­op­ment Coun­cil of the Nation­al­i­ties and Peo­ples of Ecuador (CODENPE), offi­cial­ly empow­ered to con­sult on issues affect­ing indige­nous peo­ples. (Rebe­lión, Dec. 7; EFE via Ecuavisa, Dec. 6; Pachama­ma Alliance press releas­es via Sacra­men­to Bee, Dec. 5, UDW, Dec. 4; WSJ, Dec. 4)

Ecuador’s 2008 con­sti­tu­tion includes pro­vi­sions for con­sul­ta­tion with indige­nous peo­ples on devel­op­ment issues, but the Cor­rea gov­ern­ment has been repeat­ed­ly accused of vio­lat­ing these mea­sures. The con­sti­tu­tion­al prin­ci­ple of Sumak Kawsay, usu­al­ly ren­dered Vivir Bien or Good Liv­ing, is a phrase adopt­ed from Ecuador’s indige­nous move­ment.

Partial Success for Mi’kmaq: SWN Pulls Out (Till 2015?)

Burning tires form a blockade against pre-fracking seismic testing in Mi'kmaq territory, Dec 3, 2013 6th Dec

Burning tires form a blockade against pre-fracking seismic testing in Mi'kmaq territory, Dec 3, 2013 6th Dec

ELSIPGOTG FIRST NATION, NB–A Hous­ton-based ener­gy com­pa­ny that has faced fero­cious resis­tance from a Mi’kmaq-led coali­tion is end­ing its shale gas explo­ration work for the year, says Elsi­pog­tog War Chief John Levi.

Levi said Fri­day that the RCMP informed him that SWN Resources Cana­da is end­ing its explo­ration work, but will return in 2015.

Levi said SWN and its con­trac­tors would be pick­ing up geo­phones from the side of the high­way today. Geo­phones inter­act with thumper trucks to cre­ate imag­ing of shale gas deposits under­ground.

“They are just going to be pick­ing up their gear today,” said Levi. “At least peo­ple can take a break for Christ­mas.”

Demon­stra­tions against the com­pa­ny esca­lat­ed this week. Demon­stra­tors twice burned tires on Hwy 11 which was the area where SWN was con­duct­ing its shale gas explo­ration.

SWN said in a state­ment late Fri­day after­noon that it had com­plet­ed its “seis­mic acqui­si­tions pro­gram in New Brunswick.”

The com­pa­ny, how­ev­er, was silent on its future time­line for return­ing. [empha­sis added ‑Ed.]

SWN obtained an exten­sion to an injunc­tion against the demon­stra­tors Mon­day after argu­ing it need­ed two more weeks to fin­ish its work. In its court fil­ing, SWN claimed it need­ed about 25 km left to explore.

Levi said the Mi’kmaq com­mu­ni­ty, which sits about 80 km north of Monc­ton, will be there again in 2015 to oppose the com­pa­ny. Levi said SWN will be return­ing to con­duct explorato­ry drilling.

“We can’t allow any drilling, we didn’t allow them to do the test­ing from the begin­ning,” said Levi.

Levi said word that SWN is leav­ing is no cause for cel­e­bra­tion just yet.

“We went through a lot,” he said. “We need some time for this to sink in and think about every­thing, think about what we went through…People did a lot of sac­ri­fic­ing.”