by Vincent Ricci / Mongabay A court ruling in Ecuador allowing a community referendum on proposed mining projects could embolden communities across the country mounting similar opposition to mines. The ruling in favor of Cuenca, the capital of Azuay province and the […]
Continue readingCategory Archives: South America
BlackRock’s $400m Stake in Amazon Meatpackers Defies Sustainability Cred
by Fernanda Wenzel, Pedro Papini, and Naira Hofmeister / Mongabay Wall Street fund manager BlackRock administers 2.2 billion reais ($408 million) in shares in the three largest Brazilian meatpackers operating in the Amazon today. The cattle purchase and slaughter operations of JBS, […]
Continue readingFeminists Burn Human Rights Building in Mexico State Following Violent Eviction and Arrests
from / It’s Going Down Early Friday morning, police entered the building of the Human Rights Commission of Mexico State (CODHEM) in Ecatepec. The police evicted and beat the women who had taken over the building. The occupation of the building was […]
Continue readingThe Uprising in Colombia: “An Example of What Is to Come”
from CrimethInc The streets of several Colombian cities have erupted into conflict in the last two days in response to the brutal police murder of 43-year-old Javier Ordóñez, a lawyer and father of two in Bogotá, the nation’s capital. Ordóñez was peaceably […]
Continue readingFires Surge in the Amazon as Deforestation Slows
by Rhett Butler / Mongabay Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon was more than 20 percent lower for the second straight month relative to the prior year according to data released today by Brazil’s national space research institute INPE. But forest loss in […]
Continue readingEcuador Races for Emergency Infrastructure as River’s Collapse Threatens Dam
by Antonio José Paz Cardona / Mongabay The erosion has progressed at an accelerated rate and has reached other rivers, threatening a national highway and Indigenous communities. Studies commissioned by the Ecuadoran government call for emergency infrastructure to mitigate the erosion, which […]
Continue readingArmed Protesters Shut Down Peru Oilfield; Three Killed by Police
by Alex Emery / S&P Global Indigenous protests bought operations to a standstill at Peru’s largest oil field, PetroTal’s Block 95 in the northern Amazon rain forest, just days after a similar attack halted pumping at the state oil company’s North Peruvian […]
Continue readingLife as an Amazon Activist: a Profile of Juma Xipaya
by Peter Speetjens / Mongabay Socio-environmental activists are an endangered species in the Brazilian Amazon, with regularly occurring assassination-style killings like those of activists Chico Mendes in 1988 and Sister Dorothy Stang in 2005 creating an ongoing climate of fear. According to […]
Continue readingMiners Out, COVID-19 Out: The Yanomami and Ye’kwana People of the Brazilian Amazon Launch a Global Campaign to Expel Miners From Their Territory
by Amazon Watch Indigenous leaders demand the urgent removal of 20,000 illegal gold miners from their lands to prevent the spread of COVID-19 through their villages. The disease could infect up to 40% of Yanomami communities if wildcat mining remains, threatening a […]
Continue readingBrazil Opens 38,000 Square Miles of Indigenous Land to Outsiders
Announced as a big step forward, the new rules will greatly facilitate the takeover of unregistered ancestral Indigenous lands by landgrabbers, permitting use by loggers, cattle ranchers, soy growers, and other outsiders.
Continue reading