Peru: Indigenous languages recognised! ONLY 500 YEARS LATER!

AIDESEP, June 15, 2011.

The Peruvian Congress has approved the Law for the preservation and use of indigneous languages, a measure proposed by Congresswoman Maria Sumire, who noted that this decision is part of the United Nations Declaration in the sense that indigneous peoples have the right the full enjoyment of all fundamental freedoms recognized by the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

To refute the comments of the Executive, Congresswoman Sumire said it was required that public administration had to communicate in more than 80 native languages exist as in Article 2, of opinion, there is a declaration of interest national use, preservation, development, recovery, development and dissemination of indigenous languages in the country.

She argued that the law of preservation and use of indigneous languages provides that any person is entitled to their ethnic and cultural identity and stressed that this debate comes at a very special month as it celebrates farmer’s day and in the city of Cusco, capital of the empire of the Incas the festival of Inti Raymi,

The LAW is INCLUSIVE , supporting not only men and women from the Quechua nationality, but also Aymara and Amazonian peoples

see more stories here

http://another-green-world.blogspot.com/2011/06/new-victory-for-amazon-indigenous-as.html

Peru Revokes Permit for Giant Dam on Amazon Tributary

Environment News Service

After years of community opposition, a 2,000 megawatt dam planned for construction on a major Amazonian tributary, has been cancelled, the government of Peru announced Tuesday. The dam was to have been built across the Inambari River in Madre de Dios province.

For the past 36 days, some 2,000 people in the Puno area blocked access roads to the region and held mass protests to convince the government to cancel mining concessions and the dam project.

To appease the strikers, the government established a high-level commission to review the Inambari dam.

After a tense meeting with local communities on June 13, Commission Chair and Vice-Minister of Energy Luis Gonzales Talledo cancelled the project, stating that the Brazilian EGASUR consortium’s rights to develop the project had been revoked.

“Although this resolution does not prevent the construction of all dams in the Inambari Basin, it is very important because it clearly cancels EGASUR’s participation,” said Aldo Santos, from the local nongovernmental organization Rural Educational Services, or SER.

“The resolution states that all future proposed projects must be subjected to prior consultation with local communities according to ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, which is an important precedent,” said Santos.

Affected communities have long opposed the Inambari Dam, which would have flooded 410 square kilometers of forest, including part of the Bahujan Sonene National Park buffer zone.

http://www.amazonrainforestnews.com/2011/06/peru-revokes-permit-for-giant-dam-on.html

Belo Monte : death threats for Indigenous resistance

Indigenous leaders threatened with death

Indigenous leaders, community members, rural workers and members of social

movements are receiving death threats because of their opposition to the Belo

Monte Dam Complex on the Xingu River in Pará, Brazil.

The threats, which have been going on for some time now, are adding to an

extremely tense situation which has only worsened […]

Continue Reading:

http://intercontinentalcry.org/indigenous-leaders-suffer-death-threats-because-they-resist-the-belo-monte-dam/

Brazil: LAST STAND FOR THE XINGU

Filed under: climate change, ecology, save the planet, solidarity, Stop State and Capitalist criminals by thefreeorg —

June 5, 2011

Amazon Watch has organized a “Cause” at Facebook:

“This has been a time of tragedy in the Amazon. This week the Brazilian government green-lighted construction on the monstrous Belo Monte Dam despite searing local, national and international opposition.

Yet despite the initiation of this criminal operation, I can assure you that the battle to defend the Xingu River and its people is far from over. “I have just returned from the Brazilian Amazon, where Chief Raoni gathered with hundreds of Kayapo warriors, indigenous leaders from 18 ethnicities, and leaders from the Xingu Alive Forever Movement (MXVPS).

“This is the last chance we have to paralyze Belo Monte’s construction,” Renata Pinheiro told the indigenous assembly. “The future of the Xingu is in your hands, indigenous peoples and social movements. You succeeded in stopping Belo Monte for 30 years – now more than ever we need to strengthen our resolve, joining forces to stop the beginning of construction.”

Amazonia: Dinho, Claudio and Maria murdered!.Forest criminals to be amnestied!

Filed under: climate change, crooks and liars, permaculture, save the planet, Stop State and Capitalist criminals by thefreeorg — 1 Comment

May 29, 2011

SLAUGHTERING THE AMAZON.. With the new Forest Law and amnesty for Forest crimes the ranchers and loggers are taking their opportunity by terrorist murders. Their business is the destruction of the Amazon, now with more impunity, to satisfy the demands of criminal capitalist transnationals like Burger King and MacDonalds.

Adelino Ramos was killed for openly confronting the beef and timber mafia. Shot to death by cowardly bastards at his street stall while selling his forest produce. He was a famous ex leader of the Movimiento Campesino Corumbiara and had survived a fascist massacre a decade ago. Un motociclista lo mató a tiros en Rondonia, norte del país.

Just 3 days before they got José Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espírito Santo da Silva, shooting her first and cutting off her ears. Claudio and Maria were outspoken forest defenders and cultivated Amazon produce.

At the time of murder Adelino, or ‘Dinho’, was busy setting up a camp for people displaced by the wholesale massacre of the forest. He had been repeatedly threatened and recently denounced the escalating forest destruction in Acre, Amazonas y Rondonia states.

El debate sobre la explotación del Amazonas ha tomado gran vuelo en Brasil después de que en una semana se siguieran dos noticias contradictorias: la publicación de un alarmante aumento de los niveles de deforestación, y la aprobación en la noche del martes, por aplastante mayoría en el parlamento, de una reforma del Código Forestal brasileño que establece una amnistía general para todos aquellos que incurrieron en delitos contra la vegetación hasta 2008.

In just a few days we have the news of a seven fold increase in deforestation, the disgraceful passing of the new Forest Law (see other posts) by fascist landlords allied with greedy corrupt politicians, companies, and media, the go ahead and 1st contracts for the Belo Monte dam, and the signing of deals to let BP, of all companies, exploit the ultra deep oil bonanza near Rio.

International resistance has failed miserably despite the best efforts of Avaaz and Greenpeace. Resistance needs to be informed and intelligent, or it plays into the hands of nationalists who argue that ‘rich parasitic 1st Worlders have no right to lecture us after decimating their own forests, etc’.

June 12th ,,Majority against Forest Sellout. see post here

https://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/2011/06/12/most-brazilians-reject-forest-destruction-law-2/

Peru: Exit polls suggest Humala victory!

Humala supporters celebrate in Lima (5 June 2011)

Exit polls in Peru’s presidential election indicate leftist Ollanta Humala has a narrow lead over right-winger Keiko Fujimori in the run-off.

The polls suggested a lead of about 5% for Mr Humala, a one-time ally of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.

Ms Fujimori is the daughter of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori.

The two candidates are at opposite ends of the political spectrum – a fact that worried some Peruvians who said they would not vote for either of

Peru: Gold rush destroys 6 times more forest.

The greedy capitalists who caused the last economic crash then put their cash in gold. Causing the price to soar to crazy levels and triggering new gold rushes, with tragic consequences for the miners and the environment.

The rising price of gold has multiplied by six the pace of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in the Peruvian region of Madre de Dios in recent years. Swenson said. “Given the rate of recent increases, we project mercury imports will more than double by the end of 2011, to about 500 tons a year,” she said.

The highly poisonous metal is used by poor gold-diggers to wash gold off rock and sand. It is not only harmful to the health of those who handle it, but it also pollutes the region’s rivers and air. Mercury also gets into the food chain and harms local indigenous communities and even those that live further away.

Once the gold searchers are done, they leave behind a desert landscape that is poisoned by mercury. Peruvian Environment Minister Antonio Brack said gold-diggers have already destroyed 32,000 hectares of rainforest in Madre de Dios. In March, a large joint operation by police and the military targeted tens of thousands of gold searchers, and 32 floating dredges were seized, Brack said. The minister said he was sorry about the death of two prospectors during the raid, although he stressed that the use of force had been justified in the face of an “environmental tragedy.” However, the problem is far from solved. Police assume that at least 250 floating dredges are in use in the region. According to Brack, it will take at least five years to get those searching for gold to leave. And yet poverty in Peru continues to push more and more people into searching for gold, as well as into other equally illegal activities like logging or settling in the rainforest.

There are other factors at work. Climate change in the Andes is already affecting small farming communities, forcing them to adapt or move elsewhere.

The near completion of the Inter-Oceanic Highway, which cuts a swathe straight through this once inaccessible part of the Peruvian Amazon, will lead to migration on an unprecedented scale.

The road, which will link Pacific ports in southern Peru to the Atlantic coast in Brazil, could well become the greatest factor in the environmental degradation of this once pristine pocket of biodiversity.

Final go ahead for Belo Monte. Amazon Tragedy.

Brazil Green Lights Controversial Amazon Dam

June 1, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

IBAMA authorizes installation of Belo Monte Dam Complex despite escalating local, national and international opposition

Brasília, Brazil – The Brazilian government has issued the full installation license allowing the Belo Monte Dam Complex to break ground on the Amazon’s Xingu River despite egregious disregard for human rights and environmental legislation, the unwavering protests of civil society, condemnations by its Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) and the request for precautionary measures by the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The license was granted by Brazil’s environmental agency IBAMA despite overwhelming evidence that the dam-building consortium Norte Energia (NESA) has failed to comply with dozens of social and environmental conditions required for an installation license.

The risky $17 billion Belo Monte Dam Complex will divert nearly the entire flow of the Xingu River along a 62-mile stretch. Its reservoirs will flood more than 120,000 acres of rainforest and local settlements, displace more than 40,000 people and generate vast quantities of methane – a greenhouse gas at least 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

The installation license will allow for NESA to open access roads, initiate forest clearing at dam construction sites encompassing some 2,118 acres, and begin construction on the complex immediately. It also instigates publically subsidized funding from Brazil’s National Development Bank (BNDES) to finance 80 percent of the project’s spiraling costs. The bank has come under increasing scrutiny from the Public Prosecutor’s office and civil society due to alarming evidence that approval is based on political grounds, often downplaying problems of economic viability and compliance with social and environmental safeguards.

“This is a tragic day for the Amazon,” said Atossa Soltani, Executive Director at Amazon Watch. “By turning a blind eye toward the tragic consequences of this dam, President Dilma Rouseff is undermining the positive environmental and social advances Brazil has made in recent years and miring its image on the global stage just as it prepares to host the UN Rio+20 Earth Summit next year.”

June 2. Action solidarity day for Copola, Oaxaca.

We summon all in their respective countries to a day of mobilization and action on June 2nd, 2011, or on any and all of the next 10 days:

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE AUTONOMOUS MUNICIPALITY OF San Juan Copola,MEXICO

Organize demonstrations or telephone calls at Mexican embassies and consulates in different countries, or any other action that with your creativity or possibilities you can carry out to exert pressure on the Mexican government as a show of international solidarity with the Triqui nation and in defense of its autonomy.

The demands of the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala are:

THE RETURN OF THE DISPLACED TO THEIR TERRITORY.

JUSTICE AND PUNISHMENT TO THOSE RESPONSIBLE (PHYSICALLY AND INTELLECTUALLY) FOR THE MURDERS OF MORE THAN 30 COMMUNITY MEMBERS (AMONG THEM CHILDREN, WOMEN AND TRADITIONAL LEADERS).