Thousands of migrants continue to be killed or kidnapped each year as they try to cross Mexico to the US; activists say Mexican officials are involved in some of the crimes.
Some 1,000 people turned out for the funeral of three activists found murdered five days after they disappeared following a protest.
Indigenous protests heat up as another Terena protester is shot while trying to occupy lands the Terena say are their territory; tensions continue over the Monte Belo Dam.
Greenpeace activists carried out a banner drop to dramatize the threat Barrick Gold’s open-pit mining poses to a biosphere reserve in the western province of San Juan.
Campesinos are protesting three dams planned for the area where they live; meanwhile, the indigenous Ngöbe Buglé are still fighting a dam being built in their territory.
An indigenous woman pointing to her land expropriated for a copper project at Tintaya village, Cuzco. Recent statements from the Peruvian government do not bode well for implementation of Peru’s new Indigenous Peoples Consultation Law. President Ollanta Humala contends that “there are… Read morePeru backslides on indigenous rights
by Emily Greenspan, Oxfam America
Recent statements from the Peruvian government do not bode well for implementation of Peru's new Indigenous Peoples Consultation Law (Consultation Law). The landmark law, passed in 2011 and now being implemented, requires the Peruvian government to consult indigenous peoples affected directly by development policies and projects such as oil drilling, mining, roads and forestry. Consultations must aim to achieve agreement or consent. If implemented effectively, the law could help reduce the number of violent conflicts that frequently emerge in the country’s oil and mining industries.
However, last month Peru's Vice Minister of Culture Ivan Lanegra—responsible for overseeing implementation of Peru's Consultation Law—resigned in protest following Executive branch declarations that highland (or campesina) communities do not qualify as indigenous peoples. At the same time, the Peruvian government announced that it will proceed with 14 mining projects located in the Peruvian highlands without prior consultation with neighboring communities.
Continue ReadingPERU BACKSLIDES ON INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
