The Amazon
Guyana: miners win ruling over indigenous groups
A judge in Guyana's high court ruled that indigenous groups do not have the right to expel legally titled miners from their traditional lands, sparking protests.
Tag: informal mining
The Andes
Peru: miners block Pan-American Highway
Informal miners in Peru’s Arequipa region declared an open-ended civil strike, blocking the Pan-American Highway at various points before being cleared by the National Police.
The Amazon
Brazil: Amazon native killed by federal police
A Munduruku indigenous man was killed in a gunfight with Brazilian federal police at a remote Amazonian settlement, in a conflict over outlaw gold-mining in the area.
The Andes
Peru: campesino alliance with ‘illegal’ miners
At a summit in Peru's southern Puno region, artisanal miners leader Tankar Rau Rau Amaru and Aymara campesino leader Walter Aduviri pledged unity against corporate designs.
The Andes
Peru: narco-mineral integration
The US Justice Department has frozen the assets of mineral companies owned by Peru’s Sánchez-Paredes family, finding that they are fronts for cocaine trafficking.
Peru: court rules for indigenous sovereignty
Peru’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of an indigenous rainforest community seeking to bar a road that illegal miners and timber cutters want to build through their territory.
The Amazon
OAS rights body presses for truth in Yanomami massacre claims
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights urged Venezuelan authorities “to conduct a thorough investigation” into claims of a massacre at a remote Yanomami setlement.
The Amazon
Venezuelan authorities deny Yanomami massacre
Venezuelan officials investigating the reported massacre of an isolated Yanomami community say they found no evidence of the attack—a claim dismissed by indigenous advocates.
The Amazon
Venezuela: Yanomami massacred by outlaw miners
Venezuelan authorities pledge to investigate breaking reports that outlaw miners comitted a “massacre” of an isolated Yanomami indigenous community on the Brazilian border.
The Amazon
Peru: Shining Path control outlaw gold operations?
After a new Shining Path attack left five soldiers dead in Peru’s jungle, anti-terrorism prosecutor Julio Galindo said the guerillas control illegal gold-mining operations.
The Andes
Colombia: war, illegal mining encroach on indigenous communities
Embera indigenous communities on Colombia’s Pacific coast came under bombardment by army helicopters, while an Awá community expelled illegal gold miners from their land.
The Andes
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Gilberto Valencia, a young Afro-Colombian cultural worker, became 2019's first casualty of political violence in Colombia, when a gunman opened fire on a New Years party he was attending in his village in Cauca region. As the death toll from around the country mounted over the following weeks, the UN Mission to Colombia warned President Iván Duque that he must address "the issue of the assassinations of social leaders and human rights defenders." Colombia's official rights watchdog, the Defensoría del Pueblo, acknowledges that there was an assassination on average every two days in the country last year—a total of 172, and a rise of more than 35% over 2017. (Photo via Caracol Radio)