IPS Indigenous Peoples 18 March, 2010: ECUADOR: Native Leaders Call for Anti-Government Protests

The world’s indigenous peoples are making themselves heard in international arenas, and at the national level, where their growing mobilisation is translating into political muscle. But many challenges remain in the fight for recognition of all their rights.

ECUADOR: Native Leaders Call for Anti-Government Protests
 By Gonzalo Ortiz
QUITO (IPS) – “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” The words of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill after the 1942 defeat of Germany’s forces in Africa are an apt description of the situation between the government of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE).
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50629

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CLIMATE CHANGE: The U.N.’s Boys’ Club
 By Selina Rust
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s decision to appoint a 19-member, all-male high-level advisory group on Climate Change Financing (CCF) has triggered strong protests from women’s groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) outraged by the composition of the panel.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50712

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PERU: Suspension of Mining Operation Merely a Placebo
 By Milagros Salazar
LIMA (IPS) – Although the Peruvian government reported that it had suspended the exploration activities of the Afrodita mining company in the country’s northern Amazon jungle region to avoid further protests by local indigenous people, officials took no actual steps to bring the firm’s work to a halt.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50608

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VIETNAM: Salinisation, Drought Bring Worries to Mekong Delta
 By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam
MEKONG DELTA, Vietnam (IPS) – He has worked this land for half of 64 years and is known among his fellow farmers in Kien Giang province here in the Mekong Delta as ?lao nong?, or the old master of rice.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50705

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ECUADOR: Avatar Downfall a Blow for Indigenous Communities
 By Gonzalo Ortiz
QUITO (IPS) – Science fiction blockbuster Avatar was the big loser in the Oscar awards ceremony – not only a blow for director James Cameron but also seen as a symbolic reverse in the struggle to recover Amazon rainforest areas in Ecuador from the effects of oil pollution.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50610

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PERU: Relocating Entire Villages for Mines, Dams
 By Milagros Salazar
LIMA (IPS) – Hundreds of Peruvian communities were displaced as they fled the 1980-2000 civil war. Today the government is pushing for urgent passage of a law that would facilitate the relocation of entire villages or neighbourhoods in mineral or energy-rich areas.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50516

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CLIMATE CHANGE-BRAZIL: The Threat Posed by Livestock
 By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO (IPS) – The livestock industry has less economic clout than the oil industry, but ranchers say it has better arguments to defend itself from accusations regarding its share of responsibility for global warming.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50714

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RIGHTS: What Fish may do for Western Sahara
 By David Cronin
BRUSSELS (IPS) – Legal advice stating that European vessels have no justification to fish off Western Sahara – a territory occupied by Morocco – has provoked a row between the main political institutions in Brussels.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50474

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RIGHTS-PERU: No Justice for Indians in Amazon Massacre
 By Ángel Páez
LIMA (IPS) – Although the technical investigations cleared two of the indigenous demonstrators accused in the murders of 12 policemen during a bloody June 2009 clash between native protesters and the security forces near the northern Amazon jungle town of Bagua, they are still behind bars.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50398

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