Honduras’ Garifuna communities resist eviction and theft of land
By Jeff Abbott, Waging Nonviolence, August 3, 2015
Along the Atlantic coast of Honduras, Afro-Caribbean Garifuna communities are being forced from their land, as proposals for the creation of mega-tourism projects and corporate-run cities, commonly referred to as “model cities,” gain momentum internationally.
Congress is set to vote on one such plan this summer. Originally proposed by Vice President Joseph Biden in January, the plan would provide the governments of Central America $1 billion — on top of previously existing aid agreements — to bring further investment into the region. While the stated goal is to improve security and generate opportunity to combat the so-called root causes of illegal migration, Biden’s plan is essentially a continuation of the Central American Free Trade Agreement and Plan Mesoamerica and will only make it easier for multinational corporations to invest in more community-damaging mega-development projects throughout the region.
As critics have pointed out, the plans create negative blowback for the people of the region, including increased social conflict and environmental destruction.
“The United States government is funding our government to evict us,” said Angel Castro, a resident of the Garifuna community of Vallecito. “They are not here to support the people of African descent, let alone the people of Honduras.”
Brazil businessmen sentenced to 16 years over Petrobras scandal
Two former executives of Brazilian construction giant OAS have been sentenced to 16 years in jail for corruption.
Judge Sergio Moro in Brazil said former OAS president Jose Aldemario Pinheiro and Agenor Medeiros were involved in a major corruption scandal at the state-owned oil company, Petrobras.
Three other former OAS employees have been sentenced to shorter jail terms. The scandal broke last year, implicating senior politicians. Pinheiro and Medeiros were found guilty of bribing government officials, money laundering and conspiracy to commit crimes.
Peaceful Resistance Beats Back Large Scale Mining Project in Guatemala
By Jeff Abbott, Upside Down World, August 6, 2015
On July 15, a judge provided the non-violent resistance of La Puya one of their biggest victories in the 3 years of their struggle. Judge Angelica Noemi Tellez Hernandez ordered the suspension of all construction at the Progreso VII El Tambor, mining site owned by the United States mining firm Kappes, Cassidy, & Associates (KCA), near San Jose del Golfo.
The judge arrived at the decision quickly after hearing from community members from the peaceful resistance of La Puya, and from mining representatives.
The mining firm argued that they had obtained the proper permits for the construction, and that they had performed a community wide consultation on the project. But community members contested this claim. The judge agreed, and found that the mining firm had been operating illegally in their construction projects, and that there had never been a consultation of the mines neighbors, or of the surrounding communities.
In the declaration, the judge called for “The suspension of all activities of the construction of infrastructure at the site of the Progreso VII Mining Project, while [the firm] consults the neighboring communities” about the project. The Municipal Council of San Pedro Ayampuc was given 15 days to ensure that the operations at the site are ceased.
Yet the mining firm has refused to comply with the court's order, and continued to bring machinery to the mining site. This continuation has sparked new tensions at the La Puya encampment.
Photo essay: Brazil’s threatened tribe, damned by a dam
By Meagan Campbell, Maclean’s, July 25, 2015
The Kayapo tribe, living south of the Amazon basin in Brazil, is a reservoir of culture jeopardized by the reservoir of a dam. The Belo Monte Dam, the third-largest hydroelectric station in the world, will start surging next year, and one of its reservoirs could displace the 8,000 Kayapo people. The tribe’s chief is selling smaller plots to pay for lawyers and to fly himself to court—a $5,000 trip from hut to hearing.
Along with trying to protect the community, the Kayapo people are working to save the ecology of their land. The tribe owns an area nearly three times the size of Vancouver Island, which is where the photographer Cristina Mittermeier, who is originally from Mexico, now lives. “The dam is slaughtering a huge chunk of the rainforest,” she says. “We’re talking about the size of metropolitan Toronto.”