Q.What do Peru, Equador, and Canada have in common? A. An organized campaign against Indigenous interference in mining operations and resource extraction. Earlier this month we reported on the violence that has erupted near mining sites in Peru, where indigenous villagers had been killed, driven from their homes, deprived of water and terrorized because they were in the way of (Canadian) mine development in Mareniyoc, Peru. Heres another (earlier dated) article referencing that situation: canadians.org/node/8710 In May of 2013 The Council of Canadians reported on Harpers PR spin on the 2009 Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement - which Harper had promoted to increase Canadian involvement in Peruvian mining. As an incentive to the financially strapped country, Harper had offered a $53-million aid package (over six years) that includes money to help local and regional governments better target their royalties to mining communities. The money had already been set aside in previous budgets but had not been allocated to specific projects. ...The new extractive industries approach was rolled out last fall, and aims to align Canadas aid spending more closely with its commercial interests canadians.org/node/9558 Since that time, it has become apparent that the term mining communities was meant to apply, NOT to the communities of Indigenous People near mining sites, but rather to new communities being built for employees of the expanded mining operation. Similiar tactics have been employed in Canada-Equadorian agreements. Canadian companies are the leading investors in Ecuador’s nascent mining sector, and the Canadian government was the primary contractor responsible for building the new $440 million Quito International Airport completed in February 2013. canadainternational.gc.ca/ecuador-equateur/bilateral_relations_bilaterales/canada_ecuador-equateur.aspx?menu_id=9&lang=eng Its beginning to look like these Aid Packages offered by our Government have a condition attached: i.e. police protection of Canadian mining interests. Today, as world delegates meet in Lima to establish goals and establish emissions targets, the body of Equadorian Indigenous Leader & activist José Isidro Tendetza Antún, who was preparing to take his campaign against the Ecuacorriente mine to the Lima Climate Talks summit, was found dead. Tendetza had been a prominent critic of Mirador, an open-cast pit that has been approved in an area of important biodiversity that is also home to the Shuar, Ecuador’s second-biggest indigenous group. The project is operated by Ecuacorriente – originally a Canadian-owned firm that was brought by a Chinese conglomerate, CCRC-Tongguan Investment, in 2010. According to the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, the project will devastate around 450,000 acres of forest. “His body was beaten, bones were broken,” said Ankuash. “He had been tortured and he was thrown in the river. The mere fact that they buried him before telling us, the family, is suspicious.” theguardian/world/2014/dec/06/ecuador-indigenous-leader-found-dead-lima-climate-talks
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 04:33:22 +0000