Débora Barros, una lideresa del pueblo indígena wayuu estuvo en Miami la semana del 2 de marzo 2010. Ella volvió a esta ciudad para hablarle a personas sobre la lucha de su comunidad de poder volver a su territorio ancestral “Bahia Portete” en la Guajira Colombiana. El 18 de abril 2004 la comunidad fue brutalmente desplazada a causa de una masacre perpetrado por un grupo paramilitar, dejando a 12 personas muertas, 33 desaparecidos y mas de 300 desplazados. Aun hoy, los sobrevivientes esperan desde Maracaibo, Venezuela para tener su derecho a un retorno.
Al sur de Bahía Portete está “El Cerrejón”, uno de las explotaciones mineras de carbón a cielo abierto más grande del mundo; que pertenece a un consorcio de empresas que incluye, Anglo American, BHP Billiton & Xstrata. A un lado de Bahía Portete está Puerto Bolívar, que sirve como muelle para que los trenes del Cerrejón que traen el carbón, embarquen su carga a buques que los transporta a plantas de energía ubicadas en las costas Atlánticas de los EE.UU, Canadá y la Unión Europea.
Aunque las propagandas de televisión del Cerrejón implantan el imaginario de los Colombianos con escenas "enverdecidas", es decir un ambientalismo falso y pobremente hecho, mostrando a niños y niñas wayuu liberando una especie de tortuga terrestre en un río. Por otro lado los Wayuu, además de las poblaciones Guajiras y Afrodescendientes, no se han beneficiado del "progreso y desarrollo" que se les ha impuesto.
Al otro lado del país, el miercoles pasado, 7 de abril 2010, ocho mineros artesanales fueron masacrados por actores armados no identificados. La comunidad Afrodescendiente de Suárez, Cauca ha tenido una larga historia de confrontaciones con los intereses de distintas industrias que extraen recursos naturales. En relación a la minería, la región ha sido blanco de la extractora de oro Surafricana, “Anglo Gold Ashanti”, que desde hace varios años ha tratado de tomar la región por medio de una concesión minera, pese a que existe una oposición local amplia y prominente.
Ejemplos donde las comunidades son amenazadas por la minería transnacional a gran escala no están solamente en Colombia. La empresa Canadiense “Goldcorp”, ha tenido conflictos con varias comunidades Mayas de Guatemala. En la actualidad muchos de los miembros de estas se encuentran viviendo en comunidades de la Florida como Immokalee, Lake Worth y Indiantown.
Otra Empresa Canadiense extractora de oro “Barrick”, opera la gigantesca mina de Pascua Lama entre Chile y Argentina, además de tener operaciones en el Perú y la Republica Dominicana. La realidad es que en América Latina y en todo el mundo los conflictos empeoran, debido a que los residentes locales son victimas del “desarrollo internacional” que favorece a la élite de ese país y algunas empresas multinacionales.
Cabe destacar que habrá un importante número de empresas mineras, Xstrata, Barrick & Goldcorp, las cualés estarán en Coral Gables del 28 al 30 de abril. Estos procurarán conseguir inversionistas dispuestos a colaborar con estas oportunidades de hacer negocios en America Latina, buscando expandir y crear nuevos proyectos como los que se mencionaron anteriormente. El problema radica en que las comunidades indígenas, campesinas, negras y trabajadoras, tales como las personas afectadas por el desastre minero en West Virginia, no comparten en lo absoluto, la riqueza y prosperidad que supuestamente traen estos proyectos.
Por otro lado, un grupo de organizaciones de Estados Unidos y América Latina harán presencia durante el Congreso Latinoamericano de Minería, con el propósito de sensibilizar al publico y entienda que la minería es mucho mas que metales pesados y socavones. Esta iniciativa, comenzará la tarde del jueves, abril 29.
Estas organizaciones están invitando a una gran confluencia de músicos, grupos de teatro y otras artistas de la resistencia cultural para que vengan, se junten y para hacer que su voz, ritmos, y puestas en escena, se escuchen en favor de la justicia económica y ambiental. Para mayor información, oprima aquí.
Showing posts with label wayuu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wayuu. Show all posts
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
What the Lat Am Mining Congress is bringing to Miami, and what Mining Companies want to do from here.....
Debora Barros, a leader of the indigenous Wayuu nation was in Miami the week of March 2, 2010. Not being her first visit, she again shared with audiences across the city about her community´s struggle to return to their ancesteral territory of Bahia Portete, la Guajira , Colombia. On April 18th, 2004 the community was brutally diplaced due to a massacre executed by a right wing paramilitary groups that left at least 12 people dead , 33 forcefully disappeared and over 300 displaced. Currently the survivors are still living in Maracaibo, Venezuela awaiting a right to return.
South of Bahia Portete is the Cerrejon, one of the largest open pit coal mines in the world; owned and operated by a consortium of companies including BHP Billiton, Anglo American & Xstrata. Adjacent to Bahia Portete is Puerto Bolivar, this is the port where the company owned train takes the coal to be loaded on to barges going to the coal burning in the power plants on the Atlantic regions of USA, Canada and the European Union. While Cerrejon television commercials plaster the imagination of Colombian viewers with poorly executed greenwashed scenes of smiling Wayuu children releasing red footed land tortises into a river, the original peoples, the Wayuu as well as Guajiro and Afrodescendent inhabitants have not benefited from this "progress & development" that has been enforced onto them.
On the other side of the country, this past Wednesday, April 7th, 2010, eight local, small scale gold miners were killed by unidentified, heavily armed men. The Afrodescendent community of Suarez, Cauca has had history of confrontations with different resource extractive industries. In relation to mining, the region has identified by the South African gold mining company, Anglo Gold Ashanti, that has persistently tried to acquiere the region as a mining concession regardless of the wide spread, local opposition.
The examples of local inhabitants harmed by large scale, foreign owned mining are not limited to Colombia. The Canadian owned company GoldCorp, has had such a widespread impact on Mayan communities in Guatemala that many of these people now live in Florida communities like Immokalee, Lake Worth & Indiantown. Another Canadian gold mining company, Barrick, operates the massive Pascua Lama mine between Argentina & Chile as well as other operations they have in Peru and Dominican Republic. As a matter of fact many regions in Latin America and all over the world where conflicts are growing, are doing so because the residents are the victims of marcoeconomic development that favors their nations elite and a handful of multinational corporations.
An important group of mining companies, including Xstrata, Barrick & Goldcorp, will meet in Coral Gables from April 28 through the 30. They are looking for investors willing to take advantage of business opportunities in Latin America to expand and create new projects just like the ones mentioned above. The problem is that the indigenous, campesino, black and working communities, like the people affected by the West Virginia mining tragedy, do not share in the wealth and prosperity these opportunites claim to bring.
A group of organizations, based in the USA and Latin America will make their presence heard during the Latin American Mining Conference so the public at large understands that mining is much more than heavy metal and mine shafts.
Specifically on the afternoon of Thursday, April 29th, these organizations are inviting others to join them in a confluence of muscians, street performers and other artists of cultural resistance to come and join us and have your voice, rhythms and performances heard for environmental and economic justice. For more information click here.
South of Bahia Portete is the Cerrejon, one of the largest open pit coal mines in the world; owned and operated by a consortium of companies including BHP Billiton, Anglo American & Xstrata. Adjacent to Bahia Portete is Puerto Bolivar, this is the port where the company owned train takes the coal to be loaded on to barges going to the coal burning in the power plants on the Atlantic regions of USA, Canada and the European Union. While Cerrejon television commercials plaster the imagination of Colombian viewers with poorly executed greenwashed scenes of smiling Wayuu children releasing red footed land tortises into a river, the original peoples, the Wayuu as well as Guajiro and Afrodescendent inhabitants have not benefited from this "progress & development" that has been enforced onto them.
On the other side of the country, this past Wednesday, April 7th, 2010, eight local, small scale gold miners were killed by unidentified, heavily armed men. The Afrodescendent community of Suarez, Cauca has had history of confrontations with different resource extractive industries. In relation to mining, the region has identified by the South African gold mining company, Anglo Gold Ashanti, that has persistently tried to acquiere the region as a mining concession regardless of the wide spread, local opposition.
The examples of local inhabitants harmed by large scale, foreign owned mining are not limited to Colombia. The Canadian owned company GoldCorp, has had such a widespread impact on Mayan communities in Guatemala that many of these people now live in Florida communities like Immokalee, Lake Worth & Indiantown. Another Canadian gold mining company, Barrick, operates the massive Pascua Lama mine between Argentina & Chile as well as other operations they have in Peru and Dominican Republic. As a matter of fact many regions in Latin America and all over the world where conflicts are growing, are doing so because the residents are the victims of marcoeconomic development that favors their nations elite and a handful of multinational corporations.
An important group of mining companies, including Xstrata, Barrick & Goldcorp, will meet in Coral Gables from April 28 through the 30. They are looking for investors willing to take advantage of business opportunities in Latin America to expand and create new projects just like the ones mentioned above. The problem is that the indigenous, campesino, black and working communities, like the people affected by the West Virginia mining tragedy, do not share in the wealth and prosperity these opportunites claim to bring.
A group of organizations, based in the USA and Latin America will make their presence heard during the Latin American Mining Conference so the public at large understands that mining is much more than heavy metal and mine shafts.
Specifically on the afternoon of Thursday, April 29th, these organizations are inviting others to join them in a confluence of muscians, street performers and other artists of cultural resistance to come and join us and have your voice, rhythms and performances heard for environmental and economic justice. For more information click here.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
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