Survival International, a global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, has denounced mercury poisoning in Latin America in a letter to the UN Special Rapporteur for Health. The organisation highlights Venezuela, Peru and Brazil as countries that don’t comply with procedures to monitor the effects of mining on the environment. Mercury contamination, which commonly follows illegal
One child has already died due to mercury poisoning, which has put the safety of up to 80% of the indigenous Nahua tribe, who live in the Peruvian Amazon, in jeopardy. The circumstances as to why the majority of the community presents symptoms of intoxication caused by the substance remain unclear. Its high levels in
Nina Gualinga She has become the face of the indigenous Kichwa movement to protect the Ecuadorian Amazon from corporate interests. Her village, Sarayaku, sued the Quito Government in 2012, resulting in the protection of its land from oil exploration. Gualinga was present at COP21: she sailed down the River Seine in Paris in a canoe from
A judge has recognized the right to land of uncontacted indigenous peoples in the Amazon‘s Juruá Valley. The Brazilian government sold off protected areas adjacent to their ancestral territories at an auction, in order for oil and gas companies to conduct resource exploration including for fracking. In December last year a court decided to revoke
The Guatemalan Supreme Court found defendants Colonel Esteelmer Reyes Girón and former Military Commissioner Heriberto Veldez Asig guilty. They were accused of sexual violence, and sexual and domestic slavery against indigenous Q’echís women from the Sepur Zarco community in eastern Guatemala during the civil war of the 1980s. They were sentenced to 120 and 240 years
https://youtu.be/ncgFQAISaGo The Golden Globes, at their 73rd edition, are a glamorous event at the heart of Hollywood, a multi-billion dollar industry often criticised for overwhelmingly representing the worldviews of white males. Thus the mostly hotly anticipated film awards of the year after the Oscars are not an obvious venue for championing indigenous rights. But Leonardo
The winning images of a photography competition are featured in Survival’s 2016 calendar. To support the NGO that fights for indigenous people’s rights.
Six million people had to abandon their lands because of of a 50-year internal war between the military and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), the country’s largest left-wing rebel group. Over 260,000 people lost their lives during this period and thousands were kidnapped or disappeared, estimates human rights organisation Amnesty International in a report
Nicaragua is the third poorest country in Latin America and has been desperately searching for a solution to its economic problems. Many hope the construction of the Grand Canal joining the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, expected to start in early 2016, will provide the nation with the answers it needs, namely employment, trade and an
Sandwiched between the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, Brazil is hosting the first ever World Indigenous Games. From the 23rd of October to the 1st of November 2,000 athletes from 50 ethnic groups and 23 countries compete in events ranging from football and tug of war to indigenous disciplines such as xikunahity, a football-style game
