By Richard Arghiris, published at Intercontinental Cry
An indigenous Ngäbe protester, Onesimo Rodriguez, was killed Friday 22 March 2013 in the hamlet of Las Nubes, Chiriquí province, after attending a rally against the controversial Barro Blanco hydroelectric dam. It was World Water day.
Another community leader from Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango has been captured by the Police and incarcerated in Guatemala City as a result of his outspoken opposition to the Spanish company Hidro Santa Cruz’s construction of a hydroelectric dam in the Q’anjob’al Mayan community. Rubén Herrera was captured on March 15th in the city of Huehuetenango, and charged with kidnapping, terrorism, coercion, arson, among many other crimes.
El siguinte comunidado fue elaborado por el Consejo de Pueblos del Occidente, el CPO como resulto de la captura del compañero Rubén Herrera, que ha luchado por los derechos del pueblo en contra del proyecto hidroelectrco por la empresa Hidro Santa Cruz.
Para firmar su peticion, por favor envia tu nombre, (y ubicación y institution) al contrareglamento@gmail.com antes del 25 de abril.
By Rapaine Ole Koissaba Ben
Cultural Survival is happy and relieved to announce that the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples, RAIPON, has been reinstated.
National elections were held in Kenya on March 4th putting into place a new biometric voter registration technology, aiming to prevent falsification of ballots. The country's last election saw falsification of voter registration that led to 1.2 million votes cast by people actually deceased. The technology, which uses photographs and fingerprinting to identify voters, was created and sold to Kenya by the Canadian government for a total cost of US $7.2 million.
After traveling almost 2,000 miles to attend a hearing with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington D.C. to speak out on the human rights violations against Maya peoples in Southern Belize, on March 13th, spokeswoman of the Maya Leaders Alliance Cristina Coc was informed that the hearing had been cancelled at the last minute; representatives of the government of Belize had failed to show.
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