During the conference (@SIPAZ)
At the close of the “Yes to Life, No to Mining: Weaving Resistance for the Defense of our Territory” Conference, held from 17 to 20 January in Capulálpam de Méndez (with the participation of 400 people), the civil and social organizations and communal authorities signed a final declaration affirming that they “live under an economic and political model based in looting and the accelerated extraction of our communal goods such as minerals, water, forests, petroleum, air, gas, coal, and knowledges, by maens of the looting and commodification of our ancestral territories.” For this reason they “struggle against a hegemonic transnational process that destroys our own social, economic, political, and cultural structures,” as they indicate in the communique.
They conclude that “in light of the great threat represented by the mining industry for our Mesoamerican region, we call on the peoples and communities of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Canada, and Mexico to strengthen our networks of resistance and generate broad alliances based on our knowledge, whereby the defense of territory is the basis of our connection.” In this way, they demanded “the cancellation of all those mining projects where the local communities are in disagreement with the extractive model in the Mesoamerican region,” particularly “the cancellation of the mining project ‘San José’ in the San José del Progreso, Oaxaca, municipality, the cancellation of the mining concessions awarded in the central valley region, as well as punishment for those responsible for the crimes committed against the Coordination of United Peoples of the Ocotlan Valley since 2006,” among other demands.
For more information (in Spanish):
DECLARATORIA: Encuentro de Pueblos de Mesoamérica: Si a la Vida, No a la Minería (En defensa de los territorios, 21 de enero de 2013)
Inicia Encuentro Mesoamericano contra la minería en Capulálpam de Méndez (En defensa de los territorios, 18 de enero de 2013)
“Globalizar las luchas y las esperanzas” llamado del Encuentro Mesoamericano contra la Minería (En defensa de los territorios, 19 de enero de 2013)
La magia de Capulálpam de Méndez, Oaxaca (La Jornada, 18 de enero de 2013)
UPDATE: Mesoamerican People’s Encounter in Oaxaca (The Council of Canadians, 18 de enero de 2013)
Memoria auditiva del Encuentro Mesoamericano Si a la Vida No a la Mineria Capulalpam de Mendez Oaxaca Mexico 2013 (Hijos de la Tierra, 22 de enero de 2013)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Oaxaca: Forum “Yes to Life, No to Mining” from 17 to 20 January (15 January 2013)
Mexico: “Mined land, the defense of the rights of communities and of the environment” (14 December 2011)
Oaxaca: Civil Mission of Observation “Water is Life; Let us Defend its Existence” (8 September 2010)
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