The Mexican Network of Mining-Affected Peoples (REMA, for its initials in Spanish) and the Mesoamerican Movement against the Mining Extractive Model (M4) organized a three-day nationwide encounter in the Northern Sierra of Puebla where hundreds of mining-affected community members from numerous states participated in talks and workshops where experiences, strategies for the defense of the territory, and socio-environmental impacts were shared and exchanged.
According to data from 2013, there are 857 exploration and exploitation mining projects distributed in 16 Mexican states. Jaime Martínez Veloz, head of the Commission for Dialogue with Indigenous Peoples, declares: “In Mexico there are at least 30 red flag areas where the land dispute between indigenous communities and foreign mining companies can quickly deteriorate into civil insurrection…The main problem is that these companies do not view the local indigenous peoples as partners, but rather as a hindrance. They also exploit the workers and the settlement zones.”
Read more at www.upsidedownworld.org
