insurrección

US oil corporation Chevron is one of the largest companies of the field. It carries out oil exploitation activities all over the world. Besides the fact that it is one of the world’s largest corporations, the company’s name is usually associated with a record of environmental and human rights violations and its complicity with several totalitarian regimes.

A community consultation on open-pit mining exploration and exploitation was carried out on Saturday in Jacaltenango municipality – in Huehuetenango department, Guatemala.

Reporter Jose Bernardino Francisco from Radio Stereo Azul told Real World Radio that the result of the consultation was against mining activity.

The reporter said over 27,000 people expressed their opposition to mining exploitation in Saturday’s consultation. “This shows that noone agrees with the presence of mining corporations in this Guatemalan region”, he said.

In December of this year, Uruguay will submit a seismic study of the country’s marine soil to international corporations that exploit gas and oil, so that they begin hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation activities.

This will be the first chapter of what the government calls the “Uruguay Round 2009”, which actually began during the 19th World Petroleum Congress, held in Madrid this month.

Thousands of Guatemalans are expressing their rejection to the mining expansion in the country through popular consultations that social organizations are promoting in different parts of the country.

With the consultation carried out on Sunday in Huhuetenango department, there are already 16 municipalities of the norhtern region, near the Mexican border, to carry out consultations.

This week started extremely well for transnational companies dedicated to oil expolitation. On Monday, Iraq decided to open their oil reserves to foreign investment, ending with the nationalization of this resource that had been taking place for over thirty years.

In the southern city Puerto Natales, in Última Esperanza province, a “Social Coordinator Patagonia Without Salmon Farms” was created last weekend. They demand a moratorium to the installation of new cages of this controversial extractive industry.

Protests against the activity of mining corporations have taken place in the recent days in Panama and Guatemala.

The Peasants and Indigenous Movement of Panama carried out a demonstration to raise awareness about the installation of a series of mega projects in Charaqui province, which is considered as the most endangered in the country.

Mining seems to be moving forward very fast in the south of Peru. Recently, the country’s Ministry of Energy and Mining authorized US mining company Newcrest Resources and Canadian company Sheridan Platinum Group to carry out mining exploration activities in Tacna and Puno departments, claiming that “private investment in mining activities was a public need”. Meanwhile, Camper mining company purportedly began its exploration works in the Atecata sector, in Santa Lucia province.

Spanish company Repsol, one of the world’s largest gas and oil corporations, which has operated in several Latin American countries since the 90s, is responsible for many social and environmental crimes, including human rights violations, displacement of indigenous peoples, permanent pollution of water sources, loss of biodiversity, deforestation and tax evasion in Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador.

Leader Francisco Vera Millaquén, of Pepiukelen Mapuche community, traveled this week to Norway to expose the disasters caused by Norwegian Salmon companies operating in Chile.

The indigenous representatives informed the Norwegian lawmakers, businessmen and diplomats about the low environmental, health and labor standards of these corporations, Ecocéanos News reported.
In statements to Ecoceanos, Vera Millaquén warned about the impacts caused by the salmon industry on the Mapuche communities. Many of which are devoted to craft fishing.