Between August 9th and 12th of 2010, over 400 Indigenous and riverine people, victims of dams, and farmers from the Amazon region gathered at the port of the city of Altamira, Pará, Brazil at the riverside of the Xingu river, to discuss the impacts of major infrastructure projects in the Amazon region, with emphasis on the Belo Monte dam.
 

It began on July 2 when workers for the Bocas Fruit Company went on strike because they had not been paid for two weeks. By July 8, police reported 7,000 protesters in Bocas del Toro province, and on July 9 the estimate rose to 10,000. The largely Indigenous population poured out its anger over new laws and government repression by marching and blockading the major roads.  Police cracked down with brutal force, killing at least two and possibly as many as seven Indigenous protesters, injuring and jailing hundreds, and affecting thousands with tear gas.

For Belize’s Mayas, good news was immediately followed by bad. In late June, the Chief Justice ruled that the Mayas of all 33 villages in the Toledo district have customary land tenure rights dating back to their residence in pre-colonial times. The ruling specified that the claimants’ rights to customary land tenure “were not extinguished by formal distribution of leases and titles by colonial settlers or any such law or act” and that they have the right “to seek redress in the courts for any breach.”

Indigenous land owners, students, and citizens in Madang province have been vigorously protesting an amendment to the Environmental Law that denies their right to appeal decisions made by the Ministry of the Environment and Conservation. All forms of protest against the amendment have been banned and criminalized by the government.