On November 1, 2016, the Constitutional Chamber of Costa Rica’s Supreme Court provided some good news to a Terraba (Teribe) Indigenous territory when it stopped the state-run Costa Rica Electricity Institute (ICE by its Spanish acronym) from going forward with the Diquis hydroelectric project for failing to consult Indigenous communities who would see part of their lands flooded.

A tan sólo unos días de que Daniel Ortega vuelva a coronarse Presidente de Nicaragua por tercera vez consecutiva, y esta vez acompañado nada más y nada menos que de su esposa, Rosario Murillo como vicepresidenta, y de quien se piensa y se dice es la que lleva las riendas del poder.

Daniel Ortega will continue in his third consecutive term as President of Nicaragua after being reelected on November 6, 2016, this time accompanied by his wife, Rosario Murillo, as his Vice-President.

Cultural Survival and Toronto based WACC are pleased to announce the first grantee of our Indigenous Community Radio Grants Project partnership. A new radio start up, Radio Xyaab’ Tzuul Taq’a (“Voice of the Mountains” in Q’eqchi) of the Maya Q’eqchi community in El Estor, Guatemala was chosen because of the immediate need to strengthen broadcast infrastructure and systems,  and the start up’s promise for continued success.

The department of the Army will not approve an easement that will allow the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe. The following statement was released by Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II.

Over 400 civil society organisations from more than 50 countries today issued a joint open letter to the seventeen banks providing a US$2.5 billion project loan to Dakota Access LLC. The letter, endorsed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, demands that the banks involved immediately halt all further disbursements of the loan and require the project sponsor to stop construction work until all outstanding issues are resolved to the full satisfaction of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The letter and the full list of signatories can be found below.

In October 2016, The Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP) published a report documenting incidents of violence associated with Canadian mining companies in Latin America. This study is the first of its kind, compiling information over a span of 15 years from 14 countries in South and Central America about violence associated with Canadian mining companies.

On September 15th, 2016, the International Criminal Court broadened its process for selecting and prioritising cases to include land grabbing and environmental destruction. The decision presents an opportunity to curb the deforestation and rights abuses driven by illegally-issued agricultural concessions in Cambodia, likely to be the court’s first credible case. It also has important implications for other countries suffering from the worst excesses of illegal deforestation. Neil Loughlin and Tom Johnson report.

Cultural Survival condemns the assassination of Guatemalan human rights defender Jeremy Abraham Barrios Lima on 12 November, 2016.

The International Indigenous Peoples` Forum on Climate Change Condemns the Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

This report was submitted by Roberto Borrero representing the International Indian Treaty Council, non-Governmental Organization in General Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, traveling as a Human Rights Observer and in support of Grand Chief Edward John, UN Expert Member, Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, about their mission to Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and the Oceti Sakowin (“Seven Council Fires”) Camp on October 29 – 31, 2016.

In response to an October 28, 2016 letter of invitation to me as an Expert Member of the UNPFII from Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman, David Archambault, Chief Edward John, Expert Member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, traveled from my community to North Dakota to see, firsthand, the conditions that he, his peoples and those from other communities have been facing in relation to the clearing of the right of way and subsequent construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.