Traditional Maya leaders reported that Texas-based US Capital Energy has made numerous attempts to buy support for their oil drilling project on Maya lands including those inside the Sarstoon-Temash National Park in Southern Belize by infiltrating the Maya leaders’ traditional forms of governance. They declared the the company is blatantly undermining and disrespecting Indigenous governance, in violation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The grassroots parliamentary campaign for Maasai land and human rights activist, Meitamei Olol Dapash, continues to thrive and grow throughout Maasailand, Kenya, but needs help to see victory in the polls on March 4th! Meitamei is the founder and Director of the Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition since 1987 and leader of the suit for the return of 30,000 acres of ancestral land at Mau Narok to the Maasai community, due to be heard in Kenyan court next month.
Cambodian human rights activists showed once again that they are on cutting edge of pop culture by performing a choreographed dance to a land rights themed version of the viral video "Gangnam Style" in Phnom Penn.
In a major step for Samburu communities battling for their land rights in Laikipia, Kenya, a judge handling the case was found unfit to continue serving in the judiciary after the community filed an application for his recusal. He was sent home the last week of 2012.
The community accused the judge of the following counts of bias:
Rumors of closed-door agreement signed between town government officials and Spanish hydroelectric company Hidro Santa Cruz sparked confusion and unrest among community members in Barillas, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.
On December 20th, activists protesting an open-pit coal mine in Phulbari, Bangladesh dumped coal at the entrance to mining company GCM Resources in London.
December 6, 2012 was the deadline for removal of illegal invaders in the Xavante Indigenous territory of Marãiwatsede in Mato Grosso state. The invaders remain and the situation continues to be very tense in the region. Xavante’s allies, among them the 84 year old Bishop Pere Casaldàliga, continue to receive death threats.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
