4/18 - Guatemalan Speaker on Indigenous Rights & Natural Resource Conflicts | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Hannah Hafter (hehafter![]() |
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Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:13:16 -0700 (PDT) |
Hello! Can you please post this to the list? *** GUATEMALAN HUMAN RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ACTIVIST HERE Friday, April 18th! What: Bi-lingual presentation/discussion and fundraiser (There will be an opportunity to donate. Note: NISGUA is a non-profit organization; all proceeds go to support grassroots organizations in Guatemala and help cover costs of tour.) Where: The O?Shaughnessy Room (a.k.a the Leather Room) 1st floor of O?Shaughessy-Frey Library, off Cleveland Ave (between Selby and Summit Aves) University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN When: 6:00 ? 7:30 pm Friday, April 18th For more info, contact Niky: nmduxbury [at] gmail.com 612-710-8248 Jerónimo Osorio Chen of the Ixcán Referendum Commission is a human rights leader from rural Ixcán, Quiché, Guatemala. The Ixcán Referendum Commission is a grassroots group that engages in education, organizing, and legal strategies to ensure that the people of the Ixcán determine their own resource use and development priorities. For over a decade, Mr. Chen has worked to promote indigenous rights, cooperative economics, and citizen participation in the face of threats from corporate-led development schemes, including mega-projects and free trade. A former elected official in the local government, Jerónimo has played a key role in organizing and doing follow-up work on a 2007 referendum in which almost 90% of the inhabitants of Ixcán voted against oil exploration in the region and the Xalalá hydroelectric dam, which would displace indigenous communities and damage the local and surrounding ecosystem. Disregarding this overwhelming opposition, the Guatemalan government is currently accepting bids from national and international investors interested in the Xalalá dam. Jerónimo is an Achi Maya from Río Negro, where the Guatemalan government committed several massacres in the 1980s against communities that opposed the building of the Chixoy dam on their lands. He will speak about people's struggles to oppose the Xalalá Dam and the importance of avoiding a repeat of the Chixoy tragedy, including the repression, loss of lands, and damage to the ecosystem associated with massive dam projects. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
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