Sew In Weaves Memphis Tn

come for gold, they come across. Invasions mining 500 years later.

Javier Torres

Vindas /

socioarte@gmail.com

Rican Sociologist Volume this title borrowed from a recent book by Javier Rodríguez Pardo Editorial CICCUS, Argentina. The author is right. Latin America during the conquest and colonization was plundered of its wealth, not just gold. Was expropriated of their traditions, their languages, their cultures, their religions, their inhabitants. The ethnic genocide was unspeakable. Up 1992 could speak of the trauma of conquest and since that date, Oct. 12, speaking in a politically correct "meeting of cultures" ignoring the central issue: the denial of indigenous peoples. After independence, our continent was an exporter of raw materials for the first world. After the crisis of 1929 and World War II, little attempt was made to a model of import substitution. But any claim of territorial sovereignty (land reform) was suppressed. So much so that in 1954 the government of Arbenz coup was led by the CIA to defend the interests affected by the transnational United Fruit Company, for example. Earlier eighties and after a couple of decades of dictatorship on the continent, is forced through the SAP's and other mechanisms to pay the "eternal debt." In the 90's neoliberalism shattered the economies of Mexico (1994), Brazil (1998) and Argentina (2001-2002). In this decade, the FTAA was arrested, but the TLC's no. Today

the invasions. Can we reclaim our territorial sovereignty? How long will we be colonized? What explicit and condenses the draft Crucitas in this history of expropriation of our resources are subjected? We

from a verifiable empirical fact: the advance of mining is not only invasions a phenomenon of Crucitas in Costa Rica. Continental is an advanced, under the aegis of good business crime, which sees nature as a resource to exploit, that is a commodity. Where externalities (environmental and cultural damage to long-term) is not directly responsible mining. For example, in the Siria Valley (Honduras), the "San Martín" the company run by Entre Mares, first subsidiary of Glamis Gold Ltd., and now satellite

Gold Corp.

In Costa Rica, Industrias Infinito (

http://www.infinito.co.cr

) is presented as a national company. Which consults with the Canadian company Gold Limited (the same as Honduras, just mentioned). Without specifying the distribution of shares of the undertaking. This company offers as bait are jobs, "development" local, money for the treasury, etc. However wonder what happened to other successful experiences in mining in Latin America?

For example, the department of Cajamarca, located north of Peru, has a mining tradition that dates back to colonial times. Several domestic companies, foreign or mixed mineral resources have been exploited. As he passed the deplorable environmental cost. The social cost is undeniable: the National Statistics Institute and Informatics (INEI), Peru, reported that in 2006, 64% of the department's population was poor, and 28% lived in poor conditions of extreme poverty, 80.2% are illiterate, 37% of the population has no piped water, 25% have no drainage and 68% have no electricity. That is, private wealth and public poverty that generates long-term costs.

According Bridge, G ("Mapping the Bonanza: Geographies of mining investment in an era of neoliberal reform." The Professional Geographer), between 1990-2001, four of the ten main countries of destination for mining investment in the world was Latin America: Chile (1st place), Peru (6th), Argentina (9th) and Mexico (10th). Twelve of the largest mining investment were also in Latin America: two in Peru, nine in Chile and Argentina.

Meanwhile, Geraldine McDonald, recently said that growth in the mining sector, particularly in Latin America, exerted strong pressure on fragile ecosystems and communities in land rich mineral resources. Environmental and health impacts include: water contaminated with lead, arsenic and other metals in the water table decline due to overuse by large installations, problems skin, headaches and excessive blood poisoning due to lead, respiratory diseases caused by excessive dust, and destruction of vegetation due to acid rain. Mining activities have a direct impact on the environment and the health of men, women and children. Economic impacts include a loss of or damage to livelihoods and threaten food security as a result of displacement of populations from their land (and reduced access to water), often with no or inadequate or delayed compensation. Working conditions in extractive projects are often difficult and violate labor standards ILO. The social consequences include the emergence or aggravation of social problems such as alcoholism, drug addiction, crime and prostitution. (See:

http://alainet.org/publica/ wealth / )

As we have seen in Costa Rica, in the last year the onslaught of legitimacy to draft Crucitas, has since various sides. The central issue is to convince the "public opinion" of the benefits of the project and the nefarious intentions of those and those who oppose him. Ideological onslaught going to demonize and suggest a possible criminalization social actors who oppose the project. "Curiously" as if by chance, in 2006, President Oscar Arias (Nobel Peace Prize 1987) had urged a "new" international consensus called, "Peace with Nature." According to decant, draft Crucitas would it be an example of such an edge project? So evident historically, is that the October 13, 2008, the president of Costa Rica Dr. Oscar Arias Sanchez and the Minister of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications, Roberto Dobles Mora, signed Executive Order No. 34801-MINAET that authorized the project open pit mining in the northern of Costa Rica, known as Las Crucitas. Now, in fact, express Crucitas condenses a problem of political ecology, not only for Costa Ricans, but it is a continental issue. It is a matter of stakeholder interests. Thus, it refers to their ability to link up with partners to build partnerships for its purposes. The issue is the correlation of forces of the actors. The key to the success of those who look favorably (good business) have the money, with the institutions that favor them, with the sponsorship of the Arias, symbolic resources in the media. Those who oppose us, we need to ensure our legitimacy, the articles with other continental actors with their experiences of struggle, resistance, including defeats and triumphs. We must not yield in the field of ideological struggle. This is not a matter of a few unruly and irrational enemy of good business. It is a matter of sovereignty and continental control. It is a sack that comes from Mexico to Patagonia. Crucitas is to be understood as one more of the advanced of the neoliberal political cycle in our country, whose imprint is steep with the so-called technical coup of 2004, where Mr. Oscar Arias got the reformed Constitution Hall the constitution and could be reelected to the presidency. Then in power and because the strategy of attrition of the movement against the FTA, Mr. Arias endorsed the referendum. Chance to be played, at various times promised panacea and by the strategy of fear, he managed a tight win in favor of NAFTA, which was a strategic defeat for the movement against the FTA. Defeat, which is different from the inevitable closure of opportunity and take back the path of national sovereignty and the rights of social citizenship. The

Crucitas unavoidable challenge we face or to create networks and other novel forms of protest, and the development of regional project aimed at building social power through environmentally sustainable forms of production, trade and consumption, self-management and participatory democracy, usually guided by the new paradigm of sustainability. That is, for the fight against open pit mining is necessary to rebuild a political ecology that will lead to new ways of living and building the political. Here is what it is to defend citizens' rights, social citizenship, territorial sovereignty.