and
hydroelectric
expansion.
Communities
understand that the future of their families will be
determined by the water quantity and quality
produced by the springs at the top of the
mountains. Hundreds of the opponents to mining
and hydroelectric projects have been killed in many
Latin American countries. The most recent victim is
Berta Caceres, a Lenca Indigenous woman, General
Coordinator for the Council of Popular and
Indigenous Organization of Honduras (COPINH),
killed on March 3, 2016, defending Gualcarque
River in Honduras.
Why is this happening? In 1987, The Brundtland
Report (World Commission on Environment and
Development) entangled the international debt
crisis with the ecological crisis, and suggested
sustainable development (an oxymoron) as a means
to eliminate poverty and to contain environmental
disaster. At the Earth Summit in Johannesburg in
2002,
mining
was
defined
as
sustainable
development. Thirty mining corporations and
several NGOs sponsored this initiative. A key tactic
of mining supporters is to portray mining as a way
to bring investment, create jobs, and reduce
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