insurrección

Changes begin to be experienced as hydroelectric megaproject on Madeira River advances. Brazilian authorities don´t allow small boats to travel the river, which is affecting families who use it to transport products and people.

This situation, which adds to the forced displacements, was made public last week, in the framework of a seminar “Against Privatization of Madeira River and for the Amazon´s Sovereignty”, which was held in Porto Velho, Brazil.

This is a peaceful, but consistent protest. Under the theme “Cobre River is not for sale”, peasants and indigenous people from Veraguas province in Panama have been camping for over a month in the Panamericana highway.

The goal of the demonstrators, who have been in this conflict for five years, is clear: they will lift the measure when the hydroelectric projects in this river are abandoned. They warned about water contamination, forced displacements and extinction of aquatic species.

The President of the Confederation of Kichwa Nationalities of Ecuador (ECUARUNARI), Humberto Cholango warned that a “very dangerous” bill on water management was approved in Board 5 of the Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly. The bill leaves open the possibility of privatizing water.

The new text leaves open the possibility of “depriving the citizens from the right of access to water, which is a human right and a strategic resource of great importance for the Ecuadorian state”, the indigenous leader said.

Forestry corporations are currently appropriating water in Uruguay. It is a de facto water privatization, Guayubira group said in a press conference on Wednesday, in Montevideo, Uruguay.

When drafting the new Consitution, the Ecuadorians seem to be getting closer to the struggle for the nationalization of fresh water carried out by different Latin American communities and peoples.

During the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal held in Lima, it was exposed that French company Suez applies a strategy of “transformation of the territories” in Brazil in areas that produce commodities through the “participation in electricity generation projects”.

The accusation against the European corporation was filed by the Working Group on Services of REBRIP (Brazilian Network for the Integration of the Peoples) and the Movement of Dam Affected People (MAB).

Colombian organizations filed an accusation against French-Spanish corporation Proactiva Medio Ambiente at the Permanent Peoples Tribunal (PPT), held in parallel to the meeting of Heads of State and Government of the European Union and Latin America. They accuse the company of the appropriation of fresh water sources, the high and excluding tariffs, the complicity of the Colombian authorities and the impunity that covers their activity.

Colombian organizations filed an accusation against PROACTIVA Medio Ambiente before the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT). The company is made up of the companies Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC) of Spain and French corporation Veolia Environmental.

According to these groups, PROACTIVA benefited from the privatization of water, sanitation and waste management services in the Colombian Caribbean, violating the fundamental rights of the local peoples.

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Water polluted with arsenic, failure to comply with official resolutions and tariff raises above the inflation rate. This is the situation caused by the private concession of the water and sanitation services to Spanish corporation Aguas de Barcelona - a subsidiary of French corporation Suez- in the Mexican city of Saltillo, capital of Coahuila.

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