Indigenous groups demand more say in mining

[NVMojo]

October 15, 2005

Chemicals from mining in the Chiquitano Forest region of Bolivia have contaminated the water and land, turning it into a desert, Carlos Cuasace told a Reno audience Friday.

"We can no longer grow anything. We can no longer produce rice, corn or anything we use to live from," Cuasace said through an interpreter during a panel discussion at the University of Nevada, Reno.

When the mining companies have come and gone, it is the indigenous people who must live with what they leave behind, he said.

"We are part of the nature. That is our life. We are the children, and the land is our mother, our mother that is sacred and we cannot sell," said Cuasace, a resident of Bolivia. "This is what we have come to share with you. We think the land must be protected."

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http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051015/NEWS10/510150326/1016/NEWS

[azndndude]

1. Same thing happens here in USA

On the Navajo Nation there are numerous uranium mining tailings left over from past mining. The companies just got up and left. Last month the Navajo Tribal council past a bill banning anymore uranium mining on Navajo Lands.