The Condor and the Eagle (2019) is a prize-winning documentary film directed by Sophie and Clément Guerra, about the collective struggle of the Indigenous peoples of North and South America to defend their land and water against the oil and mining companies that have occupied and desecrated their homelands and their environment.
Screening in London...
LAB's Tom Gatehouse talks to those affected by recent tailings dams disasters in Brazil
On 25 January last year, a massive tailings dam collapsed at the Córrego do Feijão iron ore mine near Brumadinho in the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil’s traditional mining heartlands. 11.7 million cubic metres of toxic mud went cascading down the valley at speeds of...
Illegal mining poisons the Amazon
A new film by Jorge Bodansky analyzes the mercury contamination
of Amazonian rivers as a result of illegal mining
Renowned Brazilian filmmaker Jorge Bodansky will preview his new film “Amazonia: the new Minamata?” on 1 February, during the International Colloquium “Amazonia: Rising Violence and Disturbing Trends”, in the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford....
President Michel Temer issued a presidential decree in 2017 to open up the vast 4.6 million hectare (17,800 square mile) RENCA preserve in the northern Amazon to mining. Meeting with a firestorm of criticism he abandoned the effort. Sources now say the Bolsonaro administration is poised to quietly revive plans to open RENCA in...
In 2013, Potássio do Brasil, a subsidiary of the Canadian merchant bank, Forbes & Manhattan, began drilling exploratory wells for a giant potassium mine — a highly profitable venture that would allow transport of potash along the Amazon and Madeira rivers. Potash is a vital fertilizer for Brazil’s rapidly growing soy agribusiness industry.One big...
Potássio do Brasil, a mining company; Autazes municipal authorities; the federal and Amazonas state governments; and large-scale soy growers all want one thing: to open a potash mine in the town of Autazes that would supply soy producers with Brazilian fertilizer, so as not to buy and pay for imported potash. All stand to profit.
There’s...
Conversing with Goliath is a research project carried out by
FLACSO-Mexico and De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, sponsored by the
British Academy (2017-2020). The project aims to understand why violence in
Mexico persists in the design and implementation of projects in the extractive
industry when a wide range of participatory institutions exist in law and
policy programmes which, in principle, promote citizen participation
(information, consultation...
In addition to our website, LAB’s Facebook page
provides a daily stream of summaries and links to articles published elsewhere.
In this newsletter we have done away with our ‘Read more…’ rubric – the links
to LAB and other articles appear as hyperlinks in the text.
A wave of protest sweeps the continent
Following hard on the tumultuous events in Chile which are still...
Conversing with Goliath is a research project carried out by FLACSO-Mexico and De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, sponsored by the British Academy (2017-2020). The project aims to understand why violence in Mexico persists in the design and implementation of projects in the extractive industry when a wide range of participatory institutions exist in law and policy programmes which, in...
Peine, Chile and Susques, Argentina – Within minutes of driving out of
tourist hotspot San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile you are deep in the
Earth’s driest desert. Vast stretches of reddish-orange sand fly past on both
sides. Every now and then you pass the odd dwelling, but this sparse setting
changes when you reach the Salar de Atacama: Chile’s largest salt...