Indigenous peoples around the globe are making themselves heard in international arenas and at the national level. But many challenges remain in the fight for full recognition of all their rights.

GUATEMALA: Activists Call for Reparations for Victims of Conflicts
Inés Benítez
GUATEMALA CITY – Human rights groups from Guatemala, Mexico, Uruguay, Colombia, Western Sahara and Sweden called for reparations for victims of armed conflicts and crimes against humanity, and punishment for those responsible.
Antonio Caba, the survivor of a massacre of indigenous people in Guatemala and the president of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation, told IPS that in this Central American country “there has been no compensation for the victims” of the genocide committed during the 1960-1996 civil war.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40168

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INDIA: Tribals Distressed by Ban on Forest Gathering
Keya Acharya
KANNERI – The magical trill of the Nilgiri Whistling Thrush deep in the jungles of this remote southern Indian wildlife sanctuary is no comfort to its nearly 2,000 Soliga aboriginal tribal families.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40128

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PARAGUAY: State Accused of Violating Rights of Rural Poor
David Vargas
ASUNCION – Civil society groups in Paraguay are hoping to persuade a United Nations expert committee to send international observers to investigate allegations of violations of the rights of peasant farmers and indigenous people in this country.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40037

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VENEZUELA: Lightning in the Sky Fed by Underground Methane
Humberto Márquez – IPS/IFEJ
CONGO MIRADOR – A red, yellow and orange flash illuminates a slice of the sky and Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. For a fraction of a second after, lightning of incandescent white move left to right and right to left between small clouds like dark silhouettes.
The Wayúu, who watch the lightning from the north side of the 12,000-square-km lake, see in it the spirits of their loved ones, whose souls glow in the clouds. For the indigenous Barí, on the southwest side of the lake, and whose language gave rise to the names Catatumbo and Zulia, the lightning is a concentration of millions of fireflies who gather at night to pay tribute to the creators.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40101

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LATIN AMERICA: And Now For Some More Ambitious Anti-Poverty Goals
Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO – Sixty-eight percent of the time available for reaching the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which is to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015, has expired, and Latin America has gone 87 percent of the way towards achieving it. Countries that have advanced the most should now work on halving total poverty, ECLAC says.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40088

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