20 December 2007
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.
COLOMBIA: Indians Neither Museum Exhibits Nor Tourist Attractions
Gloria Helena Rey
BOGOTA – Indigenous people in Colombia today are elected to office as legislators, governors, mayors and city councillors. But their communities continue to be seen as marginal, ignorant or mired in the deepest poverty.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40502
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Prickly Peru Gas Project Gets Key Loan
Abid Aslam
WASHINGTON – The Inter-American Development Bank approved key financing Wednesday for a Peruvian bid to become an exporter of gas, over the objections of environmentalists and indigenous people’s advocates.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40547
PERU: Opening Up Indigenous Land to Foreign Investors – By Milagros Salazar
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40417
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LATIN AMERICA: Rural Women Forge Their Own Path in Microenterprise
Franz Chávez
LA PAZ – Rural women from five Andean countries presented their successful microenterprises as part of a regional competition for female crafts and food producers, which also served as an opportunity for sharing the life stories of these leaders in the struggle against poverty.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40553
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Native Youth Suicides in Canada Reach Crisis Rate
Am Johal
VANCOUVER – Suicide rates are now five to seven times higher for First Nations youth than for non-aboriginal youth, according to Health Canada, and among Inuit youth, suicide rates are 11 times the national average. Some aboriginal bands have suicide rates over 800 times the national average.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40448
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U.S. Native Tribes Take on Ski Resort
Haider Rizvi
NEW YORK – Indigenous communities are up in arms against commercial plans to expand a ski resort on a mountain peak in the U.S. state of Arizona that has been held sacred by the natives for centuries.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40399
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CHILE: Indigenous Hunger Strikers in Critical Condition
Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO – Four Mapuche community leaders and an activist were in critical condition on the 58th day of a hunger strike in the southern Chilean prison where they are serving time on charges of terrorism. Two of them had already fasted for more than two months in 2006.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40385
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