The Emberá people of Columbia are regaining their land. ____________ [... (Reuters) - A Colombian legal tribunal has ordered 11 companies to halt gold-mining operations in a 50,000-hectare (124,000-acre) reserve in the northwest of the country and return the land to the native tribe that previously lived there. The ruling, the first of its kind in the Andean nation, restores the territory in Choco department to the 7,270-person Embera Katio tribe, which inhabited the area before it was forced out by mining activities and violent illegal armed groups. … According to the United Nations and human rights groups Colombia has 87 different native tribes, with around 1 million members, who are at risk of disappearing, due largely to the countrys half-century armed conflict which has killed over 200,000 people and displaced millions. (Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Richard Chang and Lisa Shumaker) …] reuters/article/2014/09/26/colombia-mining-idUSL2N0RQ30V20140926 … AND ========> [… Colombias president has apologised to indigenous communities in the Amazon for deaths and destruction caused by the rubber boom around 100 years ago. Backed by Colombias government, a Peruvian firm tapped rubber from 1912 to 1929 near La Chorrera in the south. Up 100,000 people were killed and communities devastated, according to indigenous leaders. President Juan Manuel Santos asked for forgiveness for all the dead and their orphans. He apologised in the name of a company, a government. …] _______ bbc/news/world-latin-america-19931443 (from 2012) …
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 02:49:15 +0000