On October 2 the WRM International Secretariat addressed the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights, supporting the document sent to this international organization by CEJIL (Centre for Justice and International Law) and CIMI, denouncing the Brazilian government for ignoring the Tupinikim and Guarani indigenous peoples land rights and demanding the inmediate filing of the Federal police investigation against the Dutch missionary Winfried Overbeek.
Ricardo Carrere participated in the Latin American Workshop of the Joint Initiative to Address the Underlying Causes of Deforestation and Forest Degradation held in Santiago de Chile from 8-10 October. The five case studies presented at the workshop are available in our web site, where we will be including the studies presented at the other seven regional processes (some are already available).
The WRM International Secretariat launched an action alert to support the First Pacific Walking for Land Rights and Self-determination of the Ngobe people and other indigenous peoples of Costa Rica, that took place between 11 and 12 October. By means of a letter we also expressed to the Ambasador of Costa Rica in Uruguay our support to this action.
On October 20 we sent faxes to Ecuadorian authorities supporting the struggle of the Cofanes indigenous peoples, who have recently occupied the Dureno 1 oil well in the Ecuadorian Amazon, as an action of protest against the depleting activities of the oil industry in their ancestral territories. A message was also sent to the company Bosques Arauco, dated October 28, expressing our concern for the situation of the Mapuche community of Cuyinco, which is defending the native forests of Cerro Alto in southern Chile against logging activities by this company.
