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Clear consequences

Beginning of Mesoamerican event against mining in Oaxaca, Mexico; interview with Kendy Hernández

Radio Mundo Real

January 17, 2013

“Yes to Capulálpam, no to the mine,” said Kendy Hernández, referring to the meeting to take place from Thursday, January 17 to Sunday, January 20 in her community of Capulálpan de Méndez, in Oaxaca State, Mexico.

Kendy was interviewed for Real World Radio by Mónica Montalvo, who is participating in and covering the event.

The community activist pointed out that the goal is to promote joint experiences of resistance, based on some of the victories reached, for instance that of Capulálpan.

“Historically, this is a mining region, however there are plans to promote open-pit mining, which due to the demands of the organized community we managed to suspend because it threatens life in the community,” said Kendy.

The Mesoamerican Peoples Meeting “Yes to life, no to mining” beginning today aims to analyze the consequences of mining in the Mesoamerican territories and generate defense and organization alternatives from the peoples, the authorities and organizations.

This event will address the mining situation in Mesoamerica; indigenous rights and mining; strategies of defense and peoples’ alternatives for well-living.

This is a moment of reflection for organizations from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Canada and Mexico, that have joined different resistance processes to defend indigenous and peasant territories against mining.

The event is called by municipal and community authorities of Capulálpam de Méndez, the Coordinator of Peoples United of Valle de Ocotlán (CPUVO), the Oaxaca Group in Defense of Territories, University Services and Networks of Knowledge of Oaxaca (SURCO), the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining (REMA), the Mesoamerican Movement against the Mining Extractivist Model (M4), the National Indigenous Missions Support Center (CENAMI AC).

In Mexico there have been a series of problems directly related to the arrival of mining companies, such as in Baja California, San Luís Potosí, Nayarit, Puebla, Veracruz, Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca. In Oaxaca social problems have especially deepened due to the mining projects, such as the cases of Capulálpam de Méndez in Sierra Juarez and San Jose del Progreso in Valle de Ocatlan.

According to Banco de México, in just a decade the income of the sector went from fifth to third place, only exceeded by oil and automobile incomes.

According to the president of the Mexican Mining Chamber, 60 per cent of the national territory remains unexplored. But what Banco de México or the mining industry are not saying is that this growth is based on the destruction of the environment, overlooking the rights of the landowners, peasants and indigenous people.

At the end of the interview with Real World Radio, Kendy said that the community is in charge of the logistics of the event and is also broadcasting it live through local community radios and online live streaming.

Kendy invited everyone to learn about the resistance in her community through photos and texts available from its Facebook page.

Original article published by Radio Mundo Real in English | Español

Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license

Protesters block entrance to Canadian mine in Guatemala City. Photo: Radio Mundo Real. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) license. Extractive industries | Radio Mundo Real | Water |

Not one step back

Guatemala: Resistance to mining in San José del Golfo continues despite repression

Radio Mundo Real

December 11, 2012

In the early morning of Thursday, December 6, the Guatemalan riot police repressed, beat up and kidnapped members of the community of San José del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc near Guatemala City, who have been on a vigil for ten months to block the mining equipment of the company Exmingua.

Even though there were no formal accusations against them, the police officers ordered the community members to leave the place or they would destroy the precarious shelters placed on the side of the road where every day they produce food for nearly 200 people while they take turns to protest.

Milton Carrera, one of the community members who was arrested at the place, told Real World Radio that the police operation was illegal. They had no chance to defend themselves and said they were incommunicado for six hours, which is equivalent to kidnapping in his opinion.

“This was all based on false accusations,” said Milton. “They almost strangled me.” During the eviction, the police threw tear gas at the people, and they beat up elderly people and even children, said Milton. He added that “We are living under a repressive government, nothing is respected: there was no eviction warrant from a judge nor from President Otto Pérez Molina or from the Minister of Interior.”

He also said that the Minister of Interior of Guatemala, Mauricio López Bonilla publicly threatened to expel the foreigners who are fighting against mining with the communities because of the lack of water in the area and the large demand for the resource by the extractive industry. “We need more international human rights observers to confront the military government,” said Milton.

A month ago, an international delegation of the environmental federation Friends of the Earth visited the resistance camp and expressed its solidarity and commitment to raise international awareness about their struggle and objectives.

Carrera said that on Sunday, December 9, the community decided in an assembly to continue the protest until the very end. “The struggle continues, we will stay here and the people are willing to die for this cause. If (the government) wants to talk, they should come to Puya. We shall not move from there, not one step back.”

Original article published by Radio Mundo Real in English | Español

2012 Media releases | Extractive industries | Water |

Demand the release of unjustly detained Guatemalan prisoners

Friends of the Earth International

November 22, 2012

Join Friends of the Earth International in calling for the release of eight political prisoners in Barillas, Guatemala, who are due before a hearing on November 26.

Send an email to the Guatemalan authorities.

Eleven people were arrested without charge on May 2, 2012 in a flagrant violation of their rights. Several of those arrested had protested the killing of a community member by private security guards working for Spanish company Hidralia SA. Others were simply randomly picked up.

Hidralia SA is building the Santa Cruz hydroelectric dam. Over 90% of local community members are opposed to and voted against the implementation of hydroelectric and mining projects in Barillas in a 2007 consultation.

Eight people remain in prison over seven months after the arrests, as verified by Friends of the Earth International’s Solidarity Mission in November this year.

The prisoners are also concerned for the wellbeing of their wives and children who have been deprived of their main household income. Many struggle with heavy debt burdens. The bus journey from their home communities to the prison takes twelve hours, making it difficult for families to visit.

The prisoners have been labeled as terrorists, despite the fact that they were either peacefully defending their communities or not involved at all.

Three of the prisoners have since been released.

The arbitrary nature of the detention of the political prisoners of Barillas cannot be denied nor concealed, it appears in the reports of several human rights groups, as well as in the file of the case and in the legal actions brought by the lawyers of the detainees.

You can support the prisoners of Barillas by sending a letter to the Guatemalan authorities and the Spanish Embassy. This action will only succeed with the solidarity of a large number of supporters, so spread the word by sharing this action on Facebook, Twitter and by email.

Take action now!

Send an email to the Guatemalan authorities

For more information

Article published by Radio Mundo Real in English | Español

Friends of the Earth International press release

San José del Golfo, Guatemala. Photo: Radio Mundo Real. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) license. Extractive industries | Radio Mundo Real | Water |

Golden lie

Interview with Milton Carrera from the resistance in San José del Golfo, near Guatemala City

Radio Mundo Real

November 20, 2012

Just 28 kilometres from Guatemala City, between the towns of San José del Golfo and San Pedro de Ayanpuc the peasant communities are resisting the actions of Canadian company Radius Gold Inc., which has operated a silver and gold mine in the area since 2000. Until now, the company has developed the exploration process. It decided to start the drilling this year, after the government approved the exploitation license, which allows activities in an area of 20 km2 for 25 years.

Milton Carrera, a community leader, said the communities realized that the company was planning to come to their territories and started to demand clear answers. “They lied to us, the gold man and the ministry of energy and mines lied to us about the project. They said we were crazy, that nothing was going to happen but we just found out about one year and a half ago that they would come here, but also we found out that there are 14 projects around.”

The community has blocked and prevented the entry of the company for the last 9 months since March of this year. They organized to defend water, land and life against the mining project. “If we don’t produce agriculture since the water is going to be contaminated, what are we going to do? We are going to die,” said the leader.

After 9 months of resistance, he said that they never know how long the struggle is going to last. They continue resisting and demanding the company to leave. To confront and intimidate them, the company is misinforming people and causing divide among them. It pays people to pretend to be mining workers and confront their own families to allow the entrance of the company. At the same time, the government has supported the company not only by providing the license, but also through military presence to protect the corporation and secure its profits.

On Tuesday, November 12, “they started to send workers from the mine, we’ve been fighting here for almost four days now, sleeping almost here. The people haven’t worked for four days, but that’s all what we can do now to survive, they are bringing their own homes here to the resistance.”

The solidarity mission was in San José del Golfo to bring the message of support and solidarity with this struggle in defense of life, the same struggle that communities and organizations are fighting around the world. “We have dignity and we have shown our kids what it is to fight with dignity, that’s what we can show, if we want to gain something, we can do it.”

By Lyda Forero, Transnational Institute (TNI)

Original article published by Radio Mundo Real in English

Solidarity mission in Central America. Photo: Radio Mundo Real. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) license. 2012 Media releases | Extractive industries | Water |

International mission in Guatemala and El Salvador

Transnational corporations pillage natural resources and violate human rights

Friends of the Earth International

November 19, 2012

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR, November 19, 2012 — An international mission organized by the environmental federation Friends of the Earth International in Guatemala and El Salvador has verified systematic human rights violations and criminalization of environmental activists and communities resisting mining and hydroelectric projects.

The mission was organized from November 13 to 19 by Friends of the Earth El Salvador (CESTA) and Friends of the Earth Guatemala (CEIBA) with the participation of allied organizations including the Transnational Institute and member groups of La Vía Campesina.

The cases of resistance visited by the mission in Guatemala included: the resistance against Marlin mine, owned by Canadian corporation Goldcorp in San Miguel Ixtahuacán municipality; the situation of the political prisoners of Santa Cruz Barillas who were arbitrarily arrested in May 2012 for resisting the building of a hydroelectric dam owned by Spanish corporation Hidralia SA, and finally the resistance of the residents of San José del Golfo to the installation of Exmingua mine, owned by Canadian Radius Gold Corporation.

The delegates of the mission in El Salvador were informed in detail about the struggle of the Environmental Committee of Cabañas department to avoid the installation of a gold and silver extractive project in El Dorado by Canadian corporation Pacific Rim.

The representatives of the environmental federation included the chair of Friends of the Earth International, Jagoda Munić from Croatia, as well as delegates from the Philippines, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Honduras, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Sweden.

“After talking with the affected communities, there is a feeling of sadness and outrage because of the situation they are going through,” said FoEI chair, Jagoda Munić.

She expressed international solidarity with the struggle of the communities affected in Guatemala and with the defense of human rights, and affirmed Friends of the Earth International’s responsibility to continue supporting the resisting communities.

“The communities that are resisting have been accused of terrorism. We have been able to verify that, far from it, they are defending their territories and their livelihood,” said Jagoda Munić.

Lastly, Jagoda Munić condemned the arbitrary detentions of the leaders of the resistance and said the international community will be waiting for the outcome of the hearing to be held next November 26 by the Guatemalan judiciary, where a decision regarding those who are still detained over the case of Santa Cruz Barillas will be issued.

Meanwhile, the chair of Friends of the Earth Spain, Victor Barro, said “The investment in Latin America by corporations that claim to be Spanish, like Hidralia SA, Telefonica, Union Fenosa and Aguas de Barcelona has caused socio-environmental conflicts and human rights violations. These actions ensure the perpetuation of the European way of life, which is currently in crisis and affects more and more people in both regions. A proof of this was the general strike recently held in Europe.”

Barro also expressed the message given by the political prisoners he visited at the prison of Region 18 in Guatemala City: “The company should leave our families alone and they should get out of our territories.”

Meanwhile, Danilo Urrea of Friends of the Earth Colombia (CENSAT) talked about the different cases of resistance visited during the mission. “We are witnessing a structural crisis of the extractivist and patriarchal model caused by the breaking of relations between society and nature. This is shown in the territorialization of capital and the financialization of nature, which leads to displacement and human rights violations.”

Danilo added “Colombia is an example of the criminalization of the protests and the struggle through laws and through the militarization of the territories all over Latin America. The disappearance of leaders and the displacement has become one of the strategies used by the corporations to dismantle the struggle and to take over territories.”

Lyda Forero of the Transnational Institute said the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal that gathered between 2006 and 2010 heard many cases of corporations that violate human rights in Central America. “Two years later, we verify that the human rights violations exposed before the Tribunal continue and are getting worse.”

The delegates of the international mission said the economic and ecological crimes committed by transnational corporations in the case of Marlin and Barillas mines in Guatemala and of Pacific Rim in El Salvador are symptomatic of global systemic problems.

They also exposed the crimes committed by transnational corporations with the complicity of governments (which adopt laws in favour of corporations even above community rights) by way of international trade or investment treaties.

The delegates of the international mission called on the European Members of Parliament to reject the Partnership Agreement between the European Union and Central America in order to prevent Europe from becoming an accomplice of the crimes committed by transnational corporations in Central America.

The European Parliament is about to ratify the Partnership Agreement between the EU and Central America on December 11 to 13.

The delegates of the mission were clear that transnational corporations are confronting communities and dividing families through the transfer of funds and misleading advertising as part of their corporate social responsibility strategy.

The mission expressed the need to end the impunity of transnational corporations in Central America.

It also expressed the need for transnational corporations to leave the affected territories and compensate the impacted communities.

It also called for the release of the political prisoners who were criminalized for civil resistance, and in the case of El Salvador, they called for the clarification of the murders and persecutions committed against environmental activists, with all the legal and ethical guarantees.

The international mission will write a preliminary report of its actions to be circulated soon.

For more information

Media contacts

In English:

  • Jagoda Munić, Chair of Friends of the Earth International: jagoda [at] zelena-akcija.hr

In Spanish:

  • Ricardo Navarro, Chair of Friends of the Earth El Salvador (Centro Salvadoreño de Tecnología Apropiada): cesta [at] cesta-foe.org.sv
  • Victor Barro, Chair of Friends of the Earth Spain: presidencia [at] tierra.org
Protesters block entrance to Canadian mine in Guatemala City. Photo: Radio Mundo Real. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) license. Extractive industries | Radio Mundo Real | Water |

Months of resistance

Protesters block entrance to Canadian mine in Guatemala City

Radio Mundo Real

November 19, 2012

San José del Golfo and San Pedro de Ayampuc are two towns near Guatemala City that have been affected by gold and silver mining. Mining activities began in the area in 2000 but the community only found out in 2010.

Radius Gold Corporation is operating in the area as a counterpart for Explotaciones Mineras de Guatemala (Exmingua). Servicios Mineros de Centroamérica is a subsidiary that exerts pressure among the population and does the so called social corporate responsibility work.

Antonio Reyes, leader in defense of the territory, says “they are just taking advantage of people’s misery and of people’s knowledge to persuade them and gain their support.”

The license for the exploitation of the mine is for 25 years in a 20 km2 area, where they plan to have 14 mining projects. This area includes the municipality of San José del Golfo and the largest village, Choleña. It also includes communities of the neighbouring municipality San Pedro de Ayampuc. Mining exploitation threatens 5,000 families that depend on agriculture for their livelihood and who would be automatically left out of work, without resources to produce food and no possibility of satisfying their basic needs.

“The mining corporation offers economic development to the families and communities and has the nerve to hand out flyers saying that they bring economic development and that they will create 70 jobs over five or seven years. Then they leave and leave people unemployed while 5,000 families who live on agriculture are left out of work for life,” Reyes told Real World Radio.

There is plenty of water in the area where the exploitation Project is located. This situation alerts the organized communities against mining, because they find the project incompatible with water availability and the fertile soil. Also, the infrastructure projects, such as paving the road, will not be beneficial for the communities, they would just serve the exploitation and benefit of the transnational corporation, while water runs out.

“On March 2, 2012 several people of the community began the resistance. A woman saw one of the bulldozers coming and she was so outraged to see how they were entering our territories without prior consultation, how they were moving lands and logging the forest, that she told the vehicle she could not go through. So people started to join her,” said Reyes. The community leader said people’s outrage has contributed to join several social groups around a common objective: defending life, regardless of their political affiliation, religion, ethnic group or social sector, they all want to live and they are defending water preservation.

As months go by and the organized community continues to block the entrance to the mine, the situation is becoming more tense, since the company is paying groups of people from the region to confront the demonstrators, a strategy to divide the community.

However, Reyes said that they will continue fighting and demonstrating peacefully. We are convinced that this is the only way for the government and the mining corporations to stop doing whatever they want and we are convinced that we are legally entitled to do this. We don’t mind dying, we hope it will not happen but if we die it does not matter because that would strengthen the resistance.”

Original article by Radio Mundo Real in English | Español

Marlin Mine, Guatemala. Photo: Victor Barro, Friends of the Earth Spain. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) license. Extractive industries | Radio Mundo Real | Water |

Goldcorp: Environmental crimes

Canadian mining corporation and its criminal record in Guatemala

Radio Mundo Real

November 16, 2012

As part of the International Solidarity Mission organized by Friends of the Earth and the Transnational Institute in Guatemala and El Salvador, there follows an analysis of the Canadian corporation Goldcorp and its record of exploitation and divide of communities where it operates.

Goldcorp is the owner of the Marlin mine, which has been in San Miguel de Ixtahuacán municipality since 2005. In 2011 the mine produced over 380,000 ounces of gold with a profit of over $600 million.

The Guatemalan government authorized the exploitation of an area of 20 km2 for 25 years, of which it has so far exploited nearly 2 km2 with serious effects on the population of the region.

As a result of the installation of the company, the communities of San Miguel Ixtahuacán have suffered serious health damage, the pollution of water caused by sediments and the use of cyanide, the destruction of the territories and their homes as a result of the use of explosives to extract gold, the payment of low salaries to local workers and the need to migrate because of the danger they are exposed to.

The communities of the region have opposed the action of the mine for years. At first through community consultations, which were neither recognized by the government nor by the mine, and later by exposing the economic and ecological crimes before the local authorities, as well as national and international opinion tribunals by demanding the respect of ILO’s Convention 169.

However, the strong resistance and defense for life and nature, both for this and for future generations, has been criminalized and persecuted, with the complicity of the government of Guatemala, which signs laws in favour of transnational corporations and against the peoples’ rights.

The mining company “Montana Exploradora” (Goldcorp) has developed a series of programs of Corporate Social Responsibility that imply a minimum investment. They ignore the community process and have managed to divide the communities that used to reject them by even causing violence among the members of the community. The Guatemalan government has been complicit in these crimes by protecting the company and ignoring the communities’ demands.

The Canadian government is also responsible for human rights violations by allowing its corporations to act above the law and to seek to operate through Bilateral Investment Treaties or Free Trade Agreements.

Original article by Radio Mundo Real in English | Español

Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license

Marlin Mine, Guatemala. Photo: Victor Barro, Friends of the Earth Spain. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) license. Extractive industries | Radio Mundo Real | Water |

Defending the territory

First day of Friends of the Earth solidarity tour in Central America

Radio Mundo Real

November 16, 2012

At the beginning of the Friends of the Earth International tour of solidarity with the communities affected by mining, dams and megaprojects in El Salvador and Guatemala, the delegation visited the Marlin mine, operated by Canadian corporation Goldcorp.

In order to learn more about the first impressions of the Friends of the Earth International delegation, Real World Radio spoke in Guatemala with Lucia Ortiz, coordinator of the Economic Justice and Resisting Neoliberalism program of Friends of the Earth.

Marlin mine is in San Miguel Itxahuacán municipality. It occupies a surface of nearly 20 km.2 The concession was granted to the company to operate the mine for 25 years. “The pollution of both soil and water can be seen and it is affecting several areas. This is an example of what could happen if gold mining expands in the region,” said the geologist.

Water pollution is one of the issues that called the attention of the activists because “the rocks that have gone through this processing go back to the mountains and are once again exposed to rain and through the lixiviation process the water ends up polluting the rivers. Later that waste ends up on the lake and the polluting liquids go through other rivers. That river (Cuilco) even brings this pollution to Mexico.”

Popular consultations were organized in Guatemala where almost all the population said NO to mining concessions and exploitations. They have become a world example of resistance to transnational corporations. For this reason, said Ortiz, FoEI is there to support the communities that resist the mining process.

“It is unbelievable that these polluting corporations still have the nerve to call themselves green or environment-friendly through corporate social responsibility projects,” she said, considering the pollution they cause as well as the loss of biodiversity near the mine, but also in terms of the cultural conflicts that arise as a result of the privatization of a public space.

“Building a diner for a primary school or privatizing the area of a cemetery is not what people need, people need to live in a healthy environment,” said the member of FoE Brazil.

Original article by Radio Mundo Real in English | Español | Português

Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license

Extractive industries | Radio Mundo Real | Water |

Poisoned rights

Crisanta Pérez: Testimony of the criminalization of resistance to Goldcorp in San Miguel Ixtahuacán (Guatemala)

Radio Mundo Real

November 16, 2012

On the first day of the Solidarity Mission organized by Friends of the Earth International and the Transnational Institute (TNI) of the Netherlands, which aims to reclaim the rights of communities affected and resisting open pit metal mining in Guatemala and El Salvador, the delegation visited Marlin gold mine, owned by Canadian corporation Goldcorp.

Even though it started operating only five years ago, the effects can already be seen, including: deaths, water privatization, poisoning of the river, eviction of peasant and indigenous population and criminalization of those who defend their territory.

The delegation, which include newly elected Friends of the Earth chair, Jagoda Munić, the 2011 Goldman Prize laureate Francisco Pineda, TNI member Lyda Ferrero, together with activists from Colombia, Honduras, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Guatemala, Spain and Philippines arrived in the Parrish of San Miguel Ixtahuacán to meet with a dozen activists that provided their testimonies about the resistance and its consequences.

One of them was Crisanta Perez, member of the Frente de Defensa Miguelense, against whom Montana corporation filed several accusations. Montana is a subsidiary of Canadian corporation Goldcorp.

Crisanta together with seven other women of Mam communities organized around the municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacán, were prosecuted for damage against the company when the corporation threw high voltage power lines to the industrial plant through their lands, by placing high voltage power lines and electricity posts above their houses.

The persecution led to her exile to Mexico, far from her children and community and her later detention when she was going back to her community to give birth.

“After all that process we were released but we are not really free because the judge told us that we should spend two years with disciplinary measures, so we cannot enforce our rights,” said Crisanta.

She also described the recent confrontation with the corporation as a result of the drillings to find water amid the community water wells that could lead to new accusations.

“Those water springs give us life. Our grandparents lived there, they would wash their clothes there, and this is our concern,” she said.

Men and women from Mam communities provided clear testimonies of environmental and human rights violations, including the right to proper food, access to water and education. They also claim that the mining corporation has hired people from the communities to defend the company’s interests, which has led to division and conflict.

“They want us out of the communities and we cannot live anywhere else,” said Crisanta. Resistance to mining has had the fundamental support of the parish of San Miguel, as well as of several other organizations.

However, Crisanta criticized that the support it sporadic because of the worsening of the situation under the current government of military Otto Pérez Molina. Marlin-Montana has a relatively small area for exploitation (20 km2), but its environmental and social effects are felt for many miles around and they even reach Mexico.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the international delegation will visit seven political prisoners who were arrested after the uprising of Santa Cruz Barillas against the installation of a hydroelectric plant by Hidralia. The group will provide its first impressions of the tour in a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

Original article published by Radio Mundo Real in English | Español

Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license

2006 Media releases | Environmental justice | Extractive industries |

CPP investment in repressive dictatorship cause for concern

London tonight: Friends of the Earth and Canadian Friends of Burma
to press concerns at CPP Investment Board public meeting

(London, Ontario, December 18, 2006) Friends of the Earth-Canada and Canadian Friends of Burma will challenge the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board’s (CPPIB) use of pension fund monies to finance the government of Burma (also known as Myanmar), reputed to be the most vicious and repressive dictatorship in the world. The public meeting will take place tonight from 5 pm to 6:30 pm at the Four Points Hotel, 1150 Wellington Road South in London, Ontario.

CPPIB is a major stockholder in Ivanhoe Mines, registered as a Canadian company holding 50% of the Myanmar Ivanhoe Copper Company — the other 50% is held by the Burma government’s Ministry of Mines.

In a new Friends of the Earth-Canada report, released just prior to the meeting (available at www.foecanada.org), they call on the CPPIB to both divest from Ivanhoe Mines and ensure no other CPPIB investment is made in Burma.

“Canadians, by virtue of their pension funds, are in business with vicious villains,” says Beatrice Olivastri, CEO, Friends of the Earth-Canada. “CPPIB’s investment in Ivanhoe Mines poses a serious risk to the future pensions belonging to Canadians.”

“We were shocked and dismayed to learn that every week, with the CPP deductions from our pay cheques, we are financing Burma’s repressive regime,” says Mr. Tin Maung Htoo, Executive Director, Canadian Friends of Burma.

CPPIB’s Policy on Responsible Investing states that, “Only companies domiciled in countries with which Canada maintains normal financial, trade and investment relations are eligible for investment” (www.cppib.ca/files/PDF/policies/policies/Responsible_Investing_Policy.pdf). Canada does not maintain normal trade relations with Burma — Burma is on Canada’s Area Control List.

“By not formalizing its stance on Burma, the federal government is negligent. It’s hard to see why the Prime Minister has not seized this opportunity to demonstrate progressive Canadian foreign policy,” says Olivastri. “In its opposition days, Mr. Harper’s party voted in favour of progressive action against Burma’s military regime and in support of the pro-democracy movement. Sadly, this negligence leaves the door open for institutions like the CPPIB to skate around their ethical duty.”

“Ivanhoe Mines’ investment in Burma not only legitimizes the military rule in Burma, but badly tarnishes Canada’s reputation. It is providing the cash-strapped regime with more than $60 million each year,” states Tin Maung Htoo.

Tonight’s CPPIB public meeting is the last in a Canada-wide series.

“Falling Through the Cracks: CPPIB Investment in Burma” is available at www.foecanada.org.

- 30 -

For more information, contact:

Beatrice Olivastri, Friends of the Earth, (613) 724-8690 (cell)

Tin Maung Htoo, Canadian Friends of Burma, (613) 297-6835 (cell)

Friends of the Earth-Canada is a voice for the environment, nationally and internationally, working with others to inspire the renewal of our communities and the earth through research, education and advocacy. It is the Canadian member of Friends of the Earth-International, now uniting 70 country FOE groups.

Canadian Friends of Burma is a federally incorporated, national non-governmental organization founded in 1991 which supports the Burma pro-democracy movement in the struggle for peace, democracy, human rights and equality in Burma.