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<div>In concert with what is happening in N. Dakota...</div>
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<div>Below is an example of the work the Joining Hands Partnership Program with which I am working in Peru is doing there and also trying to connect the dots with communities in other countries and the US to address environmental and other issues related to resource extraction. For years we have worked with residents of La Oroya, Peru, an Andean community contaminated by lead and other heavy metals caused by the US-owned smelter, based in St Louis and NYC. Many of the materials (lead, gold, silver, copper, etc.) from this smelter are used by US consumers, but at the expense of the health and well-being of local communities and their environments. The proposed Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement contains an Investment State Chapter that is in most free trade agreements that gives corporations greater rights than communities/states/nations and often frees them from liability, and allows them to sue communities, states and nations when their actions are challenged and profits (past/present/future) are threatened.</div>
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<div>Specifically, the information below is about a violent incident related to mining in Cajamarca, Peru. The Joining Hands Peru Partnership and other networks, such as Red Muqui have been monitoring and supporting Maxima Acuna as she and her family try to protect the land that is rightfully and legally theirs against the aggression of the Yanacocha Mine, owned by Newmont, a U.S. company.
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<div>Further below is a recent press release about the incident. </div>
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<div>What we do to the web, we do to ourselves...water is life...Local people shall rise again, to build the earth, the common earth...our common home...</div>
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<div>Ellie Stock</div>
<div>elliestock@aol.com <br>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#4472C4">Please see the attached press release from Red Muqui, a member organization of our Joining Hands Peru network Red Uniendo Manos Peru, regarding the attack by the security forces of the Yanacocha mining project
on Máxima Acuña and her family. Newmont has a 51.35% investment in Yanacocha.
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#4472C4">Please take action by following the hyperlinked petition below!</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:#E7E6E6"><span style="color:red"><a href="http://org.salsalabs.com/o/676/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=19644" target="_blank"><span style="color:red">Tell Newmont: drop your lawsuit against Máxima!</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:#E7E6E6">2016 Goldman Environmental Prize winner Máxima Acuña de Chaupe has been hospitalized after being attacked, allegedly by security forces hired by Minera Yanacocha, a subsidiary of Denver-based Newmont Mining, according
to information provided by the Chaupe family.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:#E7E6E6">The attack took place on Máxima’s property in northern Peru that the mining company has been trying to obtain for its Conga gold mine project.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:#E7E6E6">Máxima is concerned that the company’s security forces will continue to circle her home and intimidate her. And there is no indication that Newmont is backing off from its legal battle against her.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:#E7E6E6">This harassment needs to stop!</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#4472C4">Watch the Goldman Environmental Prize video on Máxima’s work
</span><span style="color:red"><a href="http://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/maxima-acuna/" target="_blank"><span style="color:red">here</span></a></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#4472C4">Watch the trailer for a great documentary that looks at the conflict around the Yanacocha project. It´s called
</span><span style="color:red"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pi4dveDgmY" target="_blank"><span style="color:red">The Daughter of the Lake</span></a></span><span style="color:#4472C4">.
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<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3">LATEST ATTACK ON MAXIMA ACUÑA PROVES HOW LAW No. 30230 AND
REGULATORY PACKAGES FACILITATE THE VIOLATION OF RIGHTS</font><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3"> </font></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3"> </font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3">The MUQUI NETWORK, addresses itself to national and
international audiences to manifest the following:</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3"> </font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3">1. We regret that once again, security personnel of the
Yanacocha mining project has committed an act of violence against Maxima Acuña
and her husband Jaime Chaupe on September 18th. In a public statement the
company admits having entered the lands of the Chaupe Acuña family in order to
remove "some crops located in an area of 200 square meters."</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3"> </font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3">2. In a video released by the Yanacocha project itself, a
group of about twenty members of the security force can be seen - wearing
safety shields and carrying weapons - crossing the perimeter fence placed there
by the mining company itself, in order to define its lands with respect to the
property of the</font><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3">Chaupe Acuña family.</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3"> </font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3">3. In the recording there appears a disproportionate and
larger than necessary security force of the mining company against the efforts
of Maxima Acuña and her husband who, being alone, try to defend the land that they
consider to be theirs. As a result the peasant couple ended up with severe
injuries, which upon evaluation have been determined to be multi-contusions. On
the basis of these facts the National Ombudsman Office has filed a complaint
with the Public Prosecutor.</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3"> </font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3">4. We urge the Public Prosecutor to investigate in depth and
with due speed and transparency what happened, and charge those who are
responsible.</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3"> </font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3">5. We join the invocation of the Ombudsman Office, and
demand that the Peruvian State respect its international obligations by complying
with the injunction issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
(CIDH) in favor of Maxima Acuña. The State must provide the necessary security
to her and her family, in order to prevent the mining project Yanacocha and the
company that provides its security services from continuing </font><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3">to exercise violence against them, affecting
their rights to personal integrity and health.</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3"> </font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3">6. Let it be know to the public that the high-handed action
exerted by the mining company and the company that provides security services
is favored by Law No. 30230, a standard that is part of the regulatory packages
approved between 2013-2015. This law, by way of its Articles 65, 66 and 67, amended
Article 920 of the Civil Code regarding the extrajudicial defense of
possession, which the mining company Yanacocha mentions in its statement to
support its violent action.</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3"> </font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3">7. RED MUQUI and GRUFIDES, at that time, denounced the
danger of this policy by indicating that it enables "fast and immediate
recovery of possession", without recourse to the judicial authority, and allowing
the use of force, or exercising "vigilante justice". This is what has
happened in this case. Maxima Acuña, despite having documents proving the
legality of her possession to the land and even more, being legally justified,
Yanacocha mining exercised the use of force, without any judicial mandate to sustain
it.</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3"> </font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3">8. Finally, the act of violence suffered by Maxima Acuña and
her husband through the application of "possessory defense" is just
one example of the multiple violations of rights that the regulatory packages
(approved and promulgated between 2013 and 2015) can cause. Therefore we demand
that the legislature repeal Laws No. 30230, No. 30327 and Supreme Decree No.
001-2015-EM, among other regulations, that we consider prejudicial to
fundamental rights, and only causing more social conflict with their
application.</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3"> </font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3"> </font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Cambria" size="3">Lima, September 19, 2016</font></div>
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