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| Photo: Federico Lepe |
submitted by the Front for the Defense Wirikuta - Waha Tamatsima
Wirikuta is one of the sites most important natural sacred indigenous Wixárika (Huichol), originating in the Sierra Madre Occidental and recognized in Mexico and Latin America have largely retained the ancestral nature of their usual and continue to practice their cultural and religious traditions, while for Wixárika cosmogony, one of the five points of the compass from which emanated the gods and who regularly target people of different communities of Wixárika to recreate the journey that their ancestors to give birth in the world.
Wirikuta was declared a Natural Protected Area in 1994 by the Government of San Luis Potosi. It is in the region around the town of Real de Catorce upstate, in an area belonging to the Chihuahuan desert, semi-desert area that is recognized worldwide as one of the richest in terms of biodiversity and where Golden Eagle is the symbol of our country and tops the list of national conservation priority species.
Catorce mining activity began in the last decades of the eighteenth century through the early decades of the twentieth century, which highlights the participation of English, Creoles, mestizos, and even English, to exploit the silver mines found in the mountains around Real de Catorce, they are considered sacred by the people Wixárika. Between 1970 and 1990 were undertaken to obtain the remaining silver in the debris left from previous mining activity. Currently
Canadian company First Majestic Silver Corporation has published the plan of mining project, Real de Catorce, in the municipality of Catorce, in particular the Wirikuta sacred area, which covers almost the entire Sierra de Catorce, where every stone, every tree and integrity of the bowels of this mountain has a story about the birth of the world, with Cerro Grande and Cerro del Quemado, the sites where the pilgrimage ends Wirikuta deposited within the last offerings to the ancestors.
To carry out the execution of that mining project, First Majestic Silver, through Minera Real Bonanza companies, SA de CV and Minera Real de Catorce, SA de CV, has acquired at least 22 concessions to operate silver and other metals, which were granted by the State Mexican in Wirikuta over the last hundred years. However, although some have been approved in recent years, no award was subject to consultation with the People Wixárika, violating the laws in force in Mexico, as has been denounced by the authorities of traditional and agrarian village Wixárika of the States of Jalisco, Nayarit and Durango.
The operation planned by First Majestic Silver is carried out through chemical processes in the minerals profit, even with the use of cyanide, according to its own exploration studies made by the consultants Micon Ltd. Today the company talks about a method of flotation, where highly polluting chemicals are used as Xanthates, affecting the aquifers that supply the communities around Real de Catorce, where he used about 10,000 liters of water per ton extracted according to standards for water use similar mining activity. Thus, the mining of First Majestic Silver threatens both the territorial rights of indigenous peoples recognized in various international conventions and the Inter-American System of Human Rights, including the right to cultural identity and indigenous freedom of belief Wixárika Village. Also will undermine the right to water, health and the environment of the populations living around Wirikuta, and their right to sustainable development. So far, mining is the only development option proposed by the authorities for the area Wirikuta.
Given these facts, we request that:
1. Respect and protection of UN Wirikuta - UNESCO, as part of the Global Network of Sacred Natural Sites.
2. Cancel any mining activity in Wirikuta and not granted administrative permissions necessary to undertake it.
3. No new concessions are granted about Wirikuta.
4. Protected Natural Area is declared Federal reserve Wirikuta.
5. It decreed the north of the Sierra de Catorce and Cultural Landscape.
6. Sea Route to Wirikuta inscribed in the Convention on the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage of UNESCO.
7. Actions are carried out environmental rehabilitation of the area Wirikuta.
8. The realization of preventive actions to ensure the health of the inhabitants of Wirikuta.
9. Allocate resources and implement federal and state programs aimed at improving the actual quality of living conditions of rural populations living in the semi-desert San Luis highland.
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