[su_slider source=”media: 29955,29956,29957,29958,29959,29960,29961″ limit=”30″ link=”image” target=”blank” width=”700″ height=”460″ autoplay=”0″ speed=”500″][su_slider source=”media: 29856,29857″ limit=”30″ link=”image” target=”blank” width=”700″ height=”460″ autoplay=”0″ speed=”500″][su_menu][\/su_slider]<\/p>\n
Maxima Acu\u00f1a, one of this year\u2019s six winners of the Goldman Environmental Awards, is doing what many are across the world: protecting the land, water, the rivers and streams from resource extraction.<\/p>\n
Acu\u00f1a\u2019s fight in defending the earth against multinational corporations intent on raping the land is no light task.<\/p>\n
Just last month, Berta Caceres\u2014an indigenous Lenca woman of Honduras and 2015 Goldman Award winner\u2014was assassinated for standing up against such powers.<\/p>\n
When Acu\u00f1a got up to accept her award on April 18, she sang her story in oral tradition, an achingly vivid description of the destruction of her home, her belongings and the violence she and her family have faced.<\/p>\n
Acu\u00f1a, a 47-year-old mother and grandmother, standing tall at 4\u2019 11\u2019\u2019, has been a giant in the fight against the Conga open-pit gold mining project. She has become the voice of the movement to stop the mine.<\/p>\n
She and her husband bought land in 1994 in Tragadero Grande, the region of Cajamarca next to the Blue Lagoon of Celendin in Peru\u2019s Andean highlands.\u00a0 This area landed in the sights of the Denver, Colorado-based Newmont Mining Corporation, after the Peruvian government granted them a 7,400-acre concession to build the mine\u2014disregarding that Acu\u00f1a owned land in that area.<\/p>\n
Her land is key because it would provide access to her beloved Laguna Azul, one of four lakes that Newmont plans to drain and convert into \u201ctailings,\u201d ponds to collect toxic mining byproducts such as cyanide and arsenic.<\/p>\n
Newmont, along with Peruvian mining company Buenaventura, owns and operates the Yanacocha Mine in northern Peru. Almost half of the regions land has been given away in mining concessions.<\/p>\n
\u201cYanacocha mine is Latin America\u2019s second largest open pit mine\u2014and the world\u2019s most profitable. The mine has destroyed our water sources and drained our lakes,\u201d said community organizer Milton S\u00e1nchez. \u201cOur water has turned orange and there is cadmium, lead and arsenic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acu\u00f1a is determined not to let that happen to Laguna Azul. Mining companies tried to bully her by saying she didn\u2019t really own the land. When she presented a deed, they destroyed her home\u2014twice\u2014and harassed and threatened her. They also took her to court, accusing her of being a squatter on her own land.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came and asked me to sell my land, but that\u2019s an absurd idea. I will never sell it,\u201d said Acu\u00f1a in her Goldman interview. \u201cI stepped out with the title to my land and I said: \u2018Gentlemen, there are no grounds to kick me out. My husband and I bought this land with the sweat off our backs.\u2019 I was attacked by the police and the company security team.\u201d
\nUltimately she won the case, but now she says things are worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey ruled in our favor and I thought the conflict was finally over, but things are worse because they won\u2019t leave us alone, not for one second. My house is surrounded and they even built a fence around it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Newmont may appeal the regional court\u2019s decision in the Peruvian Supreme Court in order to move forward with the mine. For the time being, Acu\u00f1a has managed to block the construction of the Conga Mine in a region of Peru where half of all land has been granted to extraction projects.<\/p>\n
Acu\u00f1a faces continued threats and lives in constant vigilance due to threats to \u201cmake her disappear\u201d and to the imposing presence of Yanacocha and their workers. Despite the fact that Acu\u00f1a and her family have been granted protective measures (\u201cmedidads cautelares\u201d) by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, the state has taken no action to secure the family.<\/p>\n
Even in the face of such threats, Acu\u00f1a said she will never back down. The fight, she said in a press conference, is \u201cfor the youth, to understand why we fight and why we are confronting these large corporations. So they will know that \u2018yes, we can defend our lives\u2014 for our children and for our future generations.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI will never kneel before Yonacocha,\u201d said Acu\u00f1a. \u201cI will never give up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[su_slider source=”media: 29955,29956,29957,29958,29959,29960,29961″ limit=”30″ link=”image” target=”blank” width=”700″ height=”460″ autoplay=”0″ speed=”500″][su_slider source=”media: 29856,29857″ limit=”30″ link=”image” target=”blank” width=”700″ height=”460″ autoplay=”0″ speed=”500″][su_menu][\/su_slider] Maxima Acu\u00f1a, one of this year\u2019s six winners of the Goldman Environmental Awards, is doing what many are across the world: protecting the land, water, the rivers and streams from resource extraction. Acu\u00f1a\u2019s fight in defending […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":29959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3929],"tags":[4917,9233,9229,9227,4229,9239,4919,9225,9237,9231,7475,9235],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-29954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-berta-caceres","tag-buenaventura","tag-conga-open-pit-gold-mining-project","tag-goldman-environmental-awards","tag-honduras-en","tag-inter-american-human-rights-commission","tag-lenca","tag-maxima-acuna","tag-milton-sanchez","tag-newmont-mining-corporation","tag-peru-en","tag-yanacocha","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n