Story Behind the Story: What a Canadian company (Aura Minerals) didn't want us to see in Azacualpa

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2017Nov 27

Azacualpa, HONDURAS. On May 6, 2016 we, a small delegation of Canadian and local human rights observers and I, were invited to visit a small community living in a mountainous region of western Honduras. The Azacualpa community has been settled there for about 200 years. Since 1983, a number of Canadian mining companies (including Aura Minerals since 2008) have been operating in the area. Despite efforts to work out a deal with the local population, the villagers were, and remain, strongly opposed to the presence of the San Andres open-pit cyanide-leaching gold mine on their territory. Much of their landscape has now been devastated, with increasing pressure to expand the area that is being mined - which now includes the community's final resting place. The Azacualpa cemetery, located about 200 meters from the top ridge of the mountain being mined, is now slated for destruction as the company pushes to expand its pursuit of gold.

It's been about a year and a half since my visit - but having now learned that coffins of the deceased are now being unlawfully exhumed, against the will of the Azacualpa community, I could not help but revisit my footage - to share with you, our experience of what it meant to visit a community living near the site of a Canadian mining company.

Dear friends and colleagues - I ask of you to please consider, and act accordingly... FOR MORE INFORMATION AND UPDATES ON THIS STRUGGLE PLEASE VISIT: www.rightsaction.org www.miningwatch.ca www.hondurassolidarity.org THANK YOU for taking the time to watch this video.