Mexico's Indigenous Wixaritari Ask UN for Help Protecting Sacred Lands The News
go to original April 20, 2013

HUICHOLES: THE LAST PEYOTE GUARDIANS is a story about the mystical Wixárika People, one of the last pre-Hispanic alive cultures in Latin America, and their ongoing struggle against the Mexican government and multinational mining corporations to preserve Wirikuta, their most sacred territory and home of the famous peyote cactus. (HuicholesFilm)

MEXICO CITY – Members of the Huichol (Wixaritari) tribe asked the United Nations this week to help them protect their sacred land from mining companies.

A Wixaritari advocacy group called Defense Front presented United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples James Anaya with a report that claims a Canadian mining company is violating their rights and damaging their environment.

The Wixaritari have been battling the federal government and the Canadian mining company over concessions allowing mining operations on land they consider scared over a decade. Last year, the Mexican government agreed to protect areas of the Wixaritari’s land and respect sacred areas.

Wixaritari representatives repeated their petition to halt further mining concessions in the region, saying that mining operations cause irreversible environmental, social and cultural damage.

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