Defending their land is the priority of the Uwa people. Their ancestral territory covers approximately 14.000 square kilometers - an area half the size of Belgium.

Today however, they possess only 14% of these lands. Currently there are two projects under development in the region that would affect the indigenous reserve. One of these is the Niscota Block, an oil extraction project extending more than 600 square kilometers and plans are also underway to construct a pipeline.

The human rights defender Norma Andrade was shot in Ciudad Juarez on Friday, December 2 and is currently hospitalized. The National Human Rights Commission [Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos, CNDH], Amnesty International and the National Network All Rights for All [Red Nacional Todos los Derechos para Todas y Todos, Red TdT] have requested that the Mexican government provide all necessary security measures for the protection of the defender and her family.

PBI invited Blanca Velazquez, Coordinator of the Worker Support Centre [Centro de Apoyo al Trabajador, CAT] in the State of Puebla, to participate on 16 and 17 November in a conference, also commemorating the 30th anniversary of PBI and organized by the Spanish Office of PBI, on the criminalization of human rights defenders. The conference, entitled "Undermining Human Rights defense: the criminalization as a strategy”, was held in Barcelona.

Mexico City. PBI Mexico launches a new Bulletin "Undermining the Land: The defense of community rights and the environment in Mexico."

Mexico, DF. Alirio Luis Quiroz left Tegucigalpa (Honduras) on August 6, 2007 to the United States (USA): "When he left the house, he said he would work to help us"1. The last time Maximina Giron Maria spoke with her son was on August 14, 2008. After this call, a friend of her husband who lives in the USA said he had seen his son in the news saying that he was beaten and had been taken off the train.

"By aligning itself with human rights defenders for the long haul, PBI's emphasis is squarely on relationships rather than log frames, harking back to an era in the history of NGOs when solidarity was more important than annual reports."

>> Read the full article on the Guardian website