After the publication of the international expert report, president Humala announced that the Conga project is viable, if the mining company is willing to adjust the exploitation plans to the environmental recommendations, proposed by the experts. One of the main recommendations is the preservation of two mountain lakes, that, according to the company’s original plans, normally would had to be displaced. How did the different stakeholders respond to this statement?

In the south of Bolivia, director Rodrigo Vázquez films two inseparable friends: 13-year-old Jorge and 19-year-old Alex. Both have taken after their fathers and work in the tin mine for around two dollars a day. Jorge's father suffers from silicosis, the so-called miners' disease, while Alex's dad is already dead. The minimum age to become a miner is officially 18, but the union inspections are apparently easy to get around. A union worker explains to the filmmakers that the children run even higher risks because of their weaker systems.

CATAPA presents - from February 14th until March 15th - DocuLatino IV, a Latin American documentary festival. This edition puts forward the problems of the gold mining and oil industry.

While big transnational corporations make lots of profits, countries in the Souts are left with a huge social and ecological mess. Local ecosystems are devastated, rural communities lose their farmland, toxic products poison the drinking water for years. The consequences are desastrous, and often irreversible.

Lyuba Zarsky: Environmental and health effects are a violation of human rights