(Castellano) (Euskara)
LATEST Amalurra program: HERE (just in Basque)
It is well known that changing the year and celebrating it is nothing more than a mere symbolism, because life goes on and with it the projects, the businesses, the rackets, and with them the impacts, the damages, the struggles… and the repression, etc. So there is no time for celebrations. No matter how many wishes and expectations we have for the coming year, we know that the only way to achieve anything is to take to the streets and stand up to these projects and repression. That is why we are still here.
We start the year and once again in the booth we broadcast a new Amalurra program on the Tolosaldeko Ataria radio station. In it we announce the new calls, which have been made well in advance, but we must keep them very much in mind:
- 1st February: demonstration in Iruñea (Pamplona) against the trial of the activists against the Aroztegia urbanization project in Lekaroz.
- 15 February: demonstration in Iruñea against the TAV (AHT) (High Speed Train).
In the program we review other cases of resistance and repression on the Planet that we follow from A Planeta and also in Amalurra. Now we add more to these: the Muga Mine project has obtained new financing from a Chinese company. This indicates that the mining corporation will have more possibilities of undertaking its Zangoza mining project. This was stopped by the institutions, but the Government of Navarre has also shown itself to be in favour of its materialisation.
On the other hand, one of the cases that concerns us and that we dealt with in the last radio programme is that of the Santa Marta 5. These 5 activists from El Salvador were released last October 18 after almost two years in prison (since January 2023). But the prosecution appealed again, and now they are facing a return to prison. There is already a date for that trial as well: 3 February. On that day they could return to prison. Meanwhile, as we have already explained, the Salvadoran law that prevents the development of metallic mining because of the irreparable damage it has done to the country (and others, of course) has been annulled. That mining was the reason why the 5 and the whole community of Santa Marta are resisting, and why they are suffering this persecution. They are already fixing the road in the department of Cabañas so that the heavy mining transport can enter. Therefore, let’s add them to our struggle: pressure has already begun again, with letters to embassies, to Salvadoran institutions and in support of the 5 and the exemplary community of Santa Marta in Cabañas. On the 1st in Iruñea, we will also have them very present.
In this program we remember two other cases of persecution that we have had in mind in recent days, such as the 21 defenders of Coyul (Oaxaca, Mexico) and the 6 against the Punilla highway in Cordoba (Argentina). In recent days, they have been joined by repression against the Mapuche community of Lof Pailako, who, in addition to demanding to remain in their ancestral territory, are opposed to extractive projects (real estate, mining, forestry and hydroelectric) in Mapuche territory.
Because the Mapuche people do not stop in defence of territory, water and the environment. From 31 January to 9 February 2025, the association Ya Basta! Edi Bese! is organising the Caravan in Patagonia Argentina. This will be the beginning of the Caravan from South to South, which will travel through territories that are today misnamed Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia. This caravan is part of the objectives reached at the Global Meeting for Climate and Life – ANTI-COP 2024, in view of COP 30. Because there is a new Climate Summit this year, as you know, and will be held in November in Belem (Brazil). We cannot continue to allow them to continue destroying the Planet, while they sell us so many lies.
In the case of Coyul, the defendants also belong to an indigenous community, Chontal, from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region (Oaxaca, Mexico), who are also, like in Aroztegia, opposing a macro-project of tourist urbanization and protecting an ecosystem of high environmental value such as the coastal mangrove lagoon system. The 21 people prosecuted have been unjustly accused of serious crimes such as dispossession and kidnapping, with the aim, once again, of dismantling their opposition and instilling fear in the community. The 21 people prosecuted include women, elderly people and community spokespersons.
The 6 activists against the Punilla Highway, Cordoba (Argentina) are also victims of disproportionate charges, as they are accused of threats and resistance to authority, in the context of an escrache. This highway project is currently under construction, and although an initial project (2018) has already been rejected, it continues to pass through native forest of priority conservation category, as well as the territory of indigenous communities. Its fundamental reason is to serve as a bi-oceanic corridor to facilitate the outflow of natural resources in the current ongoing plundering. 
As we have said, these are just examples of the same repression and criminalization that now touches us closely with those of the 7 people of Aroztegia who are being asked to serve a total of 20 years in prison and 56,000 euros for opposing a macro-project that is not necessary and whose impacts are incalculable. As in the case of Coyul in Mexico, it is nothing more than another large urbanization for the mega-rich to enjoy, perpetuating once again this wasteful and destructive system that is taking the Planet and Life to very worrying levels.
In this sense, it is also eloquent the parallelism that the campaign against macro-farms in Nafarroa also makes, with the criminalization that they suffered and of which we could list many other cases.
In 2021, 8 activists who took action against water pollution at the Caparroso macro-farm, owned by the Valle de Odieta company, were found guilty and sentenced to pay 3,360 euros each (a total of 26,880 euros). The fine corresponds to an action on World Water Day, in which they entered the farm’s facilities with signs and banners and poured 1,000 liters of their own water. They were protesting against the contamination of the macro-farm with high levels of nitrates, as well as heavy metals, antibiotics and pesticides in the river Aragón, and in turn, of the PROTECTED areas of this river and the Arga, as well as the Bardenas Reales Natural Park. We should add that the institutions acted only after the complaints. We should also add that far from being disarticulated, the reasons outweigh the fear, and so does our commitment, and the fight against macro-farms continues in Nafarroa, because not only do their impacts continue, but, as we know, new projects are being added to them.
We end the first program of the year with the case of the Israeli renewable energy company Enlight Renewable Energy, which is seeking to expand in Spain. This has been denounced by various environmental and Palestinian solidarity organisations. As we never tire of repeating, the fact of being renewable does not justify everything. Moreover, in this case, the company is not only Israeli, but we have already denounced the fact that it has built its wind farms in territory illegally occupied by Palestine.
Until the next Amalurra programme!
AMALURRA DEFENDA DEZAGUN!!!! (LET’S DEFEND MOTHER EARTH!)
A PLANET: BECAUSE THERE IS NO PLANET B!
