From: “cdsapi” <cdsapi@shaw.ca>
Date: December 14, 2013 12:50:22 AM PST (CA)
Subject: Canadian Mining Corporation suing Costa Rica $1 billion for trying to refuse a toxic gold mine
Infinito Gold, a Canadian mining company, just slapped Costa Rica with a $1 billion lawsuit because the nation decided to protect its rainforests rather than host an open-pit gold mine.
Cdsapi’s Added Comment: This gives us a very clear perspective as to what Free Trade Agreements are really all about – they are designed – conceived in secret, behind closed doors – by the most powerful multinational corporations to serve their unfettered vested interests – as a means to implement “corporate colonialism” – a strategy whereby corporations can roam the globe unimpeded, able to superimpose their “economic raping and pillaging enterprises” on any country and/or district, against the will of that country’s population, guaranteeing that the “maximization of Corporate profits” takes precedence over and supersede any-and-all national laws, with blatant disregard for the corporate-activity’s impact on the health and economy of the country and its indigenous peoples.
FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS are totally incompatible with the concept of National Democracy and Sovereignty, whereby the people of a country should be able to determine their own future, able to protect their environment, able to protect their health and to protect their local economies.
Any country that refuses to be subdued by, and fails to comply with, the “Corporate Will”, can be sued by a Corporation that feels impeded in its “ability to usurp and steal the resources for the maximization of its corporate profits”.
Free Trade Agreements protect the ability of Corporations to superimpose THEIR WILL in the subservient enslavement of signatory countries and their populations. The result is Wealthy Corporations and impoverished peoples whose wages, in the name of competitive efficiency, continue to sink to the lowest common denominator, approaching slave labor, leaving behind toxic environments and destroyed economies. Frequently, we have already witnessed indigenous populations that were trying to protect their areas and livelihood from corporate exploitation simply “wiped out” in ethnic cleansing. Invariably this is “justified” by a media-labeling of their “self-defense” as “acts of terrorism”.
Under FREE TRADE, only Corporations have rights – people don’t count, and are considered to be ‘in the way’ if they refuse to become just “human resources” for Corporate progress. This New World Ordering is literally nothing other than “Corporate colonialism” and “Corporate Governance” under the direction of an upper Elite – the same wealthy players, just reorganized and relabeled to permit the Pied Pipers to play a propagandized, camouflaged, deceptively luring tune that leads into the same dungeon as in previous centuries of colonial exploitation – now using their own contrived “court system” (Tribunals that adjudicate in secret), with the global military remaining the ultimate backup for the utterly resistant disobedients.
It is time for the PUBLIC everywhere to take a stand against this blatantly camouflaged EXPLOITATION/ASSAULT on the Sovereignty and Democracy of countries and their peoples’ rights.
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Infinito Gold, a Canadian mining company, just slapped Costa Rica with a $1 billion lawsuit because the nation decided to protect its rainforests rather than host an open-pit gold mine.
Costa Rica’s rainforest is lauded as one of the most beautiful in the world, and is home to many endangered species, including the green macaw. Officials considered approving the gold mine, but the use of toxic chemicals such as cyanide — which often leaks into and pollutes nearby lakes and rivers – was far too great a risk to allow the project to move forward.
A subsidiary of Infinito Gold has announced that a massive lawsuit against Costa Rica is “imminent”, so we need to act now. If thousands of us stand together against this toxic mine, we can show Infinito that Costa Rica and other countries that are defending their natural resourceswill not be silently bullied by corporate power.
Tell Infinito Gold to drop its $1 billion lawsuit against Costa Rica.
http://action.sumofus.org/a/mining-costarica/8/2/?akid=3110.1453828.p9210u
Open-pit gold mining in Costa Rica would destroy 190 hectares of pristine forest. The rainforest houses 5% of the world’s species and has seen tremendous growth in the ecotourism industry. Over 75% of Costa Ricans oppose mining and have decided that they cannot take the risk to move forward with gold mining in the country.
And Costa Rica is not the first to be sued by Infinito Gold. In 2001, Infinito Gold locked Venezuela into a ten-year legal battle over a rejected mine. Fortunately, Infinito lost.
We can make sure Infinito Gold loses again by standing up to its greedy tactics and shameful behavior.
Corporate profits cannot take precedence over the health of the people and the environment.
Stand up for Costa Rica’s rainforests — tell Infinito Gold to drop the $1 billion lawsuit now.
Thanks for taking a stand,
Kaytee, Hanna, Katherine, Terryn, Kimberly, Jessica, Ledys, Fatah, Marie, Zermina and the rest of us
P.S. Please help us up the pressure on Infinito by sharing this petition on Facebook or forwarding this email to your friends.
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More information:
All That Glitters. Corporate Knights, 3 Oct 2013.
Calgary-based mining company suing Costa Rica for more that $1 Billion. Global News, 4 Oct 2013.
SumOfUs is a worldwide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.