From March 26-30, an estimated 50,000 people flocked to Tunisia to participate in the first World Social Forum to take place in the Arab world. The theme was dignity -- a term that had become a battle cry during the revolutionary protests that took place throughout the region in 2010 and 2011.

Organizations working on water issues gathered a day earlier to hold discussions on the central role of water in the fight for human dignity. During the December 2010 protests in Tunisia that sparked the wave of revolutions in the Arab World, thousands had marched chanting, "Yes to bread and water! No to Ben Ali!" It was a clear message that the people would no longer tolerate a regime that denied them their basic rights.

The Blue Planet Project is working with allies including The Council of Canadians, KAIROS, Mining Watch Canada, Breaking the Silence Maritimes and the United Church to raise awareness about community resistance to Canadian mining in communities across the country.

Community activists from El Salvador will be on a North American speaking tour in March and April dubbed “Water is More Precious than Gold” to share stories from the frontlines about the ecologically and socially devastating impacts of metal mining in the region, the heroic efforts to have metal mining banned in the country and the ways in which the mining industry is bullying their way into Latin American communities.

I have been in San Jose del Progreso in Oaxaca, Mexico this week on behalf of the Blue Planet Project with Brent Patterson as part of a human rights delegation called the “Mision Civil de Observacion Justicia para San Jose del Progreso." The Mision is aimed at investigating tensions surrounding yet another Canadian mine in Mexico.

Yesterday, we visited the Cuzcatlan mine owned by Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver, which is at the heart of major conflicts within the community. Just this year, two anti-mining activists have been killed. Others have received death threats after participating in protests.

The Council of Canadians is issuing this urgent notice to let authorities in
the State of Oaxaca know that we are monitoring the situation in Magdalena
Ocotlan and San Jose del Progreso. We have received urgent information that
community activists have been threatened and harassed by local authorities and
mining company workers for challenging the construction of a water pipeline to
carry water from municipality of Magdalena Ocotlan to the mine in San Jose del
Progreso without the consent of either community.

The community of San Jose del Progreso is opposed to the Fortuna Silver mine
due which would contaminate and deplete local water supplies. In 2009, 300