10 members of communities affected by mining, pastoral agents, researchers, lawyers and members of the Churches and Mining network, are in Germany denouncing the violations of rights and the effects of mining activity at the hands of transnational companies and the complicity of the states.
On March 21, meetings were held with German banks to discuss the impacts of mining investments on the skin and flesh of those who suffer every day. The dialogue with two banks: Deutsche Bank and DZ Bank, are signs that it is urgent and necessary to recognize the chains of financial violence operating in Latin America, with direct participation of countries in the Global North. The German Banks has direct implications with mining companies with serious criticisms of their operations in Latin America and Africa.
MEETING WITH GERMAN BANKS
At the meeting table, representatives of the German banks asked Dom Vicente, Bishop of Brumadinho, if he had ever heard of responsible mining.
Can you repeat the question?He said. Then they asked him again if he had heard of responsible mining. –No, he said.
There is no responsible mining. There is no responsible mining in Latin America. Well, responsible, yes, for crimes. Responsible, yes, for many deaths. Responsible, yes, for the contamination of lakes and rivers. For the destruction of lives.
There is no mining that can be called responsible in Latin America.
The bishop of Brumadinho has made a call to the banks, that when the banks decide on their investments, they should also listen to the people. Listening to the communities. That they should not let themselves be carried away only by the interested information coming from the mining companies. That these mining companies do not tell the truth. Visit Brumadinho, Mariana. Visit the affected communities in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Central America and many other areas of Brazil and Latin America.
How have the banks reacted? The banks have taken note. They have thanked them. And they say that many of the observations are going to be included in their standards of behavior and conduct. That they will be more attentive to the reality of our peoples. We have the illusion and the hope that this will be so.
“As a bishop of the Catholic Church, I invite you to listen to what the Encyclical Laudato Si. LISTEN to the cries of the poor and the cries of Mother Nature. Let us not limit ourselves to what is reported or said only by companies”.
Appeal of Dom Vicente Ferreira, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Belo Horizonte and Secretary of the Special Commission on Integral Ecology and Mining of the CNBB, participant in the Latin American Caravan for Integral Ecology.
