March in Defense of Land and Natural Resources -- December 2012

Here are some pictures of a march against open-pit mining organized by rural producers--large and small--in the department of Treinta y Tres, Uruguay.

A social movement is emerging to oppose the government's extractivist agenda that has turned Uruguay into a mecca for foreign investors. They mobilize to "defend the land and the country's natural resources" and argue that the government shows little regard for the environmental and social impact of its resource extraction policies.

These policies promote large-scale forestry to feed newly-built cellulose plants, the massive introduction of genetically modified soy, open-pit iron mining, and a deep water port on the Atlantic coast near the Brazilian border, in the heart of a precious tourist area.