In recent years, high commodities prices, lax national laws and corrupt governments have intensified interest in mining Latin America's vast ore lodes. But miners are increasingly pitted against indigenous movements demanding, sometimes violently, social investments and environmental protections. Across Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Mexico, indige- nous protesters have turned water contamination, deforestation and land rights issues into turbulence. Last August, for example, leaders from 20 Mayan communities in western Guatemala accused Canadian miner Skye Resources of operating mines that, among other things, have contaminated water supplies and resulted in "massive fish and aquatic bird kills" in some areas.
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