Tiny Amerindian village in Guyana fights gold mine in key court battle over indigenous land rights

By DÁNICA COTO
Associated Press

CHINESE LANDING, Guyana (AP) — One of Guyana’s smallest Amerindian villages is waging a monumental battle that could decide the amount of control that thousands of indigenous people have over their land in remote parts of this South American country. The village of 225 residents is fighting in court to regain full control over ancestral land where a sprawling gold mine has split the community’s territory in half. Gold miners once were invited in to boost community development, but they’re now seen as unwelcome interlopers who carve up lands that provide food and medicine, and block access for the villagers’ own, smaller-scale mining. The village argues the government shouldn’t have the right to grant mining permits on their titled land.