Indigenous Youth to U.N. -- Mexico's Desert is a Life Giver, Now Exploited for Lithium

 

Indigenous Youth to U.N. -- Mexico's Desert is a Life Giver, Now Exploited for Lithium 

"They say there is nothing in the desert, but we are in the desert, and we have sowed life there."

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, May 11, 2025

NEW YORK -- An Indigenous youth from Mexico describes the beauty of life on the land when the rains come, and how the World Bank and the international financial system exploit Indigenous Peoples, pushing them off their land for lithium and cattle industries.

"I was raised in Mexico, in a land where people say nothing grows, a semi-desert."

"The rains when they do come show us the power of the cycle of life," an Indigenous youth told the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

"Eight hundred years ago we were an empire. Our land is rich, and our land is extremely fertile too. We have honored the sacred life, and instead, what we see is the power of money. This has impoverished our community."

"This is why it has been easy for the industries to lie and to tell us they'll bring us wealth if we leave the land, but in fact they are trying to mislead us, they are trying to convince us to exploit the minerals of our land. They say that 70 percent of the lithium in Mexico is in the Pueblo region."

"This is merely a form of colonialism." 

"Here we hear that the World Bank will finance various projects -- but at the same time they continue financing the ones that undermine our rights, the mining companies. The private arm of the World Bank finances industrial cattle raising and mining, which has devastating climate effects."

"As long as this inequality persists in the international financial system there will be no justice for the rights of Indigenous Peoples or free consultations."

"Today we speak in this way because the international financial system has failed us."

"The other industries that cause the climate crisis continue to receive public money."

"They say there is nothing in the desert, but we are in the desert, and we have sowed life there."

Censored News original series. Copyright Censored News 2025.