Buenos Aires, August 3 (RHC)-- In Argentina, thousands of people representing different Indigenous communities arrived in Buenos Aires Tuesday as part of a protest caravan. Among their demands is a halt to lithium mining projects in their territories. 

Fabian Cruz of the Llankaj Maki Indigenous Peoples Council told reporters:  “These are common resources of the people.  We want to protect them.  We understand there are multinational companies that come and take the lithium from Argentina but leave nothing behind.  They leave nothing for Argentina’s development, and they strip the communities of their territory.  To us, that is genocide.”

Lithium is used in many electric devices, including electric cars.  But its extraction causes soil degradation, water shortages, damage to ecosystems and often displaces local communities and destroys existing landscapes.