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<div dir="ltr"> <font size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/07/santa-ana-pueblo-activists-disrupt.html">https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/07/santa-ana-pueblo-activists-disrupt.html</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">SANTA ANA PUEBLO -- Activists Disrupt
Zinke at Closed Conference</h1>
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<span><span>July 24, 2018<br>
Press contact: </span><span><br>
</span><span>Julia Bernal, Pueblo Action Alliance , <a
href="mailto:julia.f.bernal@gmail.com" target="_blank">julia.f.bernal@gmail.com</a>,
<a href="mailto:puebloactionalliance@gmail.com"
target="_blank">puebloactionalliance@gmail.com</a><wbr>,
</span><span><br>
</span><span>Rebecca Sobel, WildEarth Guardians, <a
href="mailto:rsobel@wildearthguardians.org"
target="_blank">rsobel@wildearthguardians.org</a>, </span><span><br>
</span><span>Video: <a
data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/puebloactionalliance/videos/1567266396914452/&source=gmail&ust=1532560272031000&usg=AFQjCNFZAqMCfqTRVj-yY9Gc1RL4Iu3Crw"
href="https://www.facebook.com/puebloactionalliance/videos/1567266396914452/"
target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/<wbr>puebloactionalliance/videos/<wbr>1567266396914452/</a></span><span><br>
</span><span>Photos to be posted: <a
data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildearth_guardians/&source=gmail&ust=1532560272031000&usg=AFQjCNHjZnRHFZ5K4A2IbqpjeFL4BvVEfg"
href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildearth_guardians/"
target="_blank">https://www.flickr.com/photos/<wbr>wildearth_guardians/</a>
</span><span><br>
</span><span><br>
</span><span><br>
</span><span>SANTA ANA PUEBLO, NM, US: The annual Convention
of Western Attorneys General Conference (CWAG) scheduled
Fireside chat with Department of Interior Secretary Ryan
Zinke was met with disruption from activists who demanded
the Secretary finally listen to public concerns regarding
his administration's crusade to hand over America’s public
lands and resources exclusively to fossil fuel industries.
</span><span><span> </span></span><span> </span><span><br>
</span><span><span> </span></span><span><span> </span></span><span><span>
</span></span><span><span> </span></span><span></span><span><br>
</span><span>Closed to the public and the press, the event
was meant to avoid citizen engagement, a theme of Zinke’s
tenure at the Department of Interior. From reducing public
comment periods and condemning scientific and social
analyses to gutting National Monuments and Endangered
Species protections, the Trump administration and
Secretary Zinke have shown time and again that industry
voices are more important than public health and safety,
clean air and water, indigenous sovereignty and tribal
consultation, our environment, and our increasingly
warming climate. </span><span><br>
</span><span><br>
</span><span>New Mexico has been a recent target for
industrialized fracking, climbing the ranks of oil and gas
producing states, as more and more public lands in iconic
areas of Greater Chaco and Carlsbad Caverns are sold to
the oil and gas industry for as little as $1.50 per acre.
Failing to acknowledge unprecedented public and tribal
opposition, Zinke continues to auction off more land in
Northeast and Southwest New Mexico for unfettered
fracking. His administration's systemic efforts to ignore
public engagement have compelled activists today to bring
their input directly to the Secretary. </span><span><br>
</span><span><br>
</span><span>Wearing #NoNewLeases t-shirts, two Indigenous
activists attempted to infiltrate the meeting during
Zinke’s presentation, unfurling a banner that read “Stop
the Genocide” and reciting key policies to remind the
Secretary of the duties he is meant to uphold, before
being escorted out of the room by hotel security and Santa
Ana police. </span><span><br>
</span><span><br>
</span><span>Statement from activists:</span><span><br>
</span><span>“Today’s event is evidence of the extreme
efforts Secretary Zinke will take in order to avoid any
public engagement or accountability. That Indigenous
people are not welcome on our own land while Zinke’s
administration freely sacrifices our future generations to
feed the greed of corporate cronies in the fossil fuel
industry is not only disrespectful, it’s deplorable. We
may have been escorted out today, but we will not stop in
our efforts to hold this administration accountable in its
duties of protecting public health, our environment, and
the rights of Indigenous peoples. Respect Existence or
Expect Resistance.” </span><span><br>
</span><span><br>
</span><span>Statement read by activists:</span><span><br>
</span><span><br>
</span><span>The Department of the Interior protects and
manages the Nation's natural resources and cultural
heritage; provides scientific and other information about
those resources; and honors its trust responsibilities or
special commitments to American Indians, Alaska Natives,
and affiliated island communities.</span><span><br>
</span><span>The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples Article 32 states Indigenous peoples
have the right to determine and develop priorities and
strategies for the development or use of their lands or
territories and other resources.</span><span><br>
</span><span>Article 19 States shall consult and cooperate
in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned
through their own representative institutions in order to
obtain their free, prior and informed consent before
adopting and implementing legislative or administrative
measures that may affect them.</span><span><br>
</span><span>Environmental justice is the fair treatment and
meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race,
color, national origin, or income with respect to the
development, implementation and enforcement of
environmental laws, regulations and policies.</span><span><br>
</span><span>Fair treatment means no group of people should
bear a disproportionate share of the negative
environmental consequences resulting from industrial,
governmental and commercial operations or policies.</span><span><br>
</span><span><br>
</span><span>Santa Ana police stationed a checkpoint two
miles away from the hotel, turning back citizens who
wanted to peacefully demonstrate at a planned event in the
hotel parking lot. Relegated to the corner of Hwy 550 and
Tamaya Blwvd, close to 50 activists rallied with signs and
banners to call on stronger leadership from Zinke’s
Interior. </span><span><br>
</span><span><br>
</span><span>Additional Quotes:</span><span><br>
</span><span><br>
</span><span>“Ninety one percent of available public land in
Northwest New Mexico has already been leased for the
extractive operations. Over 500 new horizontal wells have
been approved without proper planning, accurate cultural
assessments or analysis. And while this activity is
continually occurring, Tribal voices and all Tribal
Nations who have spiritual and cultural claim to the land
have not been heard. Zinke thankfully deferred a lease
sale scheduled for March 2018 due to the need for
additional analysis of these cultural resources, but this
analysis has not yet occurred and new drilling continues.”</span><span><br>
</span><span><span> </span></span><span>- Reyes Devore,
Pueblo Action Alliance</span><span><br>
</span><span><br>
</span><span>“Secretary Zinke shouldn’t be surprised at his
unwelcome greeting in New Mexico. The Secretary has
continuously disrespected and disregarded tribal concerns
and public input regarding his administration’s intent to
allow extractive industry to run roughshod over our public
resources. Despite being physically removed today, we
will continue to demand the Secretary hear the voices of
the public as loud as industry insiders and we will be
relentless in holding him accountable to representing the
American people instead of corporate interests.”</span><span><br>
</span><span>- Rebecca Sobel, WildEarth Guardians Climate
and Energy Senior Campaigner </span><span><br>
</span><span><br>
</span><span>“We are here to reassert our demands directly
to the Secretary related to Greater Chaco Landscape
protection. We still demand a moratorium on fracking
pending completion of adequate Resource Management Plans
that consider the health and social impacts on communities
and plans to justly transition to more sustainable local
economies. We still demand that BLM engage in Tribal
Consultation and most importantly, obtain free, prior,
informed consent from ALL tribal nations who have
spiritual claim to the region. We demand #NoNewLeases
across the Greater Chaco Landscape, to retire non-
producing and expired leases and begin to restore the
balance for this sacred region.” </span><span><br>
</span><span>Julia Bernal, Pueblo Action Alliance</span><span><br>
</span><span><br>
</span><span>“350NM demands a fast and just transition to
100% clean renewable energy and to spend not one penny
more for coal or gas fired electricity. We call to
strictly regulate and stop methane leaks from natural gas
production and stop sacrificing indigenous and rural
communities, like the Greater Chaco area, to fracking." </span><span><br>
</span><span>Delese Dellios, 350 New Mexico, 505-688-5343</span></span><span><br>
</span></div>
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