A brave grandmother in Peru has stared down the biggest
gold mining company in the world for more than 10 years,
refusing to give up her land.
But Máxima Acuña faces her biggest challenge yet
-- a judge's ruling where she could lose everything -- and she’s
asking for our help.
Newmont Mining has tried every trick in the book to get Máxima
out of the way -- she’s been beaten, threatened, even had part of
her home destroyed. But she hasn’t budged, refusing to let
her home become part of a giant, polluting gold mine.
Now they’re dragging her to court, and her legal bills are piling
up. Her lawyers are working on a shoestring. And if they
lose: she may be thrown off her land.
Our community has supported Máxima for years, and now it could
all come down to this. Will you help this grandma take down a mining
Goliath?
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Máxima and her family have poured 20 years of work into their
mountainside farm. The plants and animals they’ve nurtured provide
them with almost everything they need.
But just 10 miles away lies the biggest open-pit mine in Latin
America, an abomination owned by Newmont, the biggest gold mining
company in the world. That mine has already poisoned
mountain streams with cadmium and lead but Newmont still
wants more: a vast new gold mine right on top of Máxima’s farm.
Máxima has fought them tooth-and-nail, become a local leader, and
spoken out for everyone affected by gold mining in the area. She’s
even won a prestigious environmental prize. With local communities
and international allies behind her, Maxima blocked Newmont's
multi-million dollar plans.
But now with a key decision around the corner, she’s at risk of
finally being crushed. So she’s asking us for help.
If you’ve saved your payment information with
SumOfUs, your donation will go through
immediately:
SumOfUs members like you have stood side by side with Máxima
before. In 2015, 140,000 of you signed petitions calling on Newmont
to leave her alone. Here’s what Máxima said when she
heard:
“I would like to thank everyone from around the world
who signed the petition in support of my case. In truth I am
fighting with my family for something just, to defend my land,
whatever it has cost me. For this, I thank you because your
support has given me the strength to continue
fighting."
Let’s give her the strength again. And if we raise more than
Máxima needs now for the case, it will go towards powering our
related campaigns against greedy, destructive corporations.
If you’ve saved your payment information with
SumOfUs, your donation will go through
immediately: