Mexico’s Indians fight to stop mining on ancestral land

After nearly 20 years of wrangling, a group of Nahua Indian villagers could make legal history in Mexico this month when a court rules on a land dispute involving a Canadian miner.

A lawyer for villagers of Tecoltemi in the central Mexican state of Puebla said it was the first time a court would rule on whether the country’s mining law - which gives priority to mining activities over other land use - was constitutional.

Previous cases had only recognized indigenous people’s right to prior consultation, said Itzel Silva of the Fundar Center for Analysis and Research, a non-profit . . .