Fellows,
For an ominous reason that I don't still understand, Life has put me in the predicament of being the carrier of this news. I wish I didn't have to do it or, at least, not to be remembered as the environmentalist who first witnessed the beginning of the destruction of "Las Crucitas" *. I must confess that it's hard for me to write these lines; my tears make it hard. Feelings of frustration, sadness, fury and impotence disturb me badly... As I write this, hundreds of defenseless trees are being obliterated along with the living creatures that live on them. As I write this, they are destroying the soil. Tomorrow the holy water will not find a path to gently run though and will eventually turn vindictive running over the open veins of my beloved Northern lands. . . Some minutes ago, a desperate friend called. He traveled miles on foot or horseback to bring the infamous news. A wise woman, whose frailty health I'm so concerned about, but who has bravely led this fight against the monster of destruction called Industrias Infinito, also called me to confirm the terrible news. They tell me that "Colina Tatu" has been already wiped out, that there are more than 25 men working full time, that all the cadavers of animals and trees are being thrown in ditches open for that purpose... To both I had to say that right now I can do nothing. To those friends and all of you I ask for forgiveness. To all those who put their hope in me, I ask for forgiveness. I couldn't make it. I know I am not alone, but this is my loneliest moment . . . I ask for forgiveness to Life and Mother Nature because, even though I tried, it was not possible to stop their destruction through legal avenues in this ungrateful country. I have no more to do but write an allegation in the hope that the Constitutional Court will accept it and order the monster to stop its destruction. That's all to be done.

I do not know about you, my friends. Is there anything else we can do? Anything, for God's sake to stop this massacre!

With a deep disappointment, but still with a little hope, I'm asking you to spread this message.

Sincerely,

Edgardo Vinicio Araya Sibaja Vicepresidente UNOVIDA

Note by the translator: *President Arias signed up a document called Initiative Peace with Nature (IPN, July 6, 2007) aimed to call all the governments in the world to commit themselves to Nature by enforcing and strengthening their rules to stop the environmental degradation caused by human action. However, in his own country, he has just declared as "public interest and national convenience" an open pit mining project by Canadian Industrias Infinito at Las Crucitas (San Carlos near the nNcaraguan border), allowing the destruction of 263 hectares of a protected area, containing virgin and secondary forest, birds, and mammals, many of these considered in-danger species...