Indigenous land defenders from Ecuador face the risk of reprisal after speaking against Canadian mining companies
Photo: Ivonne Ramos, Hortencia Zhagüi, Rachel Lim (Amnesty International), Louise Casselman (Public Service Alliance of Canada/PSAC), Zenaida Yasacama and Fanny Kaekat at public forum in Ottawa, October 3, 2024. Photo by Laura Avalos (PSAC).
CBC News reports: “Indigenous women from Ecuador are in Ottawa this week raising concerns a proposed free trade agreement could enable human rights abuses by Canadian mining companies operating on their ancestral lands.”
The article highlights the risks faced by Zenaida Yasacama, Fanny Kaekat, Hortencia Zhagüi and Ivonne Ramos for speaking out.
Kaekat tells CBC News: “We are being threatened and our territory is being expropriated. Speaking out here puts my safety at risk.” Yasacama adds: “Women are threatened. They are judicialized. They are subjected to violence.” Yasacama also tells The Globe and Mail: “If necessary, we will give our lives to defend our land because we want to preserve the land for future generations. We are here as protectors of the jungle, and we are here to reject the destruction of our environment.”
On CBC Radio’s As It Happens, Amnesty International Canada secretary-general Ketty Nivyabandi also noted: “One of [these defenders] told us very clearly, she said, I do not know whether I will stay alive once I go back to Ecuador. People know that I have come here. They will hear about it and people have died while doing exactly what she’s doing. And she told us, well, I will hold. I want everybody to know that I will hold my government, Ecuadorian government, the Canadian mining companies responsible for anything that happens to me. So, the risks are extremely high. But at the same time, what they’ve told us is we had to come all the way to Canada to ensure that our voices are heard.”
Video still: Ivonne Ramos from Acción Ecológica works for the protection of nature defenders and accompanies territorial defense processes.
Canadian mining companies in Ecuador
CBC News also highlights: “There are 15 Canadian mining companies operating in Ecuador, with some facing allegations of abuses and working in ecologically sensitive areas, according to Mining Watch Canada.”
Amnesty International notes: “Solaris Resources is among the Canadian companies facing allegations of abuse as it attempts to advance its Warintza open-pit copper-gold project in Shuar Arutam territory.”
Video still: Fanny Kaekat, a leader with the Shuar Arutam People.
Amnesty International also note that an independent review found that Dundee Precious Metals and its proposed Loma Larga gold mine is a “ticking time bomb” for arsenic contamination in an important watershed.
Video still: Hortencia Zhagüi is a defender of the páramo (wetland) of Kimsakocha.
IPS has reported that a popular referendum in August 2023 rejected oil production in Yasuni National Park, but implementation of that result remains a challenge.
Years before, the National Audubon Society noted that ChevronTexaco “had dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic waste in the rainforest north of Yasuní” and references “a joint venture led by Spain’s Repsol” in Block 16, while Amazon Watch noted this past August that state-run Petroecuador is “nowhere close to meeting the deadline” of one-year after the referendum to end its oil activities and restore the area.
While in Canada, Yasacama told The Globe and Mail: “Canadian companies cause a lot of trouble for us because our organizations are there to defend the land and we will continue to defend the land.”
Video still: Zenaida Yasacama participated in the campaign to protect the Yasuni Biosphere Reserve that culminated in the referendum win on August 20, 2023.
Free trade talks
In November 2022, Canada and Ecuador announced the launch of exploratory discussions toward a potential Canada-Ecuador Free Trade Agreement. On May 8, 2024, Ecuador and Canada concluded the first round of negotiations. On September 24 of this year, MiningWatch Canada noted: “Canada and Ecuador are in their fourth round of negotiations…” MiningWatch has further noted that the governments of Canada and Ecuador hope to conclude these negotiations in 2025, perhaps as early as January or February.
Risk of retaliation
This past July, The Globe and Mail reported that the office of United Nations Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor “has registered 15 cases, between June, 2019, and March, 2022, of retaliation against human-rights advocates that she alleges can be linked to the activities of Canadian mining abroad.”
That article further noted that: “[Lawlor] singled out Canadian embassies, saying many have failed to respond adequately to those who raise serious concerns about the impacts of mining and oil activities abroad.”
Photo: UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor in Toronto, June 2024.
The context of risk is serious.
Global Witness has documented the murders of land and environmental defenders in Ecuador including Eduardo Mendúa (in 2023), Alba Bermeo Puin (in 2022) and Andrés Durazno, Nange Yeti and Víctor Enrique Guaillas Gutama (in 2021). They all opposed either oil or mining extractivism on Indigenous lands.
We continue to follow this situation.
Photo: Public forum in Ottawa, October 3, 2024. Photo by Laura Avalos.
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