December 21, 2016
Dr Rafael Correa, President of
Ecuador,
The Global Forest Coalition, an
international coalition of 83 groups from 53 mainly Southern countries would like
to express our concern about the progress of mega-miningin Amazonian
indigenous Shuar territory, where the community of Nankintsin the Morona
Santiago province was evicted in August 2016 to give wayto the
construction of a mining camp by the Chinese company Explorcobres SA.
It is known that this mining project
is progressing without themandatory prior consultation or consent from
the affected communities,and that the Shuar communities have filed
different legal actionswithout being heard by their government.
In recent days, in the light of the
claims of the Shuar community, thelevels of conflict with the
transnational mining company have escalatedin such a way that there is
already one dead and several injured. In your weekly TV show Enlace Ciudadano
of December 17, you disqualifiedthe Amazonian indigenous people saying
that “it is already aboutparamilitary and semi-criminal groups
…” This criminalizationdiscourse was accompanied by the decree of
State of Exception andimmediate militarization of the Shuar territories,
for which yourgovernment launched a real hunt against community leaders
and members,in a clear illustration of extractivist violence.
In this context of violation of human
rights, your government has just launched a second hunt, attacking the NGO
Acción Ecológica, known nationally and internationally for its defense of
the collective rights of peoples and the rights of nature, threatening
with shutting down anddissolving this organization, giving in to pressure
from the Chinese transnationals because Acción Ecológica supports the
Shuar people.
Werepudiate the extractivist
violence of the Ecuadorian government andexpress our solidarity with the
struggle of the Shuar people and withthe defense of human rights carried out
by Ecological Action, demandingthat your government immediately stops
this double hunt.
Signatures:
Maristella Svampa, Investigadora del
Conicet, Argentina, Enrique Viale, Abogado Ambientalista, Argentina.
Send
your signature to Maristella Svampa maristellasvampa@yahoo.com