Indigenous community continues to reject mining reforms

Yesterday, during the fourth congress of the Kichwa Confederation of Ecuador (Ecuarunari), branch of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) resolved to demand the National Assembly, for a legislative consultation process, which would be based on the rejection of the urgent project destined to make reforms in the Mining Law, whose approval would be provided no later than June 15.

The document, prepared by the peasant and indigenous sectors, will be presented in the Assembly with all the alleged violations that they would be committing against the indigenous’ collective rights guaranteed in the Constitution.

According to Ecuarunari’s president, Carlos Perez Guartambel, mining reforms promoted by the Executive, “damage the good living of people (…) We are going to keep resisting, and the president will not give us the right to resist nor take it from us, because we firmly believe in the sumak kawsay (good living in harmony with the community and the environment)”.

Ecuarunari President Carlos Perez Guartambel, and several indigenous leaders met yesterday at the headquarters of the organization.

For its part, the ruling movement Alianza PAIS (AP) ensures that they do not need a pre-legislative consultation because they are not harming communities, which would be the condition for applying such resource, and over the argument that urgent economic manners must be treated within 30 days.

What most worries the Ecuarunari, is the lack of protection of the rights of nature, because, if before, it was needed ten reports for the authorization of exploration, the new reform says that only two will be required, and the environmental impact studies for the mineral exploration phase, will no longer need the opinion from councilors of each municipality. “This is a traitors law, a submissive law, a law that bows to Chinese and transnational mining companies,” said Perez.