![\"ecuador](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ecuador-mining-1.png\")
<\/p>\nEcuador is banking on the extractives sector to power its development but R\u00edo Blanco, one of the country\u2019s biggest mining projects, is caught up in a legal battle that will be decided in the constitutional court.<\/p>\n
Judges from Ecuador\u2019s highest court will determine how to end three years of legal and even physical confrontations between Chinese mining company Junefield Ecuagoldmining and several local communities in the mountainous southern region 60 kilometres from Cuenca city.<\/p>\n
In a first hearing, residents defeated the company, which wants to exploit the R\u00edo Blanco mine\u2019s gold and silver deposits. However, President Len\u00edn Moreno’s government appealed the ruling and the case remains in limbo.<\/p>\n
Pending a final ruling, the highly publicised case has exposed the difficulties faced by Ecuador\u2019s mining sector: the lack of dialogue between companies and communities; concerns about its environmental footprint; and the near complete absence of the state.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There are only two routes to R\u00edo Blanco, a hamlet shrouded in fog around 3,550 metres above sea level. Both have metal barriers that block the way. Each has a different operator.<\/p>\n
Communities opposing the gold mine have blocked the paved roadway to prevent Junefield\u2019s vehicles passing. A private surveillance company hired by Junefield controls the passage through the stony secondary road that hugs the rocky mountainside. It has the approval of the National Police.<\/p>\n
The two roadblocks provide physical evidence of a divisive and escalating social conflict in a sparsely populated area that\u2019s rich in gold and water.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n \u201cWe cannot enter our territory freely. We are under their control. On many occasions, we are asked for documents. We built this road without assistance because the company didn’t want to help,\u201d says peasant leader Elizabeth Durazno, who wears a purple wool hat to protect against the chill of the high Andes.<\/p>\n The 37-year-old mother of four is one of the most recognisable faces in R\u00edo Blanco, where she is known alternately as \u2018The Resistance\u2019, \u2018The Fighter\u2019 and \u2018The Preventer\u2019.<\/p>\n The road barriers are just one cause of confrontation between several dozen indigenous farmers and the company, part of the Chinese<\/a> private conglomerate<\/u> Junefield Mineral Resources Holdings. The gold and silver deposits they control are value<\/a>d<\/u> at over US$200 million.<\/p>\n Junefield inherited the conflict when it bought<\/a> the mine from the Canadian International Minerals Corporation (IMC) in 2013. But it has since mushroomed.<\/p>\n Most of R\u00edo Blanco’s residents have worked for the mining company. They accuse it of not fulfilling its commitment to providing long-term jobs; failing to improve the local quality of life; choking a lagoon with debris; promoting divisions within the communities; and above all, not consulting them on the project\u2019s impacts.<\/p>\n True or not, neighbouring villages are split over the project. Most of the 80 R\u00edo Blanco families oppose the nearby mine whereas they approve in Cochapamba, which is further from the mine but within its direct area of influence. Further down the access road, residents of Yumate unanimously decided to block access to the mine’s vehicles, while the town of Molleturo, where the local government sits, is more favourable.<\/p>\n There are confrontations within the communities too. Junefield’s detractors attribute this to the mining company. Its supporters blame those who oppose it.<\/p>\n All this has contributed to an escalation of the conflict with no clear path towards a resolution.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n Tension peaked in May 2018, when an initially peaceful protest in R\u00edo Blanco ended with the mining camp ablaze<\/a>. It\u2019s unclear exactly what happened. The Chinese company says peasant farmers started the fire, who in turn blame the mine\u2019s private security contractors.<\/p>\n As well as the fire, there are disputes over water.<\/p>\n The R\u00edo Blanco mine is located at the edge of the Cajas National Park, which contains<\/a> hundreds of high altitude lagoons. They feed a dozen rivers that carry water to the town of Cuenca and to the Ecuadorian coast. They also feed into the Amazon basin.<\/p>\n Communities fear mining activities could affect the National Park\u2019s water, which would be prohibited by law. The company insists the project lies 3.5 kilometres outside the park\u2019s perimeter and that it would have no impact on water quality.<\/p>\n “To eat, we have to take food from Mother Earth. We live off the fields and irrigation, so what’s going to happen? We don’t want that to be lost. The Chinese company will not listen to us,” says farmer Beatriz Loja from Yumate, an hour northeast of the park. Her streams descend from the R\u00edo Blanco.<\/p>\n Water from Cajas\u2019, considered a UN Biosphere Reserve<\/a>, is so highly prized that the case became politically sensitive in Cuenca, Ecuador\u2019s third city, which depends on supplies and whose courts have provided an arena for the dispute over this past year.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n While most media have focused on the tense relationship between communities and businesses in R\u00edo Blanco, the case has been advancing through the courts.<\/p>\n On June 1 2018, Judge Pa\u00fal Serrano ordered<\/a> the suspension of activities at the mine and the demilitarisation of the area. He was responding to a legal protection action filed by the communities. They argued that they had lost their right to water and work and their right to prior consultation had been violated.<\/p>\n The Ecuadorean government appealed that decision and the case was brought to the higher Azuay Provincial Court. On August 3, amidst great expectation and noisy crowds lining Cuenca\u2019s Calder\u00f3n Park outside the court, three magistrates ratified<\/a> the ruling.<\/p>\n The communities\u2019 dual victory hints at a successful new strategy in Ecuador and elsewhere in Latin American. However, the win is still not final because the Ecuadorean government appealed and escalated the case to the constitutional court, the country\u2019s top judicial authority.<\/p>\n Aware that protests and roadblocks often end in confrontations with security forces and even in criminal proceedings against their leaders, local communities are focusing on legal and political avenues.<\/p>\n In April this year, the Waorani indigenous people of the Ecuadorean Amazon won<\/a> a similar case over an oil project in their territory where there was no consultation. Last October, another court ordered protections<\/a> for the Cof\u00e1n Indians of Sinangoe, who filed an identical complaint against several mining concessions.<\/p>\n R\u00edo Blanco was the first of those victories. Countless indigenous organisations and legal NGOs lent their support, intervening in judicial hearings that addressed residents\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n Among the lawyers was Zhang<\/a> Jingjing<\/u>, a prestigious Chinese environmental lawyer who has brought a number of public interest cases in China. Zhang emphasised<\/a> China\u2019s commitment to ensure that its companies respect environmental standards and ethnic minorities\u2019 rights in countries where they operate.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is time for Chinese companies that invest, or which will be investing in Latin America to face the challenge, learn from good global practices, listen sincerely and respond to the calls from affected communities,\u201d Zhang, who runs the University of Maryland’s Transnational Environmental Accountability (TEA) programme, wrote<\/a> in Di\u00e1logo Chino<\/em>.<\/p>\n However, there is a significant difference between the R\u00edo Blanco case \u2013 the crux of today\u2019s dispute \u2013 and other legal victories.<\/p>\n R\u00edo Blanco\u2019s inhabitants only identified themselves as indigenous Ca\u00f1ari Kichwa in 2017, when the Junefield conflict was already underway. They drafted statutes and registered with Ecuarunari, national indigenous organisation\u2019s arm that brings together indigenous peoples of the Andes.<\/p>\n As indigenous people, they would have the right to demand free and informed prior consultation on the project under the Ecuadorean constitution and the International Labour Organisation\u2019s convention 169<\/a>, which Ecuador has ratified.<\/p>\n However, the issue of self-identification is thorny. President Len\u00edn Moreno\u2019s government disputes that the R\u00edo Blanco community is indigenous, arguing that such details were not available when the mine became operational.<\/p>\n Ironically, following the 2010 census, it was the Ecuadorean government itself \u2013 then led by Rafael Correa, with Moreno as Vice-president \u2013 who encouraged communities with indigenous roots to declare them.<\/p>\n \u201cUntil now, the Ministry of Mines has said that we are not indigenous peoples, but rather mestizos. We identify ourselves as indigenous,\u201d says Durazno, pointing out that they meet two of the necessary criteria: they have surnames demonstrating indigenous ancestry and historical documents proving that the parish of Molleturo was home to the Ca\u00f1ari-Kichwa people.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \u201cIndigenous peoples have been victims of many violations of their collective rights, despite the fact that prior consultation is in the constitution,\u201d says Lauro Sigcha, leader of Azuay\u2019s Federation of Indigenous and Peasant Organisations (FOA), which helped residents of R\u00edo Blanco to organise.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government of Rafael Correa, who certified who was indigenous and who wasn\u2019t, reinforced the idea that we oppose development and technology, that we want to live like our ancestors, and that we\u2019re the ones lagging behind. He delegitimised us, especially the leaders,\u201d Sigcha adds.<\/p>\n The political struggle in Ecuador over who counts as indigenous (and who doesn\u2019t) rages on. With scant options for local communities to participate in decision-making over mining, oil and other projects that affect their territory, many seek to qualify.<\/p>\n The constitutional court will no doubt examine this given that the Moreno government filed an extraordinary protective action against the last ruling. Due process was not followed, it argued, and requested permission for the company to resume operations. A substantive decision could be a year off since the Court has over 8,000 cases pending.<\/p>\n This should clarify a situation that confuses everyone.<\/p>\n \u201cWe still don’t understand the implications of the suspension,\u201d says Andr\u00e9s Durazno, secretary of the R\u00edo Blanco Agro-Ecology Association, who also opposes the mine.<\/p>\n Carlos Yaku P\u00e9rez is the lawyer at the forefront of the inhabitants\u2019 strategy against the gold mine.<\/p>\n With a ponytail and a rainbow handkerchief knotted around his neck, the 50-year old P\u00e9rez is a charismatic figure. Until recently, he led regional indigenous organisation Ecuarunari. He advised the R\u00edo Blanco community to identify as Kichwa Ca\u00f1ari and instituted a protection action on their behalf.<\/p>\n Though known in Cuenca after years litigating water and indigenous rights cases, the legal victory over Junefield further cemented his notoriety.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course we are indigenous. Our surnames, our colour, our worldview is,\u201d P\u00e9rez says. \u201cBut here [in Ecuador] there is a very general modus operandi<\/em>. There is no prior consultation. They confuse the issue of prior consultation with socialisation, with hearings, with anything else that it\u2019s not,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n P\u00e9rez posits that the legal victory would have been impossible under Rafael Correa\u2019s government, which exerted strong pressure on the judicial branch.<\/p>\n During the legal process, P\u00e9rez complained that he was illegally detained by residents who supported the mine. He says he received death threats and was beaten. Following the episode, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an arm of the Organization of American States (OAS), granted him injunctive relief<\/a>, requesting that Ecuador guarantee his security.<\/p>\n In another twist, this year P\u00e9rez decided to run for prefect of Azuay province as a candidate for the Pachakutik Indigenous Party. He campaigned as a \u201cdefender of water\u201d and played the saxophone in the streets.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n His victory in March elections was as surprising as it was emphatic. He won with 117,000 votes, over 10 percentage points ahead of his nearest rival.<\/p>\n P\u00e9rez\u2019s career reflects the increased influence of the indigenous cause in Ecuador over the past two decades.<\/p>\n He was a founder and the first President of the provincial Federation of Peasant and Indigenous Farming Organisations (FOA), led Ecuarunari and become a director of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie). As Azuay\u2019s Provincial Governor, he became only the third indigenous Prefect of Ecuador.<\/p>\n Two years ago, in the process of self-identifying as Kichwa Ca\u00f1ari, he changed his name from Carlos Ranulfo to Yaku Sacha, meaning, \u2018water from the mountain\u2019.<\/p>\n The day Azuay went to the polls, mining was a big issue. Some 86% of inhabitants of three villages in Azuay \u2013 including the one where P\u00e9rez grew up \u2013 voted against mining in a referendum that grew out of another social and environmental conflict. That dispute, over Canadian mining company Iamgold\u2019s Quimsacocha project, was the first that P\u00e9rez and the FOA pursued legally.<\/p>\n P\u00e9rez’s presence in the regional government will likely make the political environment around mining even more complex. One of his first promises<\/a> on taking office was to advance a popular consultation \u2013 similar to Quimsacocha’s \u2013 at the provincial legislature. It aimed for all Azuay\u2019s inhabitants to have a say on mining near water sources.<\/p>\n His campaign not only generated enthusiasm in R\u00edo Blanco, evidenced by posters and stickers on houses and farms, but also among urban citizens in Cuenca where water is a sensitive topic.<\/p>\n \u201cTerritories are emerging that see the potential in self-identifying as indigenous peoples and see that there are international treaties that support it,\u201d says Sigcha. \u201cThey no longer see it as a setback, but as a form of protection for their territories, especially from extractive projects.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/div>\n The lawsuit that entangled the R\u00edo Blanco mine created a dilemma for President Moreno, who considers it one of four \u201cstrategic\u201d mining projects.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have a project that can easily produce 610,000 ounces of gold, as well as 4.3 million ounces of silver, at current prices of US$1,325.60 per ounce, it can give you a sense of how important this project could be from an economic point of view,\u201d deputy mining minister Fernando Benalc\u00e1zar told Di\u00e1logo Chino<\/em> at his Quito office.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore the shedding process in October, they had 656 people working there, plus the taxes they paid\u2026 Bottom line: it has a huge impact for all of us in a country that basically needs this type of investment,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n Ecuador depends on Junefield, a Hong Kong-based company which also has gold and copper mining projects<\/a> in Peru, to meet its goal of mining contributing 4% of GDP by 2020. Last year, Moreno established<\/a> a \u201csuper ministry\u201d to drive long-term policy for the hydrocarbons, mining and energy sectors.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople from R\u00edo Blanco are the direct beneficiaries of jobs, capacity building and the provision of services to the company, going from the most basic things like laundry services all the way up to catering services and manpower for the project,\u201d says Benalc\u00e1zar.<\/p>\n![\"ecuador](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_2914.jpg\")
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R\u00edo Blanco\u2019s legal battle<\/h2>\n
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Fighting for identity<\/h2>\n
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Anti-mining lawyer to provincial governor<\/h2>\n
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Ecuador\u2019s mining drive<\/h2>\n
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