Mirador is the largest mine in Ecuador\u2019s history and one of President Len\u00edn Moreno\u2019s \u201cstrategic\u201d projects in a nationwide mining drive. Yet its future is uncertain in the face of a conflict between Chinese company Ecuacorriente and the villagers of Tundayme, who are intent on recovering what they consider ancestral lands.<\/p>\n
The backdrop is a corner of the country that scientists and biologists consider a \u201clost world\u201d of immense natural wealth.<\/p>\n
Tundayme\u2019s evicted<\/h2>\n
No one in the Condor can agree on whether Rosario Wari Ampush reached 95, 107 or, improbably, 120<\/a> years of age. However, all are certain she was the first in her family to die outside her home.<\/p>\n Two years before her death<\/a> in July 2018, Wari Ampush and her son, who are indigenous Shuar, lost their ancestral home.<\/p>\n \u201cThey burned house. Grandparents built years ago. We were growing up and living there. They died there and left to us<\/a>,\u201d Rosario\u2019s 64-year-old son Mariano Mashendo recounts in a broken Spanish almost devoid of articles. \u201cYou born here like trees, and age and die like them. Now, we don\u2019t know what will happen with mining company. I am last of the family.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/div>\n Mashendo tells his story from a humble wooden hut, from where can be seen the blue roof of a mining camp occupying the spot where his home once was.<\/p>\n At least 32 families, some 126 people, lost their homes due to evictions which the community and NGOs described as violent. The process was similar each time. Officials arrived at dawn ordering them to hand over their land and saying a cheque for compensation awaited them at the office of mining regulator Arcom.<\/p>\n They were given five minutes to leave. Their houses were demolished, the rubble buried in front of them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe filed two suits for cattle raiding, as they took 120 head of cattle and we recovered only 48, but they haven\u2019t acknowledged liability\u2026 There has been no response from the government,\u201d says Luis S\u00e1nchez Shiminaycela, a prominent community leader who identifies as indigenous Ca\u00f1ari-Kichwa.<\/p>\n S\u00e1nchez\u2019s wife, daughter, parents, two brothers, their wives and five children lived in two seized houses on the banks of the Tundayme River.<\/p>\n At the heart of the conflict is a legal designation known as \u201cmining easement\u201d, which enables the government to identify property as necessary for a development project. Instead of expropriating it, the government can mandate it\u2019s rental for up to three decades. In return, landowners receive compensation.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \u201cEven though people may say they don\u2019t want to, or don\u2019t understand the procedure, it doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d says attorney Francis Andrade of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial\u00a0Network<\/em> (Repam), a Catholic organisation.<\/p>\n Some victims were even Ecuacorriente employees at the time of eviction.<\/p>\n \u201cThey knocked my house down and caused me a great deal of pain, emotionally and psychologically. My parents lost their lives trying to leave us something and this company has left us with nothing,\u201d says William Uyaguari, who worked for seven years loading drilling machinery for the mine. Uyaguari says he was fired after suing the company over the eviction.<\/p>\n Like others, Mashendo, S\u00e1nchez and Uyaguari rejected earlier purchase offers and, outraged by the eviction, decided not to claim compensation. Instead, they are challenging the mine in the province of Zamora Chinchipe as members of the Amazonian Community of the C\u00f3ndor Mirador Mountain Range (Cascomi), which unites indigenous Shuar, Kichwa and peasant families.<\/p>\n No houses remained on the eastern bank of the Quimi River, between the Tundayme and Wawayme tributaries, which flow down from the mountain and into the Quimi. Where the small hamlet of San Marcos once stood, with its church and school, there is a steep headland. Atop the cliff a gigantic hole will soon serve as a tailings pond.<\/p>\n On the horizon is a five-storey building hugging the edge of a hill. Behind it, Ecuacorriente S. A., also known as Ecsa, plans to open the pit to extract copper.<\/p>\n Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group, a mining conglomerate<\/a> from China\u2019s Anhui province and the country\u2019s second largest copper producer, along with China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC<\/a>), one of the largest construction companies in the world, own the mine. Both are state-owned companies.<\/p>\n Tundayme\u2019s story is not unique. Indigenous Shuar, who used to live where the Panantza-San Carlos copper mine now operates in another corner of the C\u00f3ndor mountain range 40 kilometres away, complained<\/a> of similarly violent evictions. The owner of that mine is ExplorCobres S.A. (Exsa), which is also controlled by Tongling and CRCC.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n Powerless to stop the evictions, the indigenous people of Cascomi changed tactics. They took the company and the Ecuadorean state to court.<\/p>\n In Ecuador, as well as in other Latin American countries, local communities are now opting to complain via legal and political challenges, having realised that marches and roadblocks often lead to clashes with the police and criminal proceedings.<\/p>\n Many are winning. Last year, the courts decided that the Kichwa indigenous community of R\u00edo Blanco was not consulted on a gold mine in their territory. In October, another court ruled in favour of<\/a> the Cof\u00e1n of Sinangoe, who filed a similar complaint against mining concessions. Two months ago, the Waorani of the Amazon won<\/a> a case against an oil project.<\/p>\n The residents of Tundayme have been less fortunate but continue to explore legal options in the ongoing Mirador conflict. Their case is complex, with at least five cases awaiting judgement.<\/p>\n The first and highest profile legal action argued that environmental rights had been violated.<\/p>\n In 2013, when Rafael Correa was president of Ecuador, four NGOs, a university, and the Shuar communities claimed the mine\u2019s environmental impact assessment had not acknowledged the habitat of two endemic bird species where the mine pit would be.<\/p>\n Ecuador recognised the rights of nature in its 2008 constitution. Exterminating a species is tantamount to a violation of nature\u2019s rights, the plaintiffs argued.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n Dismissed by a judge in Quito, the case remains open in the Organisation of American State\u2019s supranational Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.<\/p>\n At the end 2013, Correa shuttered one of the NGOs involved, the Pachamama Foundation. He accused it<\/a> of interfering in state policy and threatening national security. In June 2012, the Inter-American Court ruled in favour<\/a> of an action brought by Pachamama Foundation against the state over its failure to consult the indigenous Kichwa of Sarayaku an oil project.<\/p>\n A year later, high profile Mirador opponent Jos\u00e9 Isidro Tendetza was found brutally murdered with signs of torture on his body. As Mario Melo, Pachamama\u2019s lawyer, said: \u201cAll this shows how sensitive the Mirador issue is.\u201d<\/p>\n Confrontations with mining opponents, who Correa described<\/a> as \u201cstone throwers\u201d and \u201cbackward townspeople\u201d have eased under Moreno. Legal challenges to mines, however, have multiplied.<\/p>\n In February 2018, Cascomi filed a second action, accusing the state of violating their right to decent housing by sanctioning evictions. They demanded Ecsa compensate them.<\/p>\n This suit, supported by Repam and legal NGO Inredh, was based on three arguments.<\/p>\n First, they were never forewarned of the evictions. All they were told was that there would be a process of mining easements and, in some cases, hearings.<\/p>\n Secondly, evictions were arbitrary and violent. They occurred at antisocial times and destroyed property.<\/p>\n Finally, there was no relocation plan. Many families still live in overcrowded conditions in borrowed houses, or pay rent elsewhere with no means of supporting themselves.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n The state countered that it does not consider Cascomi to represent an indigenous ancestral community and that Tundayme has no collective land deed demarcating the presence of an ethnic people who had to be consulted. (In Ecuador, like the US, indigenous communities own land under collective land deeds. The state says: no deed, not indigenous.)<\/p>\n The judge ordered an expert anthropological evaluation. But the report was inconclusive. It found that while Cascomi is not indigenous as an organisation, the territory is.<\/p>\n On 15 January 2019, a Quito judge sided with the government and dismissed<\/a> the case, ruling that Cascomi is not indigenous and that evictions accorded with the law. After an appeal, on June 7 the provincial court of Pichincha upheld the ruling. Villagers are now preparing a final appeal to the constitutional court and will also submit to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.<\/p>\n There is also a criminal complaint against Ecuacorriente for environmental damage to water sources, presented by provincial indigenous governor Salvador Quishpe and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorean Amazon (Confeniae).<\/p>\n There is a request before the constitutional court, the country\u2019s highest court, for risk management assessments that guarantee the dam Ecsa is building on the Tundayme River will not cause a disaster similar to Brumadinho<\/a> in Brazil. This request is based on a study by US hydrologist Steve Emerman.<\/p>\n Finally, Cascomi and the communities of the nearby Panantza-San Carlos project, filed another action arguing that the state has failed to implement the Comptroller General\u2019s recommendations on prior consultation and mining controls.<\/p>\n Cascomi leaders have spoken at hearings of the IACHR<\/a> in Washington and at the UN\u2019s periodic review<\/a> of China\u2019s human rights.<\/p>\n On crossing the Zamora River, mountains of an intense emerald colour suddenly rise up from the ground.<\/p>\n Two scientific expeditions to the El Quimi Biological Reserve, located 10 kilometres from the copper mine as the crow flies, revealed that the C\u00f3ndor mountain range is one of the most biodiverse locations in Ecuador.<\/p>\n Among the dwarf plants living on its rocky, flat table-top, scientists came across a minute but eye-catching brown frog with yellow spots. Following two years of study, they announced<\/a> their discovery in January 2019. It was a treefrog, which they named Hyloscirtus hillisi<\/em>, a new species<\/a>. Its most peculiar trait is a large claw<\/a> at the base of the thumb, a suspected defence mechanism.<\/p>\n They also found two other frogs, a lizard and a rodent in the enigmatic tepuis<\/a> Amazon ecosystem that rises 2,000 metres above the jungle. These are being documented and are expected to be announced as new species imminently.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was such an extraordinary place, where no specimens had been collected before. We need to go back again, because there are so many species waiting to be discovered,\u201d says evolutionary biologist and renowned herpetologist Santiago Ron.<\/p>\n Scientists at the Zoology Museum are still unsure what makes the C\u00f3ndor such a biodiverse place but they have several hypotheses. One is the limestone soil comprising millions of tiny seashells, something unusual in the Andes.<\/p>\n It\u2019s comparable to the large rocky tepuis of the Guiana Shield that rise up sporadically in the Amazon, from Colombia to the Guianas of northeastern South America. Another is the strange mineral composition attributable to vegetable tannins that flow from their heights and give it a translucent cola-coloured hue.<\/p>\n As these unique habitats have a high proportion of endemic species, scientists recommended<\/a> classifying the new treefrog as \u201ccritically endangered\u201d, especially given the destruction of its habitat by the nearby Mirador mine.<\/p>\n Such high biological value<\/a> prompted scientists to call for the designation of a national park in the C\u00f3ndor mountain range.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have so much to lose and we\u2019re not taking proper care of resources that can benefit all of humanity,\u201d says Santiago Ron.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n There is another powerful, political reason why the area\u2019s protection matters.<\/p>\n Between January and February 1995, a hundred people died during a brief war between Ecuador and Peru. The conflict centred on the Cenepa River on the Peruvian side of the C\u00f3ndor.<\/p>\n A peace treaty signed<\/a> by the two countries in Brasilia in October 1998 put an end to more than a century of territorial disputes by promising to create<\/a> contiguous national parks that would preserve the border area and mitigate future conflict. It even stipulated<\/a> that indigenous people should be able to travel freely between them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have made the decision, both countries, that where we used to fight, where Peruvian and Ecuadorean soldiers have died, we must honour their memories in the best way we can: by celebrating life. That is why, in that same place, we have created two ecological parks in perpetuity … so that never again can a drop of blood be shed in that part of our territories,\u201d said<\/a> then Ecuadorean President, Jamil Mahuad.<\/p>\n However, Ecuador has only created two small biological reserves (Quimi and C\u00f3ndor), which total 114 square kilometres.<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel betrayed because we helped the Ecuadorean government build these roads for the Army to use in the war, and now, when we need them, they abandon us,\u201d says Luis S\u00e1nchez.<\/p>\n The scientists who have tried to publicise their findings remain concerned about the risk of open pit mine for C\u00f3ndor\u2019s biodiversity.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Ecuador we don\u2019t take into consideration the environmental mishaps of mining,\u201d says Ron.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n Faced with dipping global oil prices, Ecuador\u2019s last two governments sought alternative revenue streams and focused<\/a> on mining.<\/p>\n With 3.18 million tonnes of copper, 3.39 million ounces of gold and 27.11 million tonnes of silver, Mirador is the jewel in the crown of the country\u2019s plans for mining to contribute 4% of GDP by 2021.<\/p>\n Despite this, neither the government nor Ecuacorriente recognise the legacy of social and legal conflict that persists in Mirador and that could hinder its future operation.<\/p>\n The current government blames past mistakes on Correa\u2019s belligerence. \u201cWe want to do things differently,\u201d says Benalc\u00e1zar, vice-minister for mining at the Ministry of Energy and Non-renewable Resources. \u201cWe want to have adequate financial, legal and security conditions in place for investors to come, with an understanding of the existing laws and regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben\u00e1lcazar cites Moreno\u2019s 2018 decision to create<\/a> a super-ministry to promote a long-term policy on hydrocarbons, mining and energy.<\/p>\n For the vice minister, the mine\u2019s advantages are obvious: 3,000 direct and 10,000 indirect jobs<\/a>; US$211 million in anticipated royalties and taxes<\/a>; US$5.5 billion total income<\/a> for the government, with 60% of the royalties to be invested at the local and provincial levels, according to the law.<\/p>\n Partnering with a Chinese company also gives them guaranteed access to the world\u2019s largest copper <\/a>market.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \u201cI have not witnessed any conflict. What I have seen leads me to think that a good relationship exists. They have very interesting community projects involving environmental and social issues,\u201d says Benalc\u00e1zar, who used to work in the oil sector in Colombia and Syria.<\/p>\n The ministry, he says, is working with Ecsa to demanding action plans to resolve environmental violations and improve industrial safety after two fatal accidents at the mine in late 2018. It also aims to increase employment of local, rather than Chinese, workers.<\/p>\n Ecuacorriente says it has already invested US$1.4 million in Mirador and acknowledges that relations with the communities were initially tense. It insists that they have improved since channels for dialogue were opened and community projects including folkloric dance workshops invested in. \u201cIf the two parties fail to reach an agreement and the price is unreasonable, the government may resort to the right of easement as a national strategic project. It was not our company that carried it out, but the Ecuadorean government,\u201d says Jun Zhu, Ecsa\u2019s head of community relations.<\/p>\n \u201cThey proposed the solution when the project was at a standstill,\u201d Jun says. The company, he explained, paid up to six times the market price for the land and is building the new town of Nuevo San Marcos to relocate affected families.<\/p>\n Neither of the two recognises Cascomi as a valid complainant, insisting that the courts proved it is not an indigenous organisation and does not have collective rights. They also say it has been manipulated by foreign actors.<\/p>\n \u201cSouth Americans are very decent people, but are easily mobilised by slogans, especially of the spiritual or anti-materialist sort,\u201d says Jun. \u201cAlthough they are poor in life, they don\u2019t understand that these resources can satisfy their needs, and many NGOs seize on this to promote illusions, such as opposing mining or protecting the environment for future generations. And it is easy to believe their words.\u201d<\/p>\n Like R\u00edo Blanco, the Mirador case highlights that indigenous self-identification is complicated. \u201cTo be honest, I don\u2019t think it is their own initiative. They are influenced by the NGOs, for better or for worse\u2026 It is difficult to deal with NGOs that have extreme positions and are against any kind of development\u201d, says Benalc\u00e1zar, despite the Ecuadorean government itself promoting self-identification since 2010.<\/p>\n Many social and academic organisations disagree.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is often believed that communities do not have self-determination, that their strategies and discourse are those of others who manipulate them, as if they were children or fools,\u201d says Ivonne Y\u00e1\u00f1ez, a biologist with the NGO Acci\u00f3n Ecol\u00f3gica.<\/p>\n \u201cThe state believes it is a question of employment, royalties and direct foreign investment, and not the environment\u201d, Y\u00e1\u00f1ez adds.<\/p>\n \u201cThat [self-identification] doesn\u2019t mean there isn\u2019t a right, which must be respected and protected, to be consulted and to protect their homes\u201d, agrees Mario Melo, director of the Catholic University\u2019s Human Rights Centre.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n The Inter-American Court\u2019s ruling on Sarayaku in 2012 ordered that prior consultation be regulated <\/a>in Ecuador in accordance with international norms. This motivated an official<\/a> visit by Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the UN\u2019s special rapporteur on indigenous peoples, last November. Mirador was one of six places she visited.<\/p>\n Benalc\u00e1zar confirmed that the government is working on a draft regulation.<\/p>\n Several parties seem unaware of the complexities of a territory where diverse groups have co-existed since the mid-20th century.<\/p>\n The Shuar, who were originally nomads, are the most numerous people of the Ecuadorean Amazon. The first settlers were the Ampush family, in 1910. Four decades later, thousands of Kichwa families migrated from the highlands to the jungle in search of land to cultivate. Among them were Luis\u2019 family from the Sigsig mountains.<\/p>\n Many arrived thanks to agrarian incentives from the military dictatorship that took power in 1963, which sought to guard the border with Peru. However, that policy meant indigenous peoples from the highlands occupying other ethnic groups\u2019 ancestral territories.<\/p>\n The state did not recognise collective land deeds of Amazonian peoples such as the Shuar of Tundayme, paving the way for future conflicts such as that of Mirador.<\/p>\n With an absent state and no space for dialogue, disputes in remote territories can rapidly escalate into open conflicts. When the government becomes aware and reacts, it is often too late.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of militarising and evicting people, sending machinery and backhoes to bury houses, the state should intervene differently, helping communities to plan,\u201d says Jaime Vargas, Achuar leader and president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaje).<\/p>\n The environmental issue, meanwhile, seems relegated to second place.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \u201cIf the region is so [biologically] rich, if it meets the requirements to be part of the system of protected areas \u2013 which is an exhaustive process \u2013 and becomes one, we will respect it,\u201d says Ben\u00e1lcazar. \u201cThat was the decision of the Ecuadorean people,\u201d he adds, referring to the February 2018 referendum that banned mining in protected areas.<\/p>\n Ben\u00e1lcazar had not heard of the newly discovered frog, nor of the state\u2019s commitment to create a national park in the C\u00f3ndor. He did say he wants to work on biodiversity and water management with large international NGOs like the World Wildlife Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Society and The Nature Conservancy.<\/p>\n Ecuacorriente, for its part, insists that Tongling has never had any accidents and that its mine has the highest technical standards.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that one dam in Brazil collapsed does not mean all the dams in the world will be affected. It must be because they didn\u2019t do their job well,\u201d says Zhu. He says he still hopes for reconciliation with Cascomi and the Tundayme population.<\/p>\n Despite the appearance of tranquillity that the company and the government seek to present, a significant portion of the local population still feel their concerns have been ignored. The number of lawsuits shows that if efforts are not made to diffuse the conflict. Operations at Mirador will begin extracting copper without the community\u2019s consent.<\/p>\n As Melo says: \u201cPeople have seen that legal actions can be an alternative. That\u2019s good, because if the violence escalates, everyone loses.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/div>\n This report, the second in a three-part series jointly reported with Lulu Ning Hui on the environmental and social footprint of two Chinese mining projects in Ecuador, received support from the Rainforest Journalism Fund through the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ever since more than 30 indigenous households were forcibly evicted by police and security personnel between September and December 2015, the River Quimi valley in the middle of the Ecuadorean Amazon has not had a moment\u2019s peace. Today, where these Shuar and Ca\u00f1ari-Kichwa families once lived, there gapes the gigantic open pit of the Mirador […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50000003,"featured_media":50028123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50039900],"tags":[13887,555,559,566],"hashtags":[],"country":[50002594],"class_list":["post-50028624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-justice","tag-conflict","tag-indigenous-peoples","tag-land-rights","tag-mining","country-ecuador"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_3037.jpg\")
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From protests to courts<\/h2>\n
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The lost world of the C\u00f3ndor<\/h2>\n
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Ecuadorean and Chinese national interests<\/h2>\n
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\nThe company is adamant that the court ruling which declared the lands of public interest justified the evictions.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_3061.jpg\")
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