Internationalist solidarity with the anti-mining struggle in Ecuador
The International Labour Network of Solidarity and Struggles expresses solidarity with the Ecuadorian people in the face of the escalating repression by the neoliberal government of Daniel Noboa, in an attempt to impose the expansion of the mining industry in the country through state violence. At this moment, the communities of Palo Quemado and Las Pampas in the province of Cotopaxi are militarized and besieged by repressive forces. Currently, 17% of the total Ecuadorian territory is conceded to transnational mining extractivist projects.
We strongly condemn the criminalization and judicialization of 70 comrades in the territories, an act that constitutes a systematic violation of the legitimate right to resistance, enshrined in Article 98 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador and derived from Article 55, literal c.) of the United Nations Charter as a Human Right. The siege experienced by the communities of Palo Quemado and Las Pampas represents a state policy of persecution against the working class in rural areas, which produces all the food for Ecuador.
On March 4, 2024, Daniel Noboa signed a total of six new mining concessions in Canada, estimated at a total value of USD 4.8 billion, including the "La Plata" mining project. After the signing, the Canadian company Atico Mining Corporation, to which the project was awarded, immediately received logistical support from the repressive forces of the Ecuadorian state, militarizing the territory since March 10.
More than 500 members of the Armed Forces and the National Police currently occupy the territory to force an environmental consultation, a legal figure created by the Ecuadorian government on March 6, to violate and surpass the collective right to free and informed consultation, guaranteed in International Labour Organization Convention 169, a convention ratified by the Republic of Ecuador.
The International Labour Network of Solidarity and Struggles demands the immediate release and cessation of the judicialization of the comrades falsely charged with terrorism:
Wiliam David Viteri Tipanluisa
Pedro Rodrigo Ashqui Villamarín
Leny Verónica Toapanta Chicaiza
Adriana Graciela Robayo Masapanta
Lidia Isabel Espín Segovia
Mariela Lisseth Viteri Andino
Jame Eduardo Viteri Castellano
Martha Reveca Masapanta
María Esther Masapanta Suilaisa
Marcelo Robayo Rueda
Lucía Magdalena Uribe Artos
Fausto Castellano Carvajal
María Angélica Masapanta Tipanquiza
Yolanda Andino Valverde
Carmen Iralda Perez Calero
Nelson Gómez
Angel Osvaldo Artos Artos
Bryan Germán Mena Valiente
Nancy Margoth Loachamín Ayala
Nixon Bayardo Artos Tocte
Walter Lizandro Tocte Días
Fernando Rubén Balseca Porras
Reny Paúl Viteri Uribe
Walter Edelmir Carvajal Silva
Juan Carlos Carvajal Silva
Josselin Marisol Viteri Castellano
Dennis Alexander Viteri Moreno
Edison Nau Vizuete Artos
Oswaldo Alciviades Anono Maldonado
Jessica Marilú Tipanluisa Tipanluisa
Leonél Vizuete Artos
Hermogenes Genaro Andino Quevedo
Luis Hermogenes Martínez Fernández
Galo Orlando Artos Espín
Anderson David Tocte Gómez
Glenda Patricia Tocte Gómez
Doris Viviana Gallardo Portilla
Clara Margoth Villamarín Borja
José Isaías Viteri Artos
María Esther Masapanta Suilaisa
Wilson Orlando Valiente Andino
Diego Santiago Artos Tocte
Mónica Morelia Andino Maldonado
Alex Wladimir Vizuete Artos
Taliga Elizabeth Viteri Artos
Ramiro Viteri
Freddy Changuluiza
Geovanny Granja
Mariano Quevedo
Manolo Chiriboga
Cecilia Moreno
José Chiriboga
Marcelo Albán
Ector Artos Viteri
William Artos
William Balseca
Wilson Medardo Quevedo Cruz
Héctor Aníbal Escudero Silva
Angel Oña
Guido Balseca
Néstor Quinaucho
Alba Mata
Fabián Balseca
Marcelo Quinaucho
Isolina Cruz
Additionally, we demand an end to the repression and militarization of territories and the violation of Human and collective Rights. We urge the international working class to remain vigilant against the neo-extractivist policy of the Daniel Noboa government, which responds to the interests of multinational corporations and imperialist economies, which exacerbate the violence of the logic of exploitation of global capital in the Global South. We demand unrestricted respect for the Human Right to resistance and territorial self-determination of peoples and nationalities, as well as respect for the collective right to prior, free, and informed consultation.
Finally, we alert about internal militarization as an instrument of persecution and dismantling of the organizational processes of the working class, systematically implemented by the current governments of Ecuador. Since January 9, 2024, Ecuador has been under the declaration of an Internal Armed Conflict, supposedly provoked by organized crime. With the repressive and judicial actions of recent days, it is clear that this declaration is not directed against narcodelictive structures, but rather represents a declaration of war against the Ecuadorian working class, in an attempt to maximize labor exploitation through contractual liberalization and allow territorial dispossession to benefit local and transnational mining capital, linked in many cases to the narcodelictive networks mentioned by the Ecuadorian government.
Internationalist solidarity with the working class in rural Ecuador and the popular processes of territorial defense!
