May 4th Updates to the update…
More information is slowly filtering in about the confrontation that took place yesterday in the vicinity of Junin.
Not surprisingly, there are different versions; the one I heard today was that closer to 20 what the communities labeled “intruders” were found in the junction of the Chalguayacu and Junin Rivers, and that the “scuffle”, was a bit more serious, with several people involved. We are still not sure of the gravity of the injuries sustained, and by whom, but it seems a company employee received the worse of it, but the two sources concurred no one was hospitalized (as of yesterday afternoon)
And today, Thursday May 4th, Polibio Perez, the president of the Community Development Council, who was approximately 40 kilometers from the scene of the conflict at the time it happened, sent a letter to the Governor of Imbabura Province asking for an urgent meeting of all pertinent stakeholders in an attempt to quell the growing violence.
We’ll be updating the site as we get more reliable information on just what took place yesterday.
Off the Hook!
Good news- today the Superior Court in Ibarra rejected the request by the District Attorney to imprison the four accused community members for the damages related to the December 10th burning of the Ascendant mining camp. The District Attorney had earlier asked the judge in the case to imprison the accused preventively; even though the accused have not presented any proofs in their defense. The lower court judge refused, and the DA, in a very, very unusual and suspect move, appealed the lower courts decision to the Superior Court, who today agreed with the lower Courts decision to reject the petition for preventive prison!
