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INTAG- LATEST GOING ONS June 4 2012
- Asamblea in Vacas Galindo
- Tomorrow is International Environmental Day.
- CODELCO, JUNIN the Government, and the Paradigm Shift Disorder
- Attack on NGO’s
- and more…(coming)
Asamblea in Vacas Galindo & Tomorrow is International Environmental Day.
Tomorrow is not only International Environmental Day, it is also the date that the 7 presidents of the Parish governments here in Intag chose to tell LAFARGE, that they will be under much more scrutiny than ever before. Just in case; Lafare is the world’s largest cement producer (France based) and has a limestone mine here in Intag. In 2010, an Environmental Audit found many illegalities.
A few weeks ago, two workers subcontracted by the company died after a huge rock fell on them. You could say that that was the rock that crushed everyone’s patience. So, the Parish governments called for a regional Assembly to force Lafarge to comply with labor, environmental and human rights regulations which they have been, with the SUPPORT of WWF, flagrantly violating since they started pillaging our land, almost 10 years ago. One of the issues will be to force the company to show where the almost 15 million dollars that they are supposed to have paid in taxes and royalties during the past just 3 years, for community development, has gone to.
CODELCO, JUNIN the Government, and the Paradigm Shift Disorder
In March of this year, the world’s mining companies got together in Toronto to show off their stuff and look for new places to pillage. Many governments were also there shamelessly selling their country’s natural resources to some of the biggest crooks on the planet; including Ecuador. Ecuador apparently gave a wonderful presentation which, among many other pearls, confirmed that the first project to be carried out by the government mining company (ENAMI) and Codelco will be Junin. No date set was set for the start of the fun and games in Intag’s mountains and clouds. The Correa government would have to be monumentally stupid to open this can of worms before elections, which are due for February 2013. But we have been surprised over and over again by the stupidity that greed infuses in people and companies before, so don’t hold me to this. Anyway, the people we speak to say they are ready to receive Enami, Codelco or whomever. Regardless whether the right to resist is now a Constitutional guarantee.
Currently, there are a group of about 15 military in the Garcia Moreno Parish that are there to, supposedly, protect the people and the country from delinquency. You might think I am making all this up, it is so monstrously ridiculous, but I assure you, I am not. They impound motorcycles without all the papers in order, yet allow illegal mining right in front of their crooked noses (Codelco in Paraiso; Cecal and Lafarge in Selva Alegre; Agroindustrial in Corazón). To add insult to injury, the government inaugurated an Environmental Ministry office in Garcia Moreno to, supposedly, control illegal logging. This is the same Ministry that has told people here in Intag that it is essential to reforest, then bring in tens of thousands of trees from a nursery hundreds of kilometers away based in another ecosystem, and refuse to support the local community tree nurseries. It is also the same clowns that are telling people here that mining is to go ahead no matter what (the exact Ecuadorian phrase: la minería va porque va). That ‘no matter what’ entails a host of illegalities and unconstitutionalities, including violating the Constitutional right to a Good Life (Sumak Kawsayt), the right to Previous Consultation, the right to Resistance, the right to live in a culture of peace, and the right to live in a environment free of contamination, to mention some of the more obvious ones (more on the hypocrisy of the regime’s environmental policies here: http://www.nl-aid.org/tag/paradigm/ or here http://www.scribd.com/doc/94232591/Paradigm-Shift-Disorder-Carlos-Zorrilla-Fv
Attacks on organizations.
Part of the strategy of this, and other so-called progressive governments in the region, to push through their unconstitutional projects and accumulate more power, is to try to weaken or destroy any but state institutions, or civil society organizations that are friendly to their policies. This means that governments like Correa’s has been targeting NGO’s and defaming them every chance it gets. This includes not only activist grass-roots organizations, but well-respected human rights NGO, and powerful indigenous organizations, like CONAIE. Correa and his cronies are also trying to neutralize the Organization of American State’s Interamerican Human Rights Commission, and Court (see link below). Any organization that dares question the obviously autocratic measures governments take- especially those related to extractive projects. A special hatred is saved for the non-governmental controlled press, which Correa himself calls corrupt in almost every public speech, without naming the paper or magazine, or TV station (he recently suggested to his contryfolks that one could “be militant by not buying the corrupt press”). The strategy seems to be working. One Parish president, ironically, one that DECOIN has helped the most acquire and protect primary forests, recently said that “NGO’S are making money from Intag, and are not doing anything”. A Correa pup. In this context, it is very unfortunate that, willingly or unwillingly, some allies are helping Correa spread the mistrust towards NGO’s.
Article in Spanish http://www.ecuadorinmediato.com/index.php?module=Noticias&func=news_user_view&id=174746&umt=presidente_ecuador_critica_a_cidh_prensa_ongs_y_satanizacion_estados
