The Twins Waterfall. Llurimagua Mining Concession. (Carlos Zorrilla)
–Computer translated–
I. Before continuing, a brief, and partial summary of the facts and achievements since the last update
2017: La Decoin was awarded by the United Nations with the 2017 Equatorial Prize for our work in favor of conservation and support for sustainable development. It is the most important award in the world, awarded every two years. We were invited to the ceremony in New York to share the experience and receive the award along with 14 other organizations from around the world.
2018- Codelco finishes the first phase of advanced exploration and requests permission to expand exploration to another 700 hectares. To date, it has not been able to resume activities due to several reasons, including the Constitutional Protection Action that was won in March 2023, which forced Codelco to stop all mining activity in the Llurimagua concession. Another reason for Codelco’s stagnation in Intag has been the disagreements between ENAMI and Codelco.
In April 2024, the Constitutional Court rejected the appeal by the government and company to the March 2023 decision, thereby definitively affirming the decision of the Imbabura provincial court (To date, no mining activities have been resumed in the Llurimagua mining concession, however, Codelco still has presence in the area hiring community members to work on the road with the hopes of not losing total local support).
2020- BHP, the largest company in the world, was forced to leave the Intag Zone after experiencing rejection after rejection by the communities (to date, April 2024, it has not returned).
2019- The government of the Cotacachi Canton presents a Protection Action in favor of the Los Cedros Protective Forest to try to stop mining within the area protected by the Canadian company Cornerstone . It is lost in the first instance, but won in the second instance due to lack of prior consultation. In 2022, the Constitutional Court ruled in favor of the Protective Forest and the Canadian company, Cornersone , was forced to abandon the mining project, establishing a very important legal precedent.
2019- ACUSMIT The Ordinance that creates the Intag-Toisán Municipal Conservation and Sustainable Use Area is approved, which zones the entire Intag area for different activities and where mining is excluded. Due to lack of funds and/or political will, it has not had the effect that was expected, but the potential is there.
Scientific Research 2019–2022
One of the activities that DECOIN has carried out successfully is scientific research. Thus, it has been possible to finance several biological investigations within the Llurimagua mining concession of 4,829 hectares. Research has contributed, to date, to identifying 93 species of animals and plants in danger of extinction – including three species of monkeys in critical danger of extinction (Ecuador’s red list), jaguars, sloth bears, several species of birds , orchids, fish, and 22 species of frogs – all threatened by extinction. One of our most important achievements in scientific research is training locals to monitor the water quality of the mining area (for 10 years), and recently, together with Centro Jambatu and Ecoforensis , identification of frogs. The project is expanding to other communities.
Apart from the Harlequín Hocicuda frog, which was thought to be extinct and which was rediscovered in the mining concession in 2016, in 2019, another frog even rarer than the Harlequín Hocicuda was identified , which was subsequently identified as a new species to science. (he was named Intag Resistance Rocket Frog ) These two frogs were part of the legal argument to achieve the favorable ruling in favor of the rights of Nature that was obtained in March 2023 in the Provincial Court of Imbabura.
September 2019- Assembly of the entire Intag area brought together more than 1000 participants to express the rejection of mining
August 2020: Actors from Intag and Quito present Precautionary Measures against the Ministry of the Environment to stop mining based on the rights of Nature due to the threat it presents to the existence of two species in danger of extinction.
September 2020: For the first time in Imbabura, and rarely in the country, the trial is won in defense of the rights of nature, and the judge imposes restrictions against the continuation of mining activities. The government stated that it will appeal the sentence. (The decision was overturned in the superior court due to formal errors).
March 2023 (see above) Intag wins again in the Superior Court of Imbabura for rights of Nature and for lack of environmental consultation – Constitutional rights. CODELCO was forced to stop all mining activities, however, it continues to create division in the communities by paying salaries, despite not having carried out mining activities since October 2018.
Sept 2023: CODELCO hopes that the government will approve a new Environmental Impact Study to be able to explore another 700 hectares of primary forests within the Llurimagua concession. The new Study is as bad or worse than the 2014 one, but there is a lot of pressure from companies to approve environmental licenses for mining companies nationwide. In this context, the government of Guillermo Lasso, through Executive Decree 754, signed in July 2023, wished to accelerate the approval of mining activities in the country. The decree was declared partially unconstitutional, and sparked fierce clashes in the province of Cotopaxi when a mining company and government attempted to socialize the mining project despite local opposition.
Pressures increased following the victory of civil society in the national consultation in which the country was asked if the oil exploitation of the Yasuní National Park should definitively end.
April 2024, another consultation: In a notable defeat of the government’s plans to promote extractivism, the country rejected the intention of Daniel Noboa’s government to modify the Constitution to allow international arbitrations, a tool commonly used by oil and mining companies to pressure governments to allow extractive activities, or collect billions of dollars when, for legal reasons based on national laws, companies see their economic interests affected.
March 30, 2024: The Codelco mining camp that the company established in the Junín community forest is set on fire, affecting, at the same time, a community tourism infrastructure.
In April 2024, the verdict of the Superior Court of Imbabura was sealed when the Constitutional Court refused to process the appeal of the government and the companies. However, it leaves the door open for companies to present another environmental impact study, and carry out another environmental consultation.
Now the Australians: the Nightmare continues. At the beginning of April we learned that the company Hanrine, a subsidiary of the Australian company Hancock Prospecting , acquired, via an agreement legally questioned by Codelco , the right to explore in six mining concessions belonging to the National Mining Company of Ecuador, Enami. The concessions are located in the Intag valley and several border with Llurimagua. Hanrine has been behind Llurimagua for years, even offering the Ecuadorian government 400 million dollars to take charge of the project . However, Codelco is not interested in abandoning the project. What is known is that Hanrine, on May 8, entered Intag and contacted community authorities and owners within the concessions surrounding Llurimagua, and will probably try to start initial exploration in June.
(See www.decoin.org or www.codelcoecuador.com or account X: @carlostoisan for more updates)
II. Brief History of the Resistance
Exploration for metallic minerals began in the Junín area in the early 1990s, with the arrival of Bishimetals. Junín is a community located in Intag, an area of cloud forests and farms, with an area of 1,570 km2 in the northwest of Ecuador (Cotacachi canton, Imbabura province). Bishimetals, a subsidiary of the Japanese transnational corporation Mitsubishi, received money from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to carry out mineralogical exploration activities in the Junín-Cuellaje mining concessions in the mountain range of Toisan.
Interest in Intag’s mining potential was further encouraged by the Mining Development and Environmental Control Project (PRODEMINCA), financed by a World Bank loan (money that became part of Ecuador’s external debt) and executed during the second mid-1990s. PRODEMINCA had two goals: to prepare maps of the country’s mineralogical resources (thus preventing mining companies from having to invest their own plant in the search for minerals) and to draft a new mining law in order to attract investors. foreigners to this sector. The World Bank has offered the same “service” to dozens of so-called developing countries (in 2000, Decoin and Aacri submitted an official complaint to the World Bank Inspection Panel , which resulted in one of the few investigations , and harsh questions about the project.
Thanks to the new mining law, mining companies enjoyed the following incentives: extremely comfortable tax obligations; zero obligation to share the economic profits from mining with the State since the old royalties have been replaced by patents whose value ranges from one dollar to a maximum of sixteen dollars per year per hectare, depending on the phase in which the mining is located. concession; the right to repatriate one hundred percent of the profits; few obligations regarding the rights of its workers or the communities affected by its activities and few controls to mitigate or rehabilitate damage to the environment. Additionally, the law allowed companies to access all necessary resources within the concession, including water sources, a resource that is required and contaminated in massive quantities during mineral processing. The Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) sets the compensation that the mining company pays to the owner of the required resources, and he does not have the right to appeal in a civil court, if he is not satisfied with the amount offered (the law was modified in 2009).
WHAT BISHIMETALS DID DURING THEIR STAY IN JUNIN
The Bishimetals paid little attention to Ecuadorian laws while exploring in Junín. Among the most serious crimes, the company:
1 did not prepare the required Environmental Impact Study (EIA) before starting the exploration phase (the EIA cited later in these pages was prepared for the production phase);
2 did not inform the communities about the contemplated mining project;
3 did not consult with the affected communities;
4 built his latrine on the banks of the Junín River and used the same river as a dumping ground, thus contaminating the main source of water for the communities downstream;
5 left large holes and other damage on the farms where he took samples;
6 contaminated the Junín River during sampling with toxic substances from the drills; Residents who bathed in the river while the company was drilling suffered skin problems.
7. (This problem persists in Junin due to the contaminated water that emerges from the wells drilled by Bishimetals, where it was found to be contaminated with lead and arsenic)
Defense and Ecological Conservation of Intag (DECOIN), an environmental organization in the area created in response to the mining threat, repeatedly reported these and other problems related to the presence of Bishimetals to the MEM. MEM officials were never able to find evidence of the reported violations.
HOW MUCH COPPER IS THERE IN JUNÍN?
Bishimetals discovered mineral deposits in three of the seven parishes of Intag. According to JICA, the mineralized areas in the Toisán mountain range contain 318 tons of copper ore, at a concentration of 0.7 percent. That is, by opening a copper mine in Junín, a total of 2.26 million tons of pure copper will be produced. Additionally, molybdenum exists in a concentration of 0.03%.
What does 2.26 million tons of copper mean? Not much. This amount would not satisfy even 15% of what China consumes annually. And it would take decades to mine it (The government is currently relying on an unproven deposit of 982 million ore containing 5 million pure copper)
Another interesting fact: on average, 75 percent of the minerals produced in Latin America are exported to the industrialized countries of the North of the planet. What remains in the South is the great devastation that results from the mining of these metals, social conflicts and, more poverty (see Curse of Natural Resources).
2018 – According to data from Codelco, the deposit could contain 3,846 billion tons with a copper content of only 0.44%… meaning that only 17 million tons of pure copper would be produced, the rest, 3,829 THOUSAND MILLIONS of tons would remain as semi-liquid waste stored in tailings ponds. These data are not at all reliable, since they have not been confirmed by an independent entity, and it is known that companies exaggerate their deposits to attract investors or sell their concessions at high prices.
THE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS THAT A COPPER MINE WOULD CAUSE IN JUNÍN
According to Bishimetals scientists, a copper mine would produce severe environmental and social impacts in Junín. As already mentioned, the concession is located in the Toisán mountain range. Copper is found beneath agricultural communities and primary forests that border the Cotacachi-Cayapas National Park, one of the most biodiverse protected areas in the world. The Toisán Mountain Range is also very rich in water sources on which farmers down the mountain depend, and its primary forests are within two of the 36 most important biological hotspots on the planet: the Tropical Andes and the Tumbes. -Chocó-Magdalena. Hot spots are areas that contain an extraordinary rate of biological diversity and an impressive number of endemic species; In addition, hot spots face serious threats, in many cases from extractive industries. In the case of the Tropical Andes, it is recognized worldwide as the Hotspot richest in species on the entire planet.
According to the preliminary Environmental Impact Study prepared by JICA, based on a deposit 10% of what the government estimates Llurimag could have, thousands of hectares of forests and water basins would be severely impacted by an open pit copper mine. Among the impacts predicted by Japanese scientists are the following:
1 massive deforestation that would lead to climate drying and desertification ;
2 contamination of water sources with lead, arsenic, cadmium and chromium (metals associated with copper), in quantities up to 100 times higher than the natural rates in such water sources;
3 the disappearance of dozens of endangered species of birds, mammals and reptiles in the area.
4 Impacts to the Cotacachi-Cayapas National Park
In addition, JICA scientists predicted a series of social impacts, including:
1 “Relocation” of at least 100 families from four communities whose farms are on the site of the proposed mine and the required infrastructure;
2 Creation of a mining town of 5,000 inhabitants (the largest population centers in Intag are the parish centers, each with less than 1,000 inhabitants);
3 Increase in crime and traffic accidents;
4 Increase in alcoholism;
These impacts were based on a quarter of the total copper that the company Bishimetals eventually inferred the deposit would have, and 10% of what the government today estimates it could contain. Therefore, we consider that the impacts will be greater, and that at least 6 communities will be directly impacted, and nearly 10,000 hectares of forests will be decimated.
The mining company Copper Mesa Corporation , without carrying out any exploration, stated that the amount of copper that exists in the concessions was four times that calculated by Bishimetals. As the estimates have not been confirmed by independent entities, the figures are not reliable. While this new figure has raised a lot of skepticism, as we explain later, it can be assumed that the exploitation of larger quantities of the metal would produce much more serious impacts than those predicted by Bishimetals.
THE COMMUNITY RESPONDS
The presence of Bishimetals in Intag produced significant impacts. People began to educate themselves about the consequences that mining would bring to their forests and communities. Then, concerned about what they had learned, the residents began to organize. This is how DECOIN was founded. Through this local organization, on many occasions with the support of other human rights and environmental NGOs at the national and international level, people from the directly threatened communities and the entire area were mobilized.
Local opposition to the mining project resulted in the burning of the Bishimetals mining camp on May 15, 1997. Hundreds of residents from seven communities participated in the protest. The government decided to prosecute three community leaders. Eventually, the trial was dismissed due to lack of evidence. And finally, after recommending that more studies be done to discover more copper to make the mine more attractive to potential investors, Bishimetals abandoned the project.
The resistance forces had triumphed. At least, for the moment.
RESISTANCE TO MINING GROWS
Between 1997 and 2002, despite the absence of an immediate threat, opposition to mining in the Intag area grew dramatically. This is mainly due to the growing awareness of how human well-being depends on a healthy natural environment, and also the knowledge acquired regarding the destructive nature of mining in social and economic terms, together with sustainable economic alternatives driven by various organizations.
Café Río Intag
One of the strategies to stop mining was the creation of economic alternatives. In this context, the initiative Asociación Agroartisanal de Caficultores Río Intag (AACRI) was born, created by DECOIN and other organizations in 1998. The coffee brand was, and continues to be, Café Río Intag. The idea was born in 1996 as an initiative of DECOIN to cover some of the organization’s costs, selling coffee to restaurants in Otavalo. In 1998, realizing that there was a good demand for our coffee, with other Intag organizations we sought funding to expand the initiative, with which the AACRI was created. The AACRI continues to sell coffee to the world 16 years after its birth. Following the success of Café Río Intag, there are currently approximately 10 private brands of coffee from Intag.
Ecotourism
The EcoJunín community tourism project is another example of creating alternatives to mining. Likewise, it was born as an initiative of DECOIN in 1998, and its members from the communities of Chalguyaco Alto and Junín continue to provide tourist services. To bring the project to life and conserve the forests within the mining concession, DECOIN acquired 1,500 hectares of forests for the mining project.
Other economic alternatives
A few years later, what is known today as the Toisán Corporation was formed, founded in 2005, another organization that was born due to the pressures of mining. It is a third-order organization, founded by several other organizations, including the AACRI, Acai , the Intag Women’s Coordinator and Decoin. Today it brings together 12 organizations. Its main objective is to create and promote sustainable economic alternatives.
In 2000, the Municipal Council of Cotacachi, pressured by the civil society of Cotacachi, approved the ordinance that declared Cotacachi an “Ecological Canton.” the first in South America. Among its objectives was to conserve biodiversity and water resources, and therefore, it prohibits mining and other activities not compatible with the conservation of Nature. The Ordinance was a proposal from Intag civil society presented at one of the first Cantonal Unity Assemblies in 1997.
As a result of raising awareness among the population, Intag was ready for the next round of the fight against mining: the auction by the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) of the Junín concessions.
Despite the rejection by the presidents of the six parish governments in the area, the majority of councils and more than 20 NGOs that work in the canton, the MEM not only gave the green light to the auction on August 15, 2002 but also He granted the concession to Roque Bustamante, the only bidder in the auction. Mr. Bustamante paid $18,005 for the right to mine an area of 7,000 hectares.
The mayor of Cotacachi at that time, the economist Auki Tituaña, with the support of the parish councils, grassroots organizations and the majority of the inhabitants, filed a lawsuit against the MEM in 2003. According to the lawsuit, article 88 was violated of the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador by relying on the criteria of the communities when the state grants mining concessions without consulting with the communities that would be affected in social and environmental terms by the proposed activities. The judge who decided the case agreed. But Mr. Bustamante and the Ministry of Energy and Mines appealed to the Constitutional Court. Faced with this judicial instance, at first two of the three judges assigned to the case ruled again in favor of the Municipal Government and the internal communities . But due to the lack of unanimity, the case automatically went to the full Court and there, in less than 24 hours and on Christmas Eve, five of the judges decided 5 votes to 4 against the protection. Until then, the mining concession had already been sold to the company Ascendant Exploration , before the judicial process was completed.
ASCENDANT COPPER (renamed Copper Mesa in 2008)
As already indicated, Roque Bustamante sold his rights to the Junín concessions to Ascendant Exploration , SA This company is a subsidiary of Ascendant Holdings Ltd. and was created in Quito in 1999. Ascendant Holdings, for its part, is registered in the Caribbean islands Turks and Caicos. According to its website, “ Ascendant Holdings Ltd. is a medium-sized, fast-growing, world-class company dedicated to mineral exploration.”
According to the press release issued on October 13, 2004 by the company, Ascendant Holdings decided to put its Junín and Chaucha copper concessions under a new company, Ascendant Copper Corporation , headquartered in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Despite an information campaign aimed at informing Canadian authorities about the company and its activities in the Intag area, in November 2005 the company was authorized to sell its shares on the Toronto stock exchange.
The arrival of the Ascendant to Intag coincided with the beginning of conflicts in the directly affected communities and throughout the area. Below are a few examples of the clashes that occurred between people against mining and those who support the company:
Ascendant employees tried to establish a camp in the Junín community reserve, despite the rejection of the residents; They were forced to leave by a group of women from the community.
2 Death threats directed at community leaders became daily occurrences.
3 In November 2004, three people opposed to mining, including a woman who heads a group of artisans and a Spanish volunteer, were attacked by the bodyguards of former deputy Ronald Andrade, who openly supports mining; The event took place during a meeting organized by Ascendant when the volunteer took some photos of General Villacís, an Ascendant official in Intag.
4 A smear campaign was launched against DECOIN; This campaign included a Web page full of slander against the members of this environmental NGO and community leaders.
5 The mining company filed several lawsuits as part of its strategy to intimidate the opposition, including one against the newspaper INTAG for slanderous insults, where the transnational company was asked for one million dollars in damages from the community media outlet. The case was resolved between the parties.
6 Interference in local governments. The Municipality of Cotacachi, through its Mayor, the Economist Auki Tituaña, denounced numerous times the illegalities and violations of legal and collective rights by the mining company (see attached letters from the Municipality dated March 8, 2005, April, and September 16, 2005). Among the complaints is the violent aggression experienced on April 12, 2005 when the CODEGAM organization went with personnel paid in favor of mining, to a government session of the municipal government of Cotacachi, where they threatened to kill the Mayor and other people, and carried out violent acts and destroyed Municipal property. The Mayor’s Office recorded a video that clearly demonstrates the riots. It should be noted that CODEGAM (Corporation for the Development of García Moreno), was created by the company Ascendant Exploration in March 2004, and until the breakdown of relations in February 2006, Ascendant was its only source of financing, which makes Ascendant complicit in the acts described, and possibly the mastermind.
· CODEGAM, in addition to perpetuating acts of vandalism such as the one mentioned above, motivated its followers to disrespect the Cantonal authorities, and asked the company to break all dialogue with the Municipality of Cotacachi – in this way contributing to the destabilization of a democratically elected government ( Resolution # 2 CODEGAM Assembly, April 23, 2005; see The Mayor is unknown: La Hora- Imbabura, May 2, 2005).
1 On the other hand, and in the same Assembly, CODEGAM called for the creation of a new Canton, in view of the local government’s opposition to mining (Resolution # 14, CODEGAM Assembly, April 23, 2005)
2 To encourage division and further destabilize the municipal government, CODEGAM financed the production of sports suits with the legend “Cantón Intag”, and distributed them to hundreds of athletes from all the Parishes of Intag. The financing for this and all other sinister activities of Codegam came from the mining company Ascendant Copper Corporation (see article El Comercio August 20, 2005: Junín Copper Divides the Population ). In this article, the vice president of CODEGAM, Jorge Pasquel, states verbatim that: “Everything comes from the company” – referring to the financing of CODEGAM.
THE ASCENDANT PROMISES
Ascendant ‘s strategy in order to convince local people of the benefits of the mining company was to invent a development project for five local communities worth 16.5 million dollars. The company’s offers included the construction and/or maintenance of 30 kilometers of roads; new bridges on two rivers; a fully equipped and staffed health clinic; an ambulance; a thousand new houses; computers for 37 schools; a new school; training in organic agriculture. Obviously, the project would occur only after the communities accept the mining project, and the government approves the opening of the mine.
Among these projects, the one that most concerned the communities was the formation of supposedly community organizations. At Intag, Ascendant participated in the creation of a fake development organization called CODEGAM. The purpose of these was to openly support mining, and counteract the influence of the grassroots organizations of Intag and the entire canton, organizations that, together with the cantonal authorities, were opposed to mining. Codegam , to put it another way, was the one who did the dirty work for the company.
ASCENDANT CAMP FIRE. After almost 2 years of abuses, threats, intimidation and all kinds of abuse, community activists burned down the Ascendant camp Copper Corporation , located in the community of Chalguayacu Bajo, on December 10, 2005. The nearly 300 residents from the communities surrounding the mining project assumed responsibility for the incident. The company immediately falsely accused 24 peasants of events that never occurred in the collective action (they are accused of robbery and aggravated assault). Despite being in another Parish during the incident, Carlos Zorrilla, one of the members of DECOIN, was accused of being the intellectual author. After months, the Prosecutor’s Office accused five people for the destruction of the camp, and the trial continued. On November 16, the SUPERIOR COURT overruled the trial against the five . Ascendant lost a very important battle!
LAND INVASIONS. One of the company’s strategies focused on purchasing the greatest number of hectares around the mining area. The high prices the company paid resulted in more than 20 people selling their properties. One of the consequences of this ill-fated measure was that it caused invasions of vacant and non-vacant lands by unscrupulous people who intended to sell the land to the company (once awarded by the Ministry of Lands). These measures increased the existing division between communities and families in the Intag area, and were one of the reasons that led the community members to destroy the company’s mining camp in December 2005.
Given the irregularities found in the acquisition of land by the mining company, Decoin filed several lawsuits that resulted in the annulment of 16 of the 17 property titles of the company.
September 2006. In this month several company employees were captured by members of the communities for having entered community lands. Two of them were detained by the community for a few days, after learning that police, transported in a company vehicle, had arrested two members of the community. The two community members remained in jail illegally arrested for eight days. On September 13, company employees provoked a violent confrontation in the Chalguayacu Alto sector, where several were injured. The company and some of its workers have filed several lawsuits against nearly 20 community leaders as a result of these de facto measures.
October: On October 17, 2006, 19 heavily armed police officers raid the house of Mr. Carlos Zorrilla, founding member of DECOIN. His wife, teenage son, and one of his workers were intimidated. One of the police officers entered the house of one of the employees without a search warrant, and pushed him and insulted him. Others covered their faces with balaclavas. In view of not finding anything related to the false accusation (theft of a camera) one of the police officers places a weapon and a substance (drug) in his. To avoid being arrested and to dismantle the legal setup against him, Mr. Zorrilla spent several weeks in hiding (see the documentary Bajo Suelos Ricos on YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQtb5OHCwMc&ab_channel=RyeCinemaProductions %2FRoggenkino
November 2014: Strong clashes occurred when a subcontractor of the mining company tried to invade community lands. The almost 80 people brought by this “security” company ( Falericorp ) entered and used tear gas and police dogs. They used at least five tear gases against the population of Barcelona, affecting several residents, including 2 children, ages two and three. The communities united and rejected the invasion attempt, and captured 40 of the “miners”, who were later handed over to the police. A community member is seriously injured when one of the company vehicles that was transporting employees ran over him in the Villaflora sector. Of the forty people who invaded, according to witnesses from the area, approximately 20% were from the Intag area; the rest from other parts, including Guayaquil and Manabí (see report from La Hora, Provincias; Imbabura on November 3). Some of these residents admit that they were trained by the police in a place near Quito, together with the paramilitaries.
December 2006 – Once again, violent clashes occurred when hundreds of armed personnel hired by the mining company through third parties tried to force their way through a community control, resulting in one person being shot. In another confrontation in the forest, 57 of these heavily armed guards were captured by 120 members of different communities, and held in the community of Junín for 5 days, and handed over to national government officials on December 9 (See video Bajo Suelos Rich on Youtube )
On December 8, the government suspended the activities of the mining company in Intag, and made the decision not to approve the Environmental Impact Study following a resolution of the National Assembly.
2008 New Constitution of Ecuador comes into force.
2008: The judge in charge of the criminal trials against Carlos Zorrilla ruled that the trials against him were malicious.
2009 Copper Mesa loses the concessions in Intag, to later be returned for a period.
2009 Polivio and Israel Perez and Marcia Ramirez criminally prosecute the Toronto Stock Exchange and company officials for human rights violations (first trial against a stock exchange for human rights violations ) hh )
2010 Toronto Stock Exchange expels Copper Mesa Corporation . The company goes bankrupt
2011 The court in Canada rules in favor of the Stock Exchange and the company.
2012 CODELCO: History repeats itself.
Codelco half-explored the El Palmar concession in the community of Paraiso – west of JUNIN, in 2011–2012, through an agreement with the owner of the concession (a private person). However, despite working with a really terrible environmental impact study and with open opposition from the closest communities, they supposedly found no index of a site of interest.
It is important to remember that in 1997 Codelco expressed interest in continuing with the exploration of the JUNIN* deposit, but given the level of resistance and conflicts, it retracted and did not return until 2012.
The largest copper producing company in the world, CODELCO (Chile), together with the National Mining Company (ENAMI), explored within the mining concession now called Llurimagua, thanks to the aforementioned police-military occupation. Codelco’s presence in Intag was due to an agreement signed between Ecuador and Chile in 2011 and renewed in 2012 to develop mining in Intag. The explorations were carried out within the Junin community forest, used by the community for community tourism. The socialization of the project was passed off as a consultation and with police presence, and was forcefully rejected by the populations.
Javier Ramírez: Political Prisoner.
In April 2014, several Constitutional rights of the then president of the Junin community, Javier Ramírez, were flagrantly violated when he was arrested and imprisoned following false accusations of rebellion by representatives of the Ecuadorian mineral management company, ENAMI, accusing him of taking part of an alleged crime while he remained at home where a doctor was treating his knee, as a result of a motorcycle accident. Javier was arrested without a warrant, and illegally imprisoned. He was released just 10 months later, but only after being found guilty. His brother, Victor Hugo, had to spend 5 years hiding from “justice” accused of the same crime, of allegedly hitting an ENAMI official in April 2014 (see the documentary Javier con i, Intag : https://vimeo.com /142275677 ), and Hugo, Rebel Territory).
Extinct species rediscovered
Meanwhile, due to police and judicial intimidation, and seeing that justice only benefits mining interests, CODELCO continued exploring in the community forest that the Ecojunín business used for tourism. The forests in this part of Intag are home to hundreds of endangered species of animals. It should be noted that the Harlequin-nosed frog , considered extinct by the IUCN, was discovered in a part of the forest belonging to the community of Junin- and is now considered a critically endangered species. ((to date, April 2024, 93 species of mammals, birds, fish, frogs and several endangered plant species have been identified)
May 2014 Site and Occupation of Intag.
Guarded by hundreds of police from the elite forces, the government, violating human rights, violently entered the mining concession to protect dozens of scientists who spent 9 days collecting data to prepare the Environmental Impact Study for advanced exploration. The police installed Codelco inside the community forest and established their camp at a tourist viewpoint. The government did nothing to protect community rights and allowed Codelco to drill 99 exploratory wells in the community’s primary forest, affecting the forest and rivers. Meanwhile, companies have elected their own leadership in the communities and created their own organizations to weaken the opposition.
2018
Advanced exploration ended in October 2018. For various reasons, including legal actions by several community members, there has been no mining activity in the Lurimagua concession since that date. However, the company presented another environmental impact study to expand mining activities to another 700 hectares of primary and secondary forests, but they did not obtain the environmental license. (To date (05–2024) and due to the ruling of the Superior Court of Imbabura, there is no mining activity in the mining concession).
ALTERNATIVES TO MINING
Communities in the mining area and in the entire area are creating alternatives to mining. Ecological and community tourism, shade coffee, organic agriculture, groups of artisan women (cabuya fiber), groups producing fruit pulp and dairy products, a cooperative of milk producers, and a proposal for community hydroelectric plants are just some of the alternatives in progress. and generated by the communities and organizations of the Intag area, including the Toisán Corporation.
Fair Trade Store.
To support organizations and Fair Trade, in 2009, DECOIN created La Casa de Intag in Otavalo. The Intag House was part cafe and fair trade store, where products made by organized groups in the Intag area were sold and promoted (the store closed its doors in 2019),
Conservation Model
Thanks to the work led by Decoin since the beginning of the resistance, one of the most important achievements of the Intag area has been the creation of 38 community water reserves which conserve nearly 12,000 hectares of forests and watersheds and the habitat of species in danger of extinction. All of these areas are in the hands of communities, local governments, communities or community groups. The reserves, in addition to conserving the forests in the area, provide safe water to thousands of Inteños in Inteñas since the majority are reserves that protect the water sources of the population centers.
In short, a copper mine threatens not only the communities of Intag, its forests and endangered species and crystalline rivers, but it also threatens an experiment whose goal is the creation of a new development model that is supportive, participatory, and respectful. of nature.
**I acknowledge that given the nature of the text – a brief history – I was unable to name several organizations and individuals who participated in the resistance. These will be included in the full story if it is ever told.
For more information on the issues raised in this summary, see:
Videos: YouTube has about 20 short videos and feature films about the resistance, including Bajo Souelos Ricos,, A sky open mining rights, Intag Indefensión, Sitio y Ocupación a Intag, Letras y Voces de la Resistencia,, Hugo Territorio Rebelde,, Javier con i , Intag,
Mongabay Magazine has published several excellent articles and videos on the resistance, including: https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/in-ecuador-communities-protecting-a-terrestrial-coral-reef-face-a- mining-giant/
and the short video: Defending the Intag Valley: 30 Years of Community Resistance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-R7JCs_6j0&ab_channel=Mongabay )
We are also on X (Twitter): @carlostoisan06
Instagram: Intag Sanctuary of Life
Other sites of interest:
Decoin Facebook> decoinorg
Allied organizations: Toisán Corporation:
APTNORTE https://corporacion-toisan.jimdosite.com/
If you want to contact us, write to us at:
DECOIN: [email protected] or, [email protected]
Document prepared by Carlos Zorrilla, updated May 3, 2024
INTAG DEFENSE AND ECOLOGICAL COIN CONSERVATION
DECOIN is a non-profit grassroots organization founded in Intag in 1995. All members live in the Intag area. Our main objectives are: conserve the unique resources of the area, especially forests, biodiversity and water, and promote and support sustainable productive projects. To achieve these goals, among many other actions, we hire lawyers to defend our rights and those of Nature, we promote scientific research , we acquire forests for the communities, we mobilize the communities to provide environmental education (including within schools and colleges). We constantly provide material for environmental education (videos, documents, articles, etc.), we create community groups to monitor their water resources, and flora and fauna.
