The next January 12 in Latacungaseveral social groups that come together in the conformation of the National Anti-Mining Front will meet to prepare an agenda of strategies to avoid mining exploitation in their territories, among them, the ccall for a preventive strike in the territories where large-scale projects are being carried out.
The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), Together with other indigenous and territorial leaders, they make up a National Anti-Mining Front that enlists actions to counteract the effects of mining exploitation.
To do this, they invited the social groups to join a national assembly that will take place on January 12 in Latacunga (Cotopaxi), in which defense strategies are expected to be put together.
On this front, social groups are outraged with the government of Guillermo Lasso, as they assure that mining projects are being pushed without applying prior, free and informed consultation and in breach of the agreements established at the national dialogue tables, which were later integrated of the strike last June, in which they were offered to declare a mining and oil moratorium.
The president of the Conaie, Leonidas Iza, He assured that these acts are causing a “social explosion, which will not end at the dialogue tables, but in the radicalization of the fight to defend democracy.”
“This entire process of social conflict is the absolute responsibility of the Government,” said the leader in a press statement that was made this Thursday, January 5, in Quito.
They denounced that mining projects are affecting nature, dividing communities, causing diseases, and even promoting alcoholism.
Iza invited grassroots organizations such as Quito without mining to join this front to champion a single strategy and face the damage caused by legal and illegal mining, he commented.
He warned national and transnational mining companies that even if they have invested in the country “They will not be able to develop mining in Ecuador.” “We cannot accept that the military and police, with our resources, become private security guards for transnationals,” he said.
In this context, in the meeting that will be held next Thursday, defense strategies will be defined in the territories, legal actions at the national and international level, and the date of a preventive strike in the territories where the projects are being established.
The representative of the National Anti-Mining Front, Luis Corral, denounced that the national government is “systematically betraying the peace agreements” and listed two new concessions that have been awarded: one in Las Naves (Bolívar) and another in Nangaritza (Zamora Chinchipe). ) in Shuar territory.
“President Guillermo Lasso announced the militarization of eleven strategic sites in the country, for which reason the Government is systematically violating the peace agreements; the projects are advancing against the law, because there has been no environmental consultation, there is no prior consultation. It is the government that is breaching the peace accords,” Corral insisted. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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