The tunnels in Zaruma have been known since 1993, according to sectional authorities

Since 1993, it was already known where the sinkholes were in the Zaruma canton, said Clemente Bravo Riofrío, prefect of the El Oro province, who appeared before the Commission of Decentralized Autonomous Governments of the National Assembly that oversees the mining exploitation permits and control of mining activity in that jurisdiction.

The provincial official said that they have technical information made by a team of geologists led by Marcelo Cando, in which it is determined that the mines are in Portovelo, but when they enter the lower part of the Zaruma mining exclusion zone, the legal concessionaires work with the sabers and the illegal miners.

That there are more than 400 meters of mine openings in the Zaruma canton and that Mayor Jhansey López knows that, which has generated subsidence and sinkholes.

Clemente Bravo affirmed “that it is known that there is a very rich gold beta on the surface of the canton, and illegal miners enter through the tunnels made by legal concessionaires, and there are also people who enter their homes illegally and that weakens the bases ”.

Bravo clarified that there are also dealers who work legally, but that all dealers have to be called and that they allow an inspection of their work.

He warned that the Prefecture of El Oro was forced to “lower its guard a little for fear of crime, because there are organized crime and large national criminal gangs that are taking over the mining sector in the province.” That they have presented the corresponding complaints to the Prosecutor’s Office, as there are officials from the Prefecture who have requested up to three months of vacation to avoid persecution.

Kidnapping of two engineers and a military man in the subsoil of Zaruma is ruled out

He also said that Portovelo has become the collector of tailings, contaminated sand and biohazard waste product of mining, because these tailings are dumped into the Yellow River and Caleras in Peru, and that for this reason Ecuador faces a lawsuit before the Organization of the American States (OAS), for $ 3,000 million.

He said that in Zaruma since 1993 a mining exclusion zone of 73 hectares was established, that in 2015 and 2016 a new exclusion zone of 115 hectares was established and in 2017 they were expanded to 215 hectares.

The mayor of Zaruma, Jhansy López, reported that since 2014 when he took office he has carried out at least 33 actions directly towards the national government that involve exhortations, demands and complaints about the serious situation of the canton due to illegal mining.

That at the moment it is pending that the remediation announced by the Government is fulfilled, and that it hopes that the National Assembly will act with inspection tasks. He affirmed that so far the canton Zaruma has not received a single penny of the dollar after the new sinkhole registered last December.

That many promises and proposals have been formulated for years in favor of Zaruma, but that they were not executed or materialized since 1993, when the first mining exclusion zone was created due to the existence of conflicts between mining activity and the growth of the city , but unfortunately an exhaustive control was not carried out.

The lack of control has led to the determination of at least five mining exclusion zones to protect the urban area of ​​the city, and many of the complaints presented by local authorities and citizens were considered as exaggerated.

That the complaint filed in November 2014 with the prosecution did not go beyond the fiscal instruction, in which document was attached a report from Arcom from 2013, which determined that there were mining concessions that are addressed to the urban area of ​​the city, and that today, unfortunately, there are 300 people who belong to 80 homes that were evacuated, plus capital losses.

López said that the municipal government, without having jurisdiction, contracted studies to determine the risks of the urban area, a topographic survey of underground mining activities of the city was carried out that was presented to the risk secretariat to be considered within the projects of remediation, but there were no major results.

Cristian Torres Bermeo, general director of the National Risk and Emergency Management Service, excused himself from appearing at the commission stating that he was summoned this January 5 to a non-delegable working meeting with the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, due to the emergency of the Zaruma canton, as a visit to the canton is being prepared this Thursday, January 6 in order to review the actions taken and make new decisions that lead to addressing the emergency.

Pablo Iglesias, superintendent of Land Use and Management of Land, stated that within the investigations carried out there are conflicts over the use of land in the canton with the overuse of land.

He indicated that there are mining concessions very close to the exclusion perimeter, which may be the reason that through them the exclusion zone continues to be mined.

Iglesias expressed that there is a large amount of scattered information on the situation of Zaruma, for which he recommended its articulation through the Superintendency to contribute to the solution of the problem.

The legislators demanded more actions and less political “figure out” from the authorities involved in the Zaruma problem, according to Assemblywoman Fernanda Astudillo (UNES), who pointed out that she hopes that this January 6 President Guillermo Lasso will go to the city not only with promises, but with resources and quick solutions. He also stated that the delivery of mining royalties in favor of the canton should be supervised.

Marlon Cadena of the ID proposed to the commission to initiate an audit process on the work carried out by the Recovery Remediation Committee of the Zaruma and Portovelo mining area, which was created in September 2017 by executive decree 169, and proposed that it be convened to the Minister of Government to begin to intervene on this issue and unmask the mafias in the mining sector.

His co-leader Johanna Moreira regretted that no government in power has solved the Zaruma problem, that there are many authorities that have conflicts of interest because they are owners and partners of the mining concessions in Zaruma, and what the canton needs are resources to define a plan strategic remediation, he stressed.

He commented that the scarce resources that arrived were used to buy vehicles, tents and cones, and were not directed to help the people affected by the last sinkhole.

Darwin Pereira, of the Pachakutik movement, stated that the legislative commission must know the strategic plan for the remediation of the canton, and that the authorities immediately commit to cover all the galleries and tunnels that are under Zaruma. (I)