During the week of June 25, 2007, MiningWatch Canada received letters from two Ecuadorian Indigenous men, Rubén Naichap and José Aviles, accusing us of “Support for Economic, Cultural and Social Genocide of the Shuar people” and “Keeping the Indigenous People of the Amazon in Poverty”, respectively. These accusations are baseless and untrue and they represent libel against our organisation. They maliciously attack not only MiningWatch Canada but also those people and organizations in Ecuador that have expressed legitimate concerns about mining. We will therefore not reproduce them here.
MiningWatch Canada received a second letter from Rubén Naichap on July 19th. Our response is below.