This open letter was written by Proyecto Dulcepamba and was originally posted in Spanish here. Translation by MiningWatch Canada, who is also a signatory.
Three community leaders were sentenced to four years in prison by the Bolívar Criminal Court. The defenders were convicted of an alleged act of trespassing, after a legal complaint was filed by people linked to the mining company Curimining S.A. The company has been operating the Curipamba-El Domo project in the subtropics of the province of Bolívar since 2006.
On 11 February 2025, the Criminal Court of Bolívar convicted three human rights and environmental defenders, Wilfrido E., Fausto A., and Gilberto T., handing down a sentence of four years’ imprisonment and ordering them to pay four times the minimum wage and compensation of 600 USD to alleged victims. The trial, marked by irregularities, did not take into account key arguments and evidence, convicting the three community leaders who have peacefully defended their territories and water sources and leaving them without a defense. Furthermore, during the last day of hearings, the judge prevented the online participation of a national and international oversight committee made up of several human rights organizations from Ecuador, Mexico, the USA, Ireland, Brazil, Chile, and Portugal.
The court’s actions represent a concerning bias demonstrated by the Ecuadorian justice system in favour of transnational power – in this case, the Canadian mining companies Silvercorp Metals Inc. and Salazar Resources Ltd. with their local operator Curimining S.A. These companies, together with the Ecuadorian State, have repeatedly violated human rights, collective rights, and the rights of nature, affecting several farming communities and their territories.
The convicted environmental defenders, along with thousands of other local residents, have resisted this mining project for almost two decades on the grounds that the project threatens the vital water sources that sustain dozens of Indigenous, montubio, and peasant communities on the western slopes of the Andes in central Ecuador. These water sources also supply large haciendas and cities on Ecuador's coastal plains.
Following an alleged community consultation, the Curipamba - El Domo mining project received the necessary licences and permits to begin open-pit mining of copper, gold, silver, and zinc in January 2024. The consultation, however, only consulted just over 100 directly affected community members out of the more than 7000 who should have been consulted. This supposed consultation was full of irregularities, including an excessive presence of state armed forces.
Recently, 29 environmental defenders from the provinces of Bolívar and Los Ríos have been criminalized in relation to this mining project. Twelve of them have been sentenced to prison terms of up to four years and ordered to pay hefty fines. This high level of criminalization and convictions demonstrates the severity of the persecution faced by individuals and communities who defend human rights and nature in the country. Behind all the legal complaints filed against the environmental defenders – whether brought by the mining company or by individuals – is the same Quito-based law firm, demonstrating that the criminalization of defenders in Bolívar is part of an established strategy that seeks to hinder their work.
It is extremely important that the judicial processes are transparent and impartial and that they guarantee the rights of all people, including those who live in territories affected by mining activities. Ecuador is facing the widespread persecution and criminalization of human rights and environmental defenders, at the same time as the political and economic models prioritizing natural resource extraction to the detriment of small-scale agriculture, water, ecotourism, and rural life is intensifying.
The human rights and environmental organizations that have signed this open letter stand in solidarity with the three convicted defenders and with their communities and organizations. We express our concern at the systematic use of the justice system to silence and criminalize those who defend human rights and nature in Ecuador. We reaffirm that we will continue to monitor the case closely as part of the national and international human rights community, once the judicial process continues with the appeal to a higher court. Finally, we once again emphasize the importance of close monitoring of the case by the country's human rights bodies, given the high potential for human rights violations that it entails.
SIGNED
- Front Line Defenders
- Inclusive Development International
- MiningWatch Canada
- EarthWorks
- Amazon Watch
- PODER
- Amazon Frontlines
- Alianza por los Derechos Humanos - Ecuador
- Acción Ecológica
- Latinoamérica Sustentable, LAS
- CEDENMA
- Frente Nacional Antiminero
- “FECAB BRUNARI”, Gobierno Comunitario Provincial del Pueblo Waranka
- Agencia Tegantai
- Proyecto Dulcepamba
- Napo Resiste
- Saramanta Warmikuna
- Frente de Defensa del Agua, la Vida y la Naturaleza de Las Naves
- Observatorio Minero Ambiental y Social del Norte del Ecuador
- Juntos por el Agua, cantón Espíndola, Provincia de Loja
- Junta Administradora de Agua Potable Jerusalén, cantón Las Naves, Bolívar
- Fundación Suyay
- Colectivo Teatral