On Thursday, March 6th, four members of the peaceful resistance to protect the Kimsakocha páramo in Southern Ecuador – all of them women, and one of them a senior citizen – were attacked by a group of five women carrying various objects like sticks, scissors, and a heavy padlock on a small neighbourhood laneway on their way to their agricultural lands. The four women, two of whom are well-known community water defenders with long-time ties to the resistance movement, sustained injuries from this attack, including a black eye, a split lip, swollen face and jaw, and bruises on their chest and arms. One woman was dragged by her hair. They have since filed a criminal complaint against the attackers.
According to the victims of the aggression, some members of the peaceful resistance had gathered earlier that morning on a public road in a small peri-rural neighbourhood in the parish of Tarqui when an alleged local employee of Canadian mining company Dundee Precious Metals was spotted in their neighbourhood. On the heels of attempted sham consultations by the Ministry of Energy and Mines in December 2024 and January 2025, members of the resistance have been on high alert amid growing tensions as the company attempts to secure its final permits for the installation of Dundee’s Loma Larga gold mine located on the sacred Kimsakocha páramo. One of the women feared that the alleged company’s local employee was in the community gathering signatures to undermine community opposition. The presence of the mining company employee was unwanted and there was a verbal dispute. The police swiftly responded to the call by the company representative. The women disassembled and returned to their agricultural tasks. The surprise attack occurred shortly thereafter.
As organizations composed of, and working in solidarity with, communities in Southern Ecuador, we condemn the acts of violence committed against the peaceful anti-mining resistance in Azuay. This is a clear escalation of tensions within the community as a direct result of Dundee Precious Metals' insistence to push through its Loma Larga project by way of illegitimate state ‘consultations’ with heavy police and military presence. This interpersonal violence is a manifestation of the company’s failure to respect the self-determination of farmers, Indigenous peoples and the residents of Cuenca to oppose the Loma Larga project that has been labeled as a “ticking time-bomb” by independent experts for its likelihood to contaminate community water sources with arsenic and other risks. In the context of increased criminalization and targeting of land, environmental and human rights defenders across Ecuador, these escalations are extremely concerning. Finally, it is yet another clear example of the underlying reasons as to why Canada and Ecuador should not sign a Free Trade Agreement, which will further erode the rights of communities to peacefully resist unwanted predatory mining projects. A timeline of the decades-long community resistance movement can be found here.
MiningWatch Canada
Savia Roja Foundation
The Kimsacocha Women's School of Agroecology
The Leg Tabacay Women's School of Agroecology
The Virgen de la Merced School of Agroecology
The San Marcos School of Agroecology and Biohealth
The Guayara 2 School of Agroecology
The UNOIC-S School of Agroecology
The Sisa Wayra Women’s School of Agroecology
The Ucorsayta Women's School of Agroecology
The Agroecology, Leadership and Ancestral Health School
The Tenta Women’s School of Agroecology
The Asomupkisa Women's School of Agroecology,
The Hermano Miguel School of Agroecology and Ancestral Medicine,
The Cañar Agroecology Network
The La Libertad School of Agroecology School
The Women's Ecological Movement of the South
The Women’s Council of Cuenca
Yasunidos Guapondelig
Cabildo por el Agua de Cuenca