25 November 2025, 1:42pm EST

The Federation of Indigenous and Campesino Organizations of Azuay (FOA) Denounces the Criminalization of Water Defenders after Exposing Mining Pollution in Kimsakocha

Dundee Precious Metals Ecuador Militarisation/Criminalisation
Source:
The Federation of Indigenous and Campesino Organizations of Azuay (FOA)

(Cuenca) The Federation of Indigenous and Peasant Organizations of Azuay (FOA) denounces the criminalization of six water defenders after communities and organizations carried out a cleanup minga in the Kimsakocha páramo in September 2025. During the cleanup, hoses, iron, plastic, geomembranes, toilets, and other waste abandoned by the Canadian company Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) was collected at the headwaters of the Irquis and Tarqui rivers.

This waste was subsequently handed over to the Azuay Provincial Government as evidence of the environmental impact caused by mining exploration activities. Despite this, instead of investigating the reported pollution, the company has brought criminal charges against community leaders.

The complaints are being processed in Prosecutor's File No. 010201825090023, opened by the Cuenca Prosecutor's Office for the alleged crime of damage to property, and are part of a process initiated by the mining company itself, which is also accusing them of unlawful association, further criminalizing community leaders and water defenders.

According to the ruling issued on November 6, 2025, as part of the preliminary investigation, the Prosecutor's Office has ordered the first proceedings and summoned them to appear at the Second Prosecutor's Office for Rapid Solutions, located in the Paucarbamba building, second floor (Carlos Rigoberto Vintimilla and Pasaje Paucarbamba), on Wednesday, November 26, 2025, at 8:20 a.m.

The first appearances are for Lauro Sigcha, president of the FOA, and Lizardo Zhagüi, president of the Victoria del Portete-Tarqui Water Board, while a date and time are awaited for the rest of the individuals being prosecuted.

The charges also include Yaku Pérez, Carmen Pérez, Ruth Pugo, and Marco Tapia, leaders of Unagua, from the community of Escaleras, and water defenders who have been involved in the defense of the páramo for 30 years.

The FOA considers this process an act of intimidation that seeks to deter our defense of the territory, not only for exposing mining pollution, but also for the legal and community actions that have prevented the advance of mega-mining in the area. It must also be remembered that the organizations these individuals represent promoted the massive mobilization on September 16, when more than 100,000 people marched in Cuenca in defense of water and in rejection of mining.

FOA also rejects DPM's claim that the area in question is private property. The communities reiterate that Kimsakocha is an ancestral and communal territory, backed by deeds from 1891 that recognize collective ownership of these lands.

Defending water cannot be treated as a crime.

Hands off Kimsakocha!

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