By Brendan Oliver Bergh
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

QUITO, Ecuador – The authorization for a Chinese company’s development of a large copper mine within Ecuador’s amazon province incited hundreds of protesters claiming that the mining would contaminate the water sources and force people from their lands. In today’s Ecuador, these people might be deemed terrorists.

It’s becoming harder to identify exactly what a terrorists in Ecuador does. Years ago it was the bombing of civilians and diplomats for political and military leverage, today? It’s the protests and resistance to what the government calls development, but what the protesters characterize as the protection of the amazon.

The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, in an attempt to halt the growing expansionism of Amazonian lands has stated numerous times, that the president had failed in his promise to defend the interests of Ecuador’s indigenous population, and is in fact prosecuting 189 Indian leaders on the grounds that they are terrorists despite his promises to support the people and their environmental interests. In a statement “The person that has infringed most on our rights in the past four years has been the president.”

In a special assembly held last year, the infamous “head shrinking” Shuar tribe of Ecuador declared “The Amazon does not have to pay for the external debt the government has with china.” When Canadian and Chinese mining companies came to strip mine swathes of land, they lived up to those words. In the last ten years indigenous tribes have begun taking militant action against those that would destroy the eco-integrity of the land. And for that work, they have been deemed to be committing terrorism by Ecuadorians President Rafael Correa.

With the growth of South American infrastructure and the move to total industrialization the demand for oil is growing. This growth has led to a quickening arrival of drills from China and Canada, and unfortunately for the indigenous tribes of the amazon rain forest, who live and rely on the ecosystem underneath the lush rain forest, are vast deposits of oil, metals and minerals.

Armed resistance and violence continues against mining camps, and have been met with state security forces and the strong arm of Correa who has made a hobby out of arresting activists and intimidating journalists who threaten his conjured image of the ecologically minded man-of-the-people.

As hostiles continue, the Shuar tribe echoed a call for resistance, “to get the gold, they will have to kill everyone of us.”

For more information, please see:

Salon – “To Get The Gold, They Will Have To Kill Every One Of Us” – 10 February 2013

Red State – Ecuador’s Hugo Chavez – 7 February 2013

Pachamama Alliance – Shaur Assembly Says: “The Amazon Does Not Have To Pay For The External Debt The Government Has With China” – 1 October 2012

Al Jazeera – Indigenous Resistance Is The New ‘Terrorism’ – 10 July 2011