Chile: activists against mining in Ecuador arrested

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During the recent visit of Ecuatorian President Alarcon to Santiago de Chile, the police violently repressed a peaceful demonstration against a mining project of the Chilean firm CODELCO together with Mitsubishi at Imbabura province in the Ecuatorian Amazon. As a consequence Ivonne Ramos (Accion Ecologica/Friends of the Earth,Ecuador) Lucio Cuenca (Observatorio de Conflictos Ambientales, Chile) and Luis Mariano Rendon (IEP and RENACE, Chile) were arrested. We sent faxes to the Minister of Energy and Mining of Ecuador, the Chilean Ambassador in Ecuador and the president of CODELCO, expressing our concern over these events and supporting the opposition of the Chilean and Ecuatorian NGOs against the depredatory activities of CODELCO in the Ecuatorian territory. Some days later the activist were set free but they have to face a legal procedure for their protests.