The Summit of Communities Criminalized for Defending Nature was held last November in Quito, Ecuador. Criminalization is part of a strategy aimed at silencing any protest against the extractive activities of transnational corporations within Ecuadorian frontiers. It would seem that the next accused could be anyone. It is sufficient to raise your voice against the irrationality of global economy.
Most of the cases arise in the last areas of tropical forest remaining in the country, which is where mining and oil resources are also located. At the Summit, circumstances were analyzed regarding the increasing number of these cases of unjust criminalization of indigenous and peasant populations in which opposition to national and transnational corporate extractive activities occurs.
As announced in the call to the Quito meeting, its intention was to be a first step towards “making visible to national and international public opinion the escalade of political, legal and para-legal persecution of social leaders defending nature and life, in opposition to an economist development model, violating rights” and it achieved its purpose. In Ecuador, criminalization of peasants has occurred in the North, in the subtropical zone of Intag and at present in the South of the country, in the Amazon region.
Some of the faces present at the event seemed to show relief, probably because they saw they were not the only ones suffering from this problem. The police, courts, investigations, enquiries, sentences, judges, lawyers, attorneys, doctors. This world came upon them all suddenly. Some have already become experts in law and criminal procedures. This is not surprising when one individual faces ten, fifteen and even twenty court cases.
This is the case of Tarquino Cajamarca, from the Canton Limón Indanza in the Amazon province of Morena Santiago, persecuted by Sipetrol, which manages the Hidroabanico project; of Rodrigo Aucay from El Pangui, also in the Amazon region of Zamora Chinchipe, persecuted by the Canadian-Ecuadorian Mining company, Corrientes Resource; or of Polibio Pérez, from the subtropical Intag area, who has been persecuted by the Canadian mining company, Ascendant Copper. During the event, testimonials were heard about these cases. The greatest crime of these three community leaders, respected and acknowledged in their place of origin, was perhaps to have been among those opposing more energetically the activities of the transnational corporations, affirm the representatives of human rights organizations. Unfortunately, these are not isolated cases.
The costs of defending these and other accused peasants are enormous, both in economic terms and physical and psychological efforts. Not only do they have to pay lawyers fees. The distances these criminalized people have to cover to attend the hearings are enormous. Many live in remote locations, where delinquency was practically non-existent until the intervention of transnational corporations in their area. These people are being made victims of a development model, totally foreign to their way of life and understanding of the world. Some have been in prison, others have had to hide for days or weeks to avoid going to prison, far from their families and daily activities. At the present time, Tarquino Cajamarca from Limón Indanza has an order for arrest hanging over him.
Defence is hard. In many cases, accusations are not made directly by the transnational corporation or by persons openly related to it, but by personnel paid to give false testimony and accuse the peasant leaders of a common crime that they have not committed. During some of the proceedings, identical testimonials made by different witnesses showed evidence of the fact that they were merely repeating a script that had been handed to them in advance. The Ecumenical Human Rights Commission (CEDHU) and the Regional Foundation for Human Rights Advisory Services (INREDH), both located in Quito, possess full documentation on many of these cases. According to a member of INREDH, the peasants are being linked to black lists. Tools of the trade, such as computers are stolen off them as part of a strategy to immobilize social rights organizations. CEDHU’s Investigation Unit also reports numerous cases of aggression by staff of the extractive companies or by personnel paid by these companies, including death threats, persecution, physical aggression, harassment, slander and many other actions.
However, there is an increasing number of people accused of some common crime they have not committed, making it necessary and urgent to take measures. The number of community leaders and peasants that are being criminalized by the companies in response to the resistance put up by some communities to their oil, mining or other extractive activities in tropical forest areas is alarming. According to the CEDHU Investigation Unit, there are over 100 accusations and there are many more people accused, taking into account that many of these processes are multiple, that is to say, more than one person is accused. All of them are well aware of the reason for their opposition to these economic activities. “Who has benefitted from 30 years of oil exploitation? The streets of the countries in the North are increasingly enhanced and illuminated, while at Lago Agrio (an oil city in the Ecuadorian Amazon) the streets are still in darkness and, even worse there are people suffering from cancer and contaminated” says Humberto Cholango, President of the Ecuarunari. Many peoples have stated that they do not want to end up under similar conditions and for this reason reject the extraction of natural resources in their areas. There is clear resistance to mining in Intag, Pacto, El Pangui, Napo, Machala and other places in the country.
“Mother Earth gave birth to us peoples and for this reason, we must defend her,” says Cholango. “But through non-violence,” specified Esperanza Martinez, president of Acción Ecológica, an organization that also took part in this meeting. “Non-violence is a much more powerful weapon and, as defenders of nature, we cannot do things any other way,” she added. This is in spite of the fact that sabotage and terrorism, attacks against State security, rebellion and attacks against public officials, apology of crime, unlawful association, crimes against property such as theft and crimes against people such as kidnapping, are among the crimes the various leaders and peasants are accused of. With these common crimes, an attempt is being made to mask grassroots resistance, while putting people in prison to eliminate them or neutralize those who exercise more opposition to the companies’ activities on their territories. The paramilitary or professional murderers are hired to do the dirty work. This is a situation that has repeatedly occurred in Ecuador.
In the subtropical area of Intag, four of the fifteen legal actions launched by the Canadian mining company Ascendant Copper, were concluded with absolution and resolutions in favour of the unjustly accused community members. “Justice proved us right,” said Robinson Guachagmira, who presented the case of Intag during the Quito meeting. “I myself was eight days in prison, the worst days of my life. My consolation was to think that hopefully this sacrifice would contribute to the environment and the forests of my region remaining intact for future generations.” More than 90 people from the northwest area of Intag were surprised by this type of arbitrary accusations.
According to Dr. Raul Moscoso, a lawyer who is committed to social causes and who attended the Summit meeting, “The acts of community resistance are political acts.” Dr. Moscoso prepared and upheld the first version of a draft Amnesty Law for this type of cases. The preparation of this draft Amnesty Law and the establishment of an International Network of people who have been affected to avoid those accused from isolated and individual confrontation, were just some of the solutions put forward to address the serious problem of peasant criminalization, in addition to the proposal for joint mobilizations. Through the Amnesty Law that was placed in the hands of Alberto Acosta, president of the Constitutional Assembly and in those of the Attorney General of the Nation on the same day as the Summit meeting, it is hoped to protect people who take part in ongoing or future acts of community resistance, It should be possible to apply this general Amnesty to individual cases. It should also include amnesty for civil responsibility.
Unfortunately, this criminalization phenomenon is not an isolated one nor is it exclusive to Ecuador. In other Latin American countries identical conditions are prevailing, associated with other extractive or agro-businesses, such as the case of extensive soybean plantations in Paraguay, or oil palm plantations in Colombia, where the companies also make indiscriminate use of complaints and accusations against the Afro-Colombian peasant population, trying to silence any discordant voice attempting to prevent the development of economic enterprises on community land. Regarding mining, recently there has been a case of criminalization of 7 indigenous Maya Mam members in Guatemala. Identical news has come from this country: “Through this trumped-up court case, the company intends to weaken the anti-mining social movement that is struggling for its rights in the municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, while it manages to expand its exploitation in the region and to socially disintegrate organizations opposing mining,” according to Derechos en Acción in that country.
LAST MINUTE NEWS: Over the past few days, the issue of criminalization of social protests has become hot news in Ecuador. In fact, the Prefect of the Amazon province of Orellana has been arrested, accused of having organized a social protest culminating on 29 November in Tiguino and Dayuma. Twenty-two other people have been arrested with her. Criminalized. Their demands: tarmac for a highway, water and electricity supply, reparation of damage to the environment and to health caused by oil extraction. This has led to the province being placed in a state of emergency and a curfew has been declared. For his part, president Correa, at various public gatherings, referred along the same lines to social protests, calling the ecologists, left wing, romantic, childish and even terrorists, ignoring the fact that the protests come from the population and not from the “ecologists.” Behind the President’s anger is his desire to exploit mines and oil at all costs, in a desperate search for resources and in spite of having presented himself, on various occasions, as the “friend of the indigenous population” who will be those most affected in every way. The President does not seem to like legitimate social resistance that has been generated by the 30 years of oil exploitation in the Amazon, where poverty and abandon persist in spite of the promises once made by the oil companies.
As a conclusion we may note that the union of leaders and affected peasants is needed on a national and international scale and a response in accordance with the problem of criminalization by State institutions to avoid the persistence of this situation. Also, the guarantee of mechanisms – such as the Amnesty Law – is needed to prevent transnational corporations and the State itself from harassing the population. Anyone defending the environment, tropical forests and human rights can be the next person accused of sabotage, terrorism, theft, kidnapping, slander, arson, damages or illegal association. But we should not forget that the defence of rights continues to be everyone’s responsibility.
By Guadalupe Rodriguez, Campaigner Tropical Forests and Human Rights, Save the Forest, Latin America, e-mail: guadalupe@regenwald.org, www.salvalaselva.org, www.activistas.nireblog.com
