5 September 2017

…Tensions between indigenous populations, the state, and a Chinese mining company continue to rise in Ecuador’s Cordillera del Cóndor, part of the mountainous Amazon headwaters area. This past weekend, a tribunal was held in the regional hub of Gualaquiza in a show of resistance to mining abuses. Attending were communities in the Morona-Santiago, Azuay and Zamora Chinchipe regions, with NGO support from Acción Ecológica, Minka Urbana, YASunidos and others…The principal points of grievance revolve around two government mining concessions that lie within indigenous Shuar territory: the Mirador and Panantza-San Carlos open-pit copper mines run by Ecuacorriente S.A. (ECSA), owned by the Chinese consortium CRCC-Tongguan…Since then, many key development projects financed and managed by Chinese companies, have been initiated, including eight hydroelectric dams, oil concessions in the ITT region of Yasuní National Park, and the Mirador, Panantza-San Carlos, and Río Blanco mining complexes.