"Open Letter: Canadian Organizations Stand in Solidarity with Indigenous, Labour and Civil Society Organizations in Ecuador Protesting Neoliberal Economic Reforms", 15 October 2019

Indigenous organizations, along with trade unions, social movements and peasant organizations, have been demonstrating across Ecuador against a set of economic austerity measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international lending institutions that have resulted in...labour reforms that undermine labour protections...and the imposition of extractive projects (mining, oil, and gas) to solve the debt crisis...The government of Ecuador has responded with extreme violence, including using tear gas, rubber bullets, and even live bullets on protesters...We condemn...the Ecuadorian President...granting the police and military exceptional powers to “maintain order and peace.”... We reject the IMF-imposed...economic austerity measures...We denounce the companies who, in attempting to assure their shareholders of the benefits of investing in a country where mining is overwhelmingly opposed, are using Ecuador’s foreign debt crisis to demonstrate that their projects will have strong government support... we condemn any actions of Canadian mining companies to use the State of Exception to further their exploration activities in areas where they have otherwise been unable to advance due to organized resistance... We call on the Ecuadorian government to... respect indigenous peoples’ decision to keep their territories free of extractive industries.