In Ecuador, will mining firms win in long run?
| Autor | Saavedra, Luis Angel |
Intag, a group of several communities in Ecuador's Imbabura province, had been seen as an enduring example of resistance to the mining industry. But its history could end up being repeated in other communities where mineral companies are granted concessions and then harassment, lawsuits against leaders, forced land sales, displacement, and other actions by government and corporations discourage the local population, weakening how people organize and struggle. Today, after 20 years of struggle, Intag is fragmented and unable to sustain its long-standing determination to defend its territories (NotiSur, March 14, 2014).
History of resistance
Approximately 17,000 people live in the Intag communities in the southwestern part of Cotacachi canton in Imbabura province, an area of cloud-covered forests and farms in the Andean highlands of northwestern Ecuador. A great variety of ecological niches in the region allow campesinos to cultivate tropical fruit, coffee, cacao, corn, beans, potatoes, tree tomatoes, sugarcane, bananas, and oranges. In addition, campesinos raise cattle, pigs, chickens, and guinea pigs, and Intag's population has thus become alimentary self-sufficient. The region is also able to export a large part of production to outside markets such as Otavalo, Ibarra, and Quito.
Intag's history changed in the early 1990s when the Japanese mining firm Bishimetals, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp., announced the area had a 2.26 million ton copper deposit (NotiSur, Feb. 8, 1990). However, local communities forced the company to pull out before it could confirm its discovery. The communities began promoting the declaration of Cotacachi an "Ecological Canton" in 1997. They succeeded in 2000 when the municipality passed an ordinance that made Cotacachi the first ecological canton of Latin America, strengthening opposition to mining in the area.
Bishimetals sold its Intag mining concession to Ascendant Copper Corporation, a Canadian firm that resorted to violence to make the concession viable. The company's first action was to divide the people, locating the nucleus of the opposition in Junin parish and building support in neighboring Garcia Moreno parish and in Otavalo canton. It successfully created a paramilitary security force to subdue any opposition.
At 2 a.m. on Dec. 2, 2006, Ascendant Cooper's paramilitary force moved into Intag with firearms and tear-gas bombs, firing on opponents of the mining operation. Many local residents were...
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