Twenty Years of Resistance Come to a Climax in Intag, Ecuador as Community Groups Fight Copper Mine

by Nathaniel Young / Earth Island Journal

Anti-mining activists face challenges as they take on state-planned project

“We have always defended our land peacefully, not once turning to violence. Regardless, the government stationed over two hundred federal police throughout our community to maintain order when the mining officials came to conduct their ‘Environmental Impact Assessment.’ The assessment took only one week, but dozens of police still occupy our village,” Marcia Ramírez, a community activist in Intag, Ecuador, told us, referring to an assessment of a proposed copper mine in the area. The forest enveloping our lodge filled the cool night air with the humming of insects and voices of frogs as Ramírez paused to reposition her nursing baby. Moths of countless colors, shapes, and sizes fluttered around the bulb dimly lighting the porch where I sat listening in a group of about a dozen other Americans.

She continued, “Our community is not united as it used to be. The government has divided the people by promising prosperity and paying off those who come out in favor of the planned mine. Families get lots of money from the government for providing room and board to the police — several families are almost competing to host them. We are simple campesinos, making it easy for the authorities to trick us into thinking that we are a foolish and uneducated people, that it is the officials in Quito who know what is best for us. The police have penetrated deep into our community — some are even flaunting their power and sophistication to seduce our local girls.”

I was in Intag listening to Marcia’s story as part of The Intag Project, an interdisciplinary group of students and faculty at Cornell University and Ithaca College. The project was initiated two years ago by a Cornell undergraduate from Intag to connect American students with key community-based organizations that are fighting mining in the region and working for sustainable alternative. The idea is that many of these organizations in Ecuador are lacking in the technological and institutional resources that US college students take for granted, and that US college students can reciprocally benefit through the rare learning opportunity to engage directly with organizations addressing real-world environmental and social problems.

After months of preparation, on the second day of January our bus finally rolled us down the slithering road into Intag’s verdant valley, dotted with cute little farms and quaint towns, perpetually gazing up to the mountains playing hide and seek between misty clouds. I was so overwhelmed by the beauty of it all that at times I nearly forgot the giant open-air pit mine potentially threatening the region. I was quickly woken up to reality by the hand-painted wooden signs standing along the road at various intervals: “No a la Minería!” (No to Mining),”Intag Libre de Contaminación!” (Pollution Free Intag), “Defendemos la Naturaleza!” (Defend Nature).

The lodge where we spoke with Marcia Ramírez is a short distance up a hill next to a small town called Junín. Junín is near the bottom of the deep valley of Intag, cut into the western slope of the Andes of Northwest Ecuador. It is a mere 80 kilometers north of Quito as the crow flies, yet remote nonetheless due to the rough, winding road over mountain passes that one must travel to get there. Covered in lush cloud forest, Intag is located within an ecoregion known as the Chocó, one of the rainiest and most biodiverse spots on the planet. In addition to hosting thousands of unique species, the valley is home to about 17,000 people. Most of Intag’s residents (Inteños) live on small-scale farms, producing a wide variety of crops that feed local communities as well as the cities of Otavalo and Ibarra on the other side of the mountain range.

It is another type of richness in Intag that has caught the eye of the world, and threatened the valley with disaster: Beneath these forests and farms lie an estimated 2.26 million tons of copper. When the Japanese corporation Bishimetals (a subsidiary of Mitsubishi) first initiated exploratory drilling just outside Junín in 1994, Marcia and most other Inteños welcomed the idea. Wouldn’t it be great if a mine could produce jobs and development, providing incentive for young people to stay in Intag rather than joining the masses seeking success in the big cities?

But it didn’t take long for community members to start doing their own research. Alarmed upon learning of the many adverse environmental and social impacts associated with mining, none of which Bishimetals had discussed with them, Inteños rapidly began organizing, increasing awareness, and protesting. Bishimetals gave up the idea of a mine two years later, after a series of protests that culminated with a group of community members burning down the camp of the exploratory mining team. Turmoil reignited in 2004 when a Canadian company known as Ascendant Copper (now Copper Mesa) purchased mineral rights to the land. The fight was even harder this time. In one incident, paramilitary forces hired by Ascendant Copper physically assaulted and fired upon peaceful protestors who had blocked access to Junín. But once again, the resistance of the Inteños proved strong, and the federal government kicked out the transnational company in 2007.

Now a more formidable foe has emerged from within the country’s borders. When Rafael Correa was elected president of Ecuador in 2007 under a socialist platform spewing out harsh criticism of neo-liberal policy and promising sustainability, Intag’s anti-mining activists thought their worries were gone for good. But Correa’s words have become empty rhetoric in the minds of many Inteños. In 2010 he created a national mining company, ENAMI, for the purpose of initiating a mine in Junín. The fledgling ENAMI is partnering with the highly experienced Chilean mining company CODELCO — experienced, that is, in mining deserts, not rainforests, which are much more ecologically sensitive.

Inteños arose to this new development with just as much vigor as ever. They had already fought off two transnational mining companies — why shouldn’t they be able to do it again? Activists pointed to the new constitution written and passed right after Correa’s election, which became the world’s first constitution to grant rights to nature. The constitution invokes a Quechua concept, sumak kawsay (also called “Buen Vivir,” or “living well”), a philosophy of maintaining a sustainable equilibrium between society and nature.

Such appeals have done nothing to sway Correa’s course of action. “We can’t be beggars while we are sitting on a sack of gold!” he has repeatedly exclaimed in his public addresses, arguing that the government must utilize its mineral resources if it is to continue funding its expensive social programs. Correa keeps up an aggressive campaign against those who oppose his extractivist agenda; for example, he has taken to public television to personally denounce key anti-mining activists. He has also gone so far as to arrest activists. Last year, Javier Ramírez, president of Junín and a staunch mining opponent (who is also Marcia Ramírez’s brother) was arrested on charges of “sabotage and rebellion,” even though he had not broken any laws. He was held in prison for ten months without trial before being released in February. Although he is currently back with his wife and four children on their farm in Junín, ENAMI lawyers are trying to increase his sentence on the grounds that he insulted public employees. Amnesty International has voiced concern over charges and has issued a call to action.

During my two weeks in Ecuador I gained a deeper understanding of Intag and the struggles its people face. There was nothing like seeing firsthand how Inteños had organized to develop sustainable economic alternatives to mining and to protect the future of their communities. Some of my fellow students ran workshops with members of Mujer y Medio Ambiente (MYMA), a women’s artisan cooperative, teaching them new techniques and designs. MYMA provides women with part-time jobs creating mats, handbags, purses, hats, and other accessories from the fibers of cabuya, a native plant that historically played an important role in the region’s economy. A few students with filmmaking skills collected footage for a documentary on Intag’s coffee cooperative, AACRI, visiting constituent farms and conducting interviews. Many farmers have chosen to produce coffee since they can grow it under a canopy, thus preserving watershed functions and providing habitat for many native plants and animals.

Working with DECOIN, a conservation NGO, another team of students hiked up to nature preserves with local guides to set up camera traps in hopes of catching images of the olinguito, a recently described species of the raccoon family. The olinguito is endemic to cloud forest of the Chocó, and although it has never been sighted in Intag, proof that it lives in the region could give extra ammunition to conservationists fighting the mining project. We also participated in several mingas, or work-parties, in which we joined community members in planting trees to reforest some agricultural land purchased by DECOIN. Sweating away in the hot sun, I felt like a wimp working next to farmers digging hole after hole with such ease. I could only hope that the community would appreciate our honest efforts, even if they appeared to be merely gestures of support.

What is the future of Intag? Unsurprisingly, the government approved the Environmental Impact Assessment for the copper mine. ENAMI initiated exploratory activities in February. Workers are now in Junín clearing roads and preparing to drill exploratory wells that will leach arsenic, sulfuric acid, and other contaminants into the Junín River, which will impact hundreds of people who depend on the river as a water source and possibly many more further downstream as the river runs toward the Pacific. At this point, it sometimes feels inevitable that the cloud forests of Junín will be replaced with a gaping hole sending cries throughout the valley. The time we have left to convince Correa’s government to change its mind is waning.

Javier Ramírez, the president of Junín who was released from prison in February, might have been discouraged to return to the Intag Valley just in time to get the first taste of the destruction wrought by mining. To come back to see dozens of police patrolling the area. To find a divided town that had been more or less united against mining just a year ago. But when he got back home, he made a big sign with red letters, which he keeps hanging on the front of his house. It says: “HOY MAÑANA Y SIEMPRE DEFENDEREMOS NUESTRO TERRITORIO!” Today, tomorrow, and forever we will defend our territory.

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