Criminalized
for Defending Nature
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
