14 February 2025

Concern over the criminalisation of environmental and human rights defenders in Bolívar, Ecuador

Three community leaders have been sentenced to four years’ imprisonment by the Court of Criminal Guarantees of Bolívar. The human rights defenders were sentenced for the crime of allegedly violating private property, due to a complaint made by individuals connected to the Curimining S.A., mining company that has operated the Curipamba – El Dono project in the subtropical region of the province of Bolívar since 2006.

On 11 February 2025, the Court of Criminal Guarantees of Bolívar sentenced the environmental human rights defenders Wilfrido E., Fausto A ., and Guilberto T. to four years’ imprisonment, the payment of four minimum wages and compensation of six-hundred US dollars to their alleged victims. The criminal trial was marred by irregularities and failed to take into account their arguments and key evidence, leaving the community leaders defenceless and condemned for peacefully and legitimately defending their territories and water sources. The judge also restricted the online participation of a national and international observer team during the last trial hearing, made up of human rights organisations with members from Ecuador, Mexico, USA, Ireland, Brazil, Chile and Portugal.

These actions by the court represent a concerning bias of the Ecuadorian justice system in favour of transnational powers. In this case, it is the Canadian mining companies Silvercorp Metals Inc. and Salazar Resources Ltd. (with its local operator, Curimining S.A.), which, alongside the Ecuadorian State, have repeatedly violated human rights, collective rights and environmental rights, impacting many farming communities and their territories.

For almost two decades, the sentenced defenders, together with many other local inhabitants, have been opposing the mining project due to its threats on critical water sources. These sources are vital for the livelihoods of dozens of indigenous, montubia and campesino communities in the western slopes of the Andes in central Ecuador, as well as supplying large states and cities in coastal plains of Ecuador below.

The Curipamba – El Domo project obtained the necessary licences and permits to commence the open-cast extraction of copper, gold, silver and zinc in January 2024. This followed a supposed community consultation that involved only slightly over one hundred of the seven thousand community members directly affected. The so-called consultation was marred by irregularities, including the excessive presence of the State's armed forces.

To date, 29 environmental defenders from the provinces of Bolívar and Los Ríos have been targeted with criminal processes in relation to this mining project, with twelve of them receiving prison sentences of up to four years and heavy fines. The high level of criminalisation and sentencing in this case demonstrates the seriousness of the persecution that people and communities who defend human rights and the environment face in the country. Behind all these complaints against human rights defenders, whether they be filed by the mining company or private agents, is the the same law firm of Quito, showing that the criminalisation of human rights defenders in Bolívar is part of a strategy aimed at restricting their work.

It is of utmost importance that judicial processes are transparent and impartial, and that they ensure the rights of all people, including those located in the territories affected by the mining activities. Ecuador is currently facing a scenario in which environmental human rights defenders are being persecuted, stemming from the adoption of political and economic models that prioritize natural resource extraction. This damages campesino agriculture, water sources, ecotourism and quality of life in the countryside.

The undersigned human rights and environmental organisations stand in solidarity with the three human rights defenders, with their communities and organisations. We are concerned about the systematic use of the justice system to silence and criminalise environmental human rights defenders in Ecuador, and we will continue to closely monitor the case from the national and international human rights community, when the judicial process reaches to the second instance. Finally, we reiterate the importance of the cases being closely accompanied by authorities that work in the field of human rights in the country, due to its potential to become a human rights violation.

Signatory organisations: