Ecuador: Upcoming hearing in criminalisation case against six environmental and human rights defenders from the province of Bolívar
On 4 December 2024, human rights defenders Ángel Luis Rochina Rochina, Luis Enrique Borja Andrade, Luis Arnulfo Caiza Caiza, Mauricio Freddy Díaz Sánchez, Ángel Oswaldo Lumbi Lara and Carlos Napoleón Yunapanta Tocta are expected to appear before the Province Court of Justice of Bolívar to appeal the guilty verdict handed down to them in May 2024, resulting from a criminalisation case they are facing as reprisal for their work protecting human rights and nature in Ecuador.
The six human rights and environmental defenders are from the communities of the cantons of Las Naves, Echeandía and Guaranda, all three located in the province of Bolívar. Along with their community members, most of whom are small farmers, they have actively worked to protect their territories from the negative effects caused by mining, especially since 2006 when the arrival to their territories of the Ecuadorian company Curimining S.A., subsidiary of Canadian companies Salazar Resources Ltd. and Silvercorp Metals Inc. was announced. Since then, the communities have made a series of requests to the State to be included in consultations regarding the mining activities in the area but have received no positive answer. In response to the lack of engagement by the authorities, they initiated peaceful protests demanding their right to participate in the process of the environmental licensing needed for the project to initiate.
The human rights defenders accuse the State, and specifically the Ministry of the Environment, Water and Eco-Transition (MAATE), of not sharing clear and accessible information with the communities about the scope of the projects, their social and environmental impacts, and the possible measures which could have been adopted in order to prevent the licences from being granted. The communities have also criticised the State for initiating the process of consultation at the end of 2023 without providing due notice to the affected communities.
In the context of the Curipamba – El Domo mining project by the Curimining S.A. company, the increased demands made by the communities have resulted in reprisals from the authorities and the mining company. To date, Front Line Defenders has documented the criminalisation of 18 human rights defenders in connection to the Curipamba – El Domo project.
On 22 January 2024, the MAATE issued an environmental license for the exploitation phase of the copper-gold mining project Curipamba – El Domo, despite complaints by human rights defenders that the consultation took place without the due citizen and community participation required for its validity. Curimining S.A. announced that this license was obtained with the approval of 98% of the population of Las Naves. However, as documented by defenders, only 150 people had attended the meeting, many of whom were workers from the company and their relatives, while the total population of the communities encompasses around 7,000 people. Furthermore, the consultations only included members of 7 communities of Las Naves when a further 10 communities would also be impacted by the project. Finally, the defenders also highlighted other irregularities, such as materials with information about the project and the answers to queries from the communities being distributed by the company instead of by the State.
On 15 May 2024, the six human rights defenders were sentenced to three years imprisonment and a fine equating to 600 US dollars owed to the multinational company Curimining S.A. after being found guilty of illicit association. This accusation was first made in 2021 and promoted by the Prosecutor’s Office of Ecuador with the support of Curimining S.A. as a private accuser. The six human rights and environmental defenders are accused of conspiring to damage the machinery and facilities of the Curipamba – El Domo project. Nonetheless, the human rights defenders have affirmed and showed that over the years their actions were carried out peacefully, through marches and protests carrying posters with slogans in defence of water and nature.
Before the sentence, on 18 March 2024, the representative of the United Nations in South America, Jan Jarab, had talked with representatives of campesino communities, sharing his concern over the current situation of campesino communities in Ecuador. The following week, on 25 March 2024, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders of the United Nations, Mary Lawlor, also expressed her concern regarding the situation of communities and mining projects in their territories. In May 2024, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders, the Working Group on Business and Human Rights, and other UN mandates also released a statement expressing their concern over the lack of compliance of international standards in human rights and the failure of the Ecuadorian State to ensure human rights are respected in contexts of mining projects, including in the case of the communities of Las Naves.
While Front Line Defenders welcomes the international community's efforts to denounce the situation and bring visibility to the case, it also highlights this does not exclude the need for a greater presence and accompaniment by Ecuadorian human rights institutions, which so far have not played the fundamental role they could in safeguarding the right the communities have to defend human rights.
Front Line Defenders expresses its concern that the recent intensification in mining activities in Ecuador has increased pressure on the campesino, afro-descendant and indigenous communities around the country, while deteriorating the situation of human rights and the environmental conditions. Front Line Defenders is also concerned that human rights defenders are being criminalised for exercising their right to act in defence of human rights, to protest peacefully, and to defend a healthy environment, rights which are supported by international instruments such as the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights Defenders and the Escazú Agreement, both of which Ecuador has signed.
Front Line Defenders shares the concerns expressed by the international institutions and would like to express its concern over the potential criminalisation and imprisonment of human rights defenders Ángel Luis Rochina Rochina, Luis Enrique Borja Andrade, Luis Arnulfo Caiza Caiza, Mauricio Freddy Díaz Sánchez, Ángel Oswaldo Lumbi Lara and Carlos Napoleón Yunapanta Tocta. Front Line Defenders believes that they are facing criminalisation in retaliation for their community leadership and for their advocacy and mobilization against the negative socio-environmental impacts of the Curipamba-El Domo mining project in their communities. Likewise, Front Line Defenders highlights the lack of protection for guaranteed human rights and collective rights, such as the right to appropriate prior consultation, in the framework of national and international mining projects implemented in the country.
Front Line Defenders sees this criminalisation case as a clear example of how the justice system is being misused to harass and silence the work of human rights defenders in Ecuador, in particular those protecting land and environmental rights in the face of extractive projects in their territories. In case the sentence is confirmed, it could set a dangerous and negative precedent over the right to defend human rights in Ecuador.
Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in Ecuador to:
- Dismiss the court proceedings against human rights defenders Ángel Luis Rochina Rochina, Luis Enrique Borja Andrade, Luis Arnulfo Caiza Caiza, Mauricio Freddy Díaz Sánchez, Ángel Oswaldo Lumbi Lara and Carlos Napoleón Yunapanta Tocta, as it believes the case is solely motivated by their legitimate and peaceful work in defence of human rights and the environment;
- Highlight the importance of the role of the Ombudsman’s Office accompanying the case, due to its potential as an emblematic case of human rights violations and the possible negative precedent the case might have over the right to defend human rights in Ecuador;
- Ensure that communities impacted by the Curipamba – El Domo mining project have proper access to the consultation process and effective participation in the decision making of any project affecting their territories;
- Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders are able to carry out their human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions, in line with Ecuador’s international human rights obligations and commitments;
- Develop effective protection measures, in consultation with human rights defenders, for human rights and environmental defenders facing risk situations, harassment and threats due to their work protection human rights and the environment.
