Chris Werner
John Grist
Board of Directors,
ASCENDANT EXPLORATION
ASCENDANT HOLDINGS
Dear Sirs,
As representative of the local government of the
my most cordial greetings.
Since
Unfortunately, I have witnessed how the mining situation has divided our communities and created numerous social conflicts in the Intag area. Furthermore, there is a strong and determined opposition by the majority of residents, communities, and organizations from this region against the presence of mining companies, and especially, against Ascendant Exploration, as similarly happened in 1997 against Bishimetals-Mitsubishi.
Moreover, the
position taken by the communities in the Intag area counts with the
unconditional support of the great majority of social organizations of our
County which participate in the
It is important to inform you that in the Second Assembly for County Unity, which took place in September 1997, Cotacachi was declared an Ecological County, with the objective of protecting our environment and to avoid economically destructive activities, like logging, industrial farming, mining etc; illustrating the degree of rejection felt by the citizens for mining.
I should also point out that as representative of the multi-ethnic people of Cotacachi and as a son of the Kichwa Indians, we have suffered 512 years of exploitation, racism, and injustices; therefore, there will always be my personal and institutional support in favor of the communities’ position. For this reason we presented a Constitutional Injunction to the Constitutional Tribunal to invalidate the mining concessions in the area of Junín (Golden 1 and Golden 2), which we consider were illegally granted to your company by the federal government.
From the very first days of Ascendant Exploration’s presence in our County, we have witnessed serious instances of irresponsibility on the part of your employees, who have neither informed any institutions of their plans or, what’s worse, not even asked for relevant authorization to undertake mining activities in our territory.
On the other hand, the very grave
omission of not consulting with the communities potentially impacted by the
mining project your company pursues, constitutes a
unambiguous violation of
During these past months, and as consequence of the presence of Ascendant Exploration in our county, the communities’ decisions, as well as the different local development plans- created in a participatory manner with the different social actors of our county- have not been respected. What's more, we have received reports and denunciations of a dramatic and worrisome increase in the cases of libel and slander, and death threats to leaders who struggle against mining.
For the above reasons, I would like to clearly state my political will to continue to fight, and to support the measures the communities and organizations in Intag and Cotacachi take against mining activities, in defense of life, and to implement our constitutional rights.
Without further
Sincerely,
Auki
Tituaña
AMA KILLA,
AMA LLULLA, AMA SHUA,
Econ.
Auki
Tituaña Males
ALCALDE DE
COTACACHI
COTACACHIMANTA
JATUN PUSHAK