New Criminal Charges
The Watershed Events of the 1st of November
And More...Where to begin? I guess by thanking all of you for really coming through. If I'm not in jail now, or worse, it is, in large measure, due to the letters and other types of pressure you were able to generate. A very sincere THANK YOU.
But no, it's not over with yet. The Public Prosecutor (or DA) is intent on using the drugs and gun the police planted in my house, taken on a completely illegal raid to my home, in order to initiate new criminal lawsuits against me. She won't be involved in these new cases, luckily, so whoever is "influencing" her to bypass legal procedures to persecute me will have to influence new DA's and judges. At any time, and precisely because of the outrageous irregularities, the new judge could issue new arrest warrants. So, basically, while we were able to get the arrest warrant revoked, I have to keep being extremely careful for a while longer, until I know what is happening with the other two cases (for a complete report on the police raid, see:
www.counterpunch.org/zorrilla10262006.htmlNovember 1st. If you've kept up, you know that the company hired and trained about 80 people from all over Ecuador, in what can be called paramilitary skills, in order to forcefully occupy land they say belongs to the company. According to eye-witnesses, these people were trained by retired military personnel in the town of Pintag, outside Quito, in such skills as avoiding getting sliced by landing helicopters; use of tear-gas, and personal defense. Some people from Intag took part in what they were told was going to be agricultural training, but once they found out what it was really about, 22 deserted by the end of the first day.
Then, according to the official's own testimony, the company hired Marco Vargas, an active Major of the armed forces to lead this crew up the Intag mountains. They were transported in Ascendant Copper Corporation vehicles, and came with four specially trained dogs. And, lots of tear gas. In a later press statement, they told the press that they were an agricultural organization under contract by Ascendant to work Ascendant's lands. However, their presence provoked violent confrontations, with several people hurt, including two children, aged 2 and 3, who suffered injuries when some of the invaders used tear gas in the village of Barcelona. As the November 3rd La Hora newspaper article reported, the company and the "agricultural workers" were completely routed by the communities. Forty of them were arrested by community members and turned over to the police. One of the consequences of this disastrous and failed invasion was that it generated even more opposition to Ascendant's mining project. People were outraged that a "responsible corporate citizen" could hire and train outsiders, arm them with tear gas, machetes and sticks in order to try and occupy the communities say belong to them. Amnesty International has all the information about this latest travesty, as well as the persecution and illegal search of my home, and will soon launch a campaign to denounce it to the world.
Bad Press. Meanwhile, the government, through the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the Quito Chamber of Mines, have been busy publicly and viciously attacking the latest resistance to mining projects in the country- mainly in the Condor Range in the South, and in Intag. In the Condor, thousands of people, led by local government officials, rose against a major Canadian copper-gold mining project. They, pathetically, are using the "outside agitators" excuse for the resistance. But, in the case of Intag, and as reported in several national newspapers, they outright blamed foreigners for the "problems". Yesterday, the Minister was able to see for himself, again, that the resistance to the JUNIN mining project is not led by any foreigners. The press, not surprisingly, has been unenthusiastic about reporting our side of the story. It seems outrageous human rights violation, and in my case, police planting guns and drugs in my home, is not worth reporting.
And more...Yesterday a large delegation from Intag and Cotacachi met with the Minister of Energy and Mines. The main objective was to stop the company from provoking more violence in Intag, and to pressure the Minister to force Ascendant to leave the area. The delegation included a Cotacachi County councilman, and two presidents from Intag's Parish governments- including the president of the Association of Parish governments. Afterwards I talked to some of the participants at the meeting, and they told me that they left the meeting more convinced than ever that Ascendant's days in Intag are numbered. One of the points brought up and discussed was the inapplicability of Ascendant's Environmental Impacts Study. They all agreed that the Study is too flawed to be approved. Another fundamental issue brought up at the meeting was the unconstitutionality of the mining concessions. The main argument discussed was that, until the State consults with the communities as mandated in Ecuador's Constitution, the mining concessions are illegal.
Agricultural Ascendant. Just the other day the company recently announced that it had acquired another 5 or so million dollars/ to spend not on exploration in Junin, but more for their other project in the south of the country, and to develop agricultural projects in the lands within the Junin concessions. Prettyyyyyy funny this. I wonder what kind of fool investors would put money on a mining company that turns to agriculture - can't they see the writing on the wall?
After all this time it seems incredible to me that the head clowns at Ascendant still believe that DECOIN is solely, or mostly, responsible for the resistance to their mining project. The current persecution is based on this flawed perception. However, even before Ascendant defiled Intag with its presence, the resistance to mining in Intag was well established and deeply rooted.
For Ascendant, then, it's not a matter of if, but when, it will be forced to abandon Intag. All the outrageous pressures generated against me and DECOIN* will not, in the least, influence that outcome.
Carlos
*For an interesting interchange of letters between Ascendant's Gary Davis and myself, see
The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre's section on Ecuador.
View ClipThis clip, taken at the July 13th march in Quito, shows that Carlos Zorrilla (white beard) was on the outside edge of the crowd, thus in no position to steal anything from Leslie Chaplin. Based on this incident, Ms. Chaplin filed robbery and assault charges against Carlos, and which led to the police raid on his house.
Video que demuestra lo que realmente pasó el 13. (Este clip demuestra que Carlos Zorrilla (con barba blanca) no estuvo cerca a Leslie Chaplin, lo cual hace imposible que hubiera robado o agredido a la Srta Chaplin. Sin embargo, basado en este incidente, es que la Srta Chaplin falsamente acusa a Carlos de agresión y de robo, y lo que generó el allanamiento de su hogar y la orden de arresto).
EspañolThe trouble won't stop in the Intag area. On Wednesday, 60 people supposedly from the Ascendant Copper mining company entered Intag, which disturbed the residents of Barcelona and Cerro Pelado, who asked them to leave. However, according to the community members, the group ignored their request and actually attacked them.
The two groups had confrontations. Still with a bruised body, Vicente Quicuango, a representative of the community of Villaflora in Íntag, is living proof of the aggression, supposedly by Ascendant Copper company people, who entered the area on Wednesday with men whose physical characteristics seemed to indicate that they were from the Coast.
Evidently still fearful, Mr. Quicuango tells that his attackers had machetes, tear-gas canisters, backpacks and firearms. Quicuango approached them to ask why this group was coming in and to see their identification, but these workers responded violently and were about to "run him over" with a pickup truck.
Local residents have firmly resisted Ascendant's entry for mining extraction with the argument that these actions will harm their ecosystem and ruin the area's biodiversity, where unique natural resources are hidden everywhere.
"As women, we defend our children's future and their rights to having a healthy environment, and we will continue this struggle with all we have. Our firm position is a resounding 'no' to mining", says Teresa Flores, who lives in the sub-tropical area.
According to local witnesses, out of the 60 persons who entered the area, some 20 were from Intag and the rest seemed to be from the Coast.
The offices of La Hora received a visit from Jorge Mantilla, manager of Falericop, a company that undertakes agricultural projects, who asserted that the persons who entered Intag on Wednesday are part of his entity and were going to plant land that the Ascendant Copper mining company had rented to them.
"My workers were attacked because they wanted to clear a road, so that my company's technicians could implement productive plans in the area". He claims that they do not belong to the mining company, but only have an arrangement for farming.
Controls all over the areaAfter the confrontations, the local police asked for reinforcements and, after a few hours, more police personnel came to the area.
Sergio Torres, Head of the Provincial Police Command of Imbabura Province, explained that Otavalo police officers were deployed, under the command of Captain, Javier Torres Luna.
"Forty miners were detained by the community, but discussions led to turning them over to the Police", explained Torres. They were taken back to Otavalo and released.
