Indigenous organizations in Ecuador and Peru unite to resist extractivism

On the 6th of July 2013 leaders of Indigenous groups, Women’s Groups and Agricultural Organizations met in the province of Bomboiza in Southern Ecuador. They met in solidarity in opposition to the planned open-pit copper and gold mine, El Mirador, located on the Ecuador-Peru border in Shuar Ancestral territory, and in protest of the extractivist model adopted by the governments of both countries.

At the forum a number of anti-mining resolutions were affirmed. The organizations reaffirmed their unity in defense of water sources and the Amazon. They denounced a model of development that fails to take into account diverse cultures and ways of life, and declared permenant resistence in defense of the self determination of pueblos and original nations, without fear of reprisals.

The full declaration in Spanish can be found here.