Ecuador – FDLP: PEASANTS FROM EL CHICAL REBEL!
We hereby share an unofficial translation of a statement by the Defense Front of the People’s Struggles of Ecuador (FDLP) published on the 20th of May.
In the parish of El Chical, in the province of Carchi on the border with Colombia, a significant struggle is underway.
Poor peasants, artisanal miners, small producers, and merchants have risen up against the government and the Armed Forces in response to the ongoing attacks on community members and the destruction of vast regions under the pretext of combating “illegal mining” and criminal groups.
The inhabitants of El Chical are descendants of the Pastos. This land belongs to the living memory of the Awá communities, also known as “men of the mountain.” Since ancient times, peasants and indigenous peoples of the region have sustained their livelihoods through agriculture and artisanal mining.
Currently, the mining companies Carnegie Ridge Resources S.A., a subsidiary of SolGold, and the National Mining Company, ENAMI EP, along with Cornerstone Ecuador S.A., operate in this area; they have been awarded 76,500 hectares of land for gold and copper mining. Part of these concessions lies within nature reserves, such as the Golondrinas Protected Forest, the Drácula Forest Reserve, and extensive ancestral territories of the Awá people.
In recent months, the region has endured military attacks carried out using fighter jets, tanks, recoilless rifles, and multiple rocket launchers. Added to this are incursions by troops who, as they advance, blow up mine shafts, destroy trails, and raze areas they believe are used for mining operations.
What the servile press of the old State fails to report is that, during these military operations, several peasants have been murdered. Their bodies could not be recovered because they were trapped under the rubble in the so-called “boca cuevas.” Nor does it report that there is a massive displacement of peasant families forced to abandon their lands in the face of constant attacks by the Ecuadorian Army. And of course, these lands are then exploited through purchase, dispossession, or the forced installation of violent actors who have become new big landlords; individuals who promote eviction, production, and violence against the masses.
For about a week now, community members, peasants, and small-scale miners have been holding their ground on the roads and in the countryside in the face of the regime’s repressive forces. They have focused their efforts on expressing a firm resolve: not to allow this criminal aggression to continue; not to accept the persecution of peasants and leaders; and not to yield to an outdated State that, in the service of the greed of large transnational mining companies, seeks to restrict and nullify the community members’ legitimate right to live in and work on their territories.
The struggle of the El Chical community members is the forceful and dignified response of a people who refuse to be evicted and criminalized.
It is clear: while the indigenous and peasant leadership “works hard” to push for the recall of the fascist through a referendum, or put its efforts on consolidating electoral positions within the campaign, the class-conscious element of the peasantry and the poor does what history has called upon them: to rebel!
LONG LIVE THE PEASANT UPRISING IN EL CHICAL!
OUT WITH THE IMPERIALIST MINING COMPANIES!
ARTISANAL MINING IS AN ANCESTRAL PRACTICE OF THE AWA PEOPLES!
NO TO THE BRUTAL BOMBING AND REPRESSION IN EL CHICAL!
