The largest indigenous organization in Ecuador promises to fight a free trade agreement now concluded with Canada, warning that human rights abuses in the South American country ecologically and culturally diverse could encourage.
“It is very worrying, this news,” said Zenaida Yasacama, an interim president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), which represents 10,000 communities, in a Teleconference interview by Quito.
“We have not been consulted as indigenous peoples, and we believe that this process is a violation of our rights,” Indigenous CBC told CBC in Spanish.
Canada and Ecuador announced the end of the negotiations last week. Amid threats to crush tariffs from the United States, Global Affairs Canada is promoting the elimination of commercial barriers of $ 1.4 billion in bilateral goods and the diversification of associations.
However, opponents say that the explanation is opportunistic, arguing that the agreement would mainly benefit the Canada mining sector, the main source of $ 4.4 billion in direct Canadian investment in Ecuador in 2023.
“In our opinion, this commercial agreement focuses on expanding mining activity in Ecuador, and this will have many destructive impacts,” said Yasacama, which belongs to the Kichwa people of Pakayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
“This is our great concern and that is why we will resist, as we have done for more than 500 years. We believe there will be more murders and criminalization as we participate in resistance.”
The agreement must still be ratified.
In Ecuador, the general elections were held on Sunday, but failed to deliver a clear winner, which caused a second round vote scheduled for April. Conaie has opposed what he calls “extractive and neoliberal policies” of the head of conservative trend, Daniel Novoa.
Nnovera, son of a rich magnate of bananas export, has tried to attract foreign investment in security security, declaring an internal armed conflict against groups of organized crimes, which caused reports of serious violations of human rights.
“It is very sad and unfortunate, in fact, that this agreement has been negotiated,” said Zhagüi Hortencia for Zoom from his house in the province of Azuay in southern Ecuador.
“Our rights have been violated, our rights under our own Constitution. The President has reviewed, behind us, negotiated in secret, hidden.”
Zhagüi is a representative of the Board of Potable Water Administrators of Victoria del Portete and Tarqui. The group is concerned about mining operations that potentially leaching arsenic to groundwater in the area of wetlands at great altitude in Azuay province.
“It is very sad to say that Canada is respecting indigenous rights, indigenous peoples and human rights. It is false because we are living another reality,” Zhagüi said.
Yasacama and Zhagüi were part of a delegation of Ecuadorian women who toured Canada the past fall, although they remain uncertain if Canadian leaders acted in their concerns. A spokesman for the Minister of Commerce, Mary NG, did not respond to comments requests.
In a statement, Global Affairs said the agreement includes a chapter on indigenous peoples and commerce “which aims to defend and advance the rights of indigenous peoples under the applicable law.”
The agreement also includes clauses that compromise Canada and Ecuador so as not to weaken or reduce the rights of workers, women or indigenous peoples, according to the statement.
Concerns with arbitration
Civil society groups are also increasing red flags on the inclusion of a controversial international arbitration system used in the past by Canadian companies, even some accused of human rights abuse.
“We are outraged,” said Viviana Herrera, coordinator of the Latin American program at Mining Watch Canada.
“What is reflected in the document they published is very clear: that this agreement is about protecting investment and not protecting people.”
Known as concentration of investor status disputes, or ISD, the arbitration system would allow Canadian companies to sue Ecuador in private courts instead of in national courts.
Ecuador prohibited this system in 2008 and rejected it again in a 2024 popular referendum. The system looks like biased and unfair in Ecuador after a series of bad experiences, said Stuart Trew, a commercial researcher at the Canadian Center for Policies Alternatives.
“It really is an antidemocratic and very inexplicable system and should leave,” he said in an interview, calling him disappointing that Canada agrees.
“He puts a thumb on the balance on the name of the companies in case there is resistance, which of course is in Ecuador. There is a massive resistance to mining. This can only go wrong. This can only go wrong for the United States. It will result in massive and massive demands. “
At the end of the 2000s, for example, the Ecuadorian government revoked the Vancouver -based Copper Mesa table license, after it was accused of trying to advance a project through intimidation, violence and subterfuge .
The copper table then demanded Ecuador through the arbitration system. Although the conclusive senior staff in Quito was guilty of directing an organized campaign of criminal violence against anti-mining groups, a court granted the company $ 24 million in compensation in 2016.
In another case, Ecuador canceled a contract with Western Petroleum Corp. based in the United States, claiming that it had illegally sold a great participation in the project to a Canadian company. Western demanded for arbitration, ensuring $ 1.77 billion in 2012.
Trew said that the threat of these huge and harmful demands would give Canadian companies a great influence when projects do not follow their way.
