(9 Jun 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Quito, Ecuador – 9 June 2025
1. Various members of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador together with the Anti-Mining Front of Ecuador at a press conference
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Leonidas Iza, President of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador:
"We want to say emphatically that out of the 24 provinces in Ecuador, 20 provinces have mining activities. Unfortunately, these natural resources are not going to serve to solve the problems of the poor but rather they are going to be used by the capitalists who are going to leave hunger, misery, contaminations, diseases in our territories."
3. Press conference
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Leonidas Iza, President of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador:
"From the National Anti-Mining Front, Conaie (Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador), where we are being affected by large-scale mining, now that the next oil round is coming, we are going to defend our territories, we are going to start defending our territories, we are going to strengthen our community guards, we are going to strengthen our system of protection of water systems, we are going to protect our territorial systems. So, if we have to defend with our lives, we are going to do it in a radical way, because we cannot continue accepting that they do business with life. How many people are going to remain in poverty?"
5. Press conference
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Inginio Castillo, Member of the Anti-Mining Front of the Province of Esmeraldas:
"I come from a territory that combines the continental part with the maritime, with the maritime part where the mangroves are. And just as the water sources are contaminated here, the rivers flow into the mangroves and we already have serious problems due to the presence of mercury, the presence of heavy minerals that are affecting the fish, the mollusks."
7. Press Conference
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Esmeralda Vicente, Member of the Anti-Mining Front of Loja Province:
"The more mining investment (being made), the less food (there are) in the markets. The cities may think that they are overextended and that it is a problem of the peasants, of the Indigenous people, but it is not. If we as peasants do not put food in the markets, there will be no life in the city also. So, the cities have to become aware that little by little they are running out of food."
9. Press media
10. Various at the end of the press conference
STORYLINE:
Indigenous leaders from across Ecuador are seeking to boost their efforts to fight against mining.
During a press conference on Monday, Indigenous leader Leonidas Iza of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), said they are working to halt extractive projects.
Iza said that the National Anti-Mining Front will reinforce community guards around ecological enclaves that are being affected by mining expansion.
“We are going to strengthen our system of protection of water sources. We are going to take care of our ancestral spaces, and if it is necessary to protect them with our lives,” Iza said.
He also warned about the presence of mining activity in a vast number of Ecuador’s 24 provinces.
Inginio Castillo, member of the Anti-Mining Front of the province of Esmeraldas, said that the presence of mercury and other heavy metals in the water sources and mangroves has been detected, affecting the fish and other sea creatures.
AP video by Cesar Olmos
===========================================================
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/3bdae2c2e44543d493309f76792f7047
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in June 14, 2025, 9:05 pm.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News
