Statement from the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) translated from its original Spanish. English translation by MiningWatch Canada and Common Frontiers.
The Free Trade Agreement between Ecuador and Canada, concluded by Daniel Noboa, only favours transnational mining companies and the private interests of the presidential family. The Nobis Group, linked to the Noboa family, is a shareholder of Adventus Mining, a company involved in mining projects that have generated conflicts in Indigenous territories due to a lack of consultation, dispossession and serious environmental impacts.
This FTA prioritizes the expansion of extractivism without transparency or consultation, putting key sectors at risk and affecting the farmers and communities that sustain the national economy. It was negotiated in secret, violating the right to access public information, while endangering water, moorlands and forests, affecting food sovereignty.
In October 2024, the CONAIE, represented by its vice-president Zenaida Yasacama and a delegation of Amazonian women leaders, traveled to Canada to denounce to Canadian organizations the impacts of Canadian mining on Indigenous and campesino territories. The delegation made it clear how these companies operate without respecting the rights of communities, promoting dispossession, water pollution and the criminalization of those who defend life and territory.
We, the Indigenous peoples and nations, will defend Pachamama and our territories against mining expansion. We will not allow the country to be handed over to foreign interests while they destroy our lands and criminalize our resistance.
CONAIE Governing Council
