The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities, the largest in Ecuador, submitted a bill to the Assembly on Tuesday to require that communities and ancestral peoples be consulted and be able to give their consent before projects or work, especially oil and mineral exploitation, begin on their lands.
The leaders of the organization, known as CONAIE, delivered to the Secretary of the Assembly, Alejandro Muñoz, the text that is called the bill for Prior, Free and Informed Consultation for the corresponding consent within the territories of indigenous communities.
The president of this indigenous organization, Leonidas Iza, in statements to journalists, explained that this bill has more than 40 articles whose central objective “is the respect for collective rights” and added that “they cannot continue to be the territory of indigenous peoples, territories that can be sacrificed.”
The state and indigenous people maintain tensions when it comes to extractive projects on indigenous land, because the authorities usually carry out limited information or consultation procedures to obtain community permits, which are then rejected or disqualified by the leaders, which is why these initiatives are paralyzed.
Before being passed to the Plenary, the law must undergo a qualification process by the Legislature and be processed by a specialized commission.
One of the main postulates of CONAIE is the protection of Pacha Mama, mother earth, which generates radical opposition to any state or private extractive initiative on its lands.
At the same time, dozens of illegal mining settlements using heavy machinery are operating near indigenous settlements in the Andean region, the coast and the Amazon. The State has carried out sporadic controls without managing to stop illegal mining.
Zenaida Yasacama, Vice President of CONAIE, stated that her “fight has always been to be consulted and not just to be informed, we want all consultation processes to be carried out.”
Before delivering the text to the Assembly, hundreds of indigenous people arrived early at El Arbolito Park, in the north-central part of the capital and one block from the Legislative Assembly, where they performed a series of ancestral rites amidst chants and offerings.
On Tuesday morning, the Assembly building was surrounded by a large police contingent, including mounted officers.
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