Photo:  Presidential Press 
Photo caption:  Correa met with human rights organizations

By Silvia Santacruz

Ecuador Mining News

 

Washington, D.C., December 12, 2007 – International human rights organizations lobbied yesterday in favor of leniency for 22 protestors from Dayuma, Orellana province, who were arrested for closing several facilities of the state-run oil company Petroecuador, reducing national daily output by 36,000 barrels. 

The organizations asked the Constituent Assembly to intervene and investigate alleged abuses by the military during the state of emergency in Orellana declared by President Rafael Correa.  The current 1998 constitution allows the president to make such declarations with congressional approval.  With Ecuador’s Congress on leave while the Constituent Assembly rewrites the constitution, the president independently called for a state of emergency in Orellana and militarized the conflict zone.

A coalition of leftist legislators – including former First Lady Ximena Bohorquez de Gutierrez, and ex-presidential candidate Leon Roldos – ceremoniously welcomed the human rights organizations’ representatives yesterday with a press conference, and in doing so angered the president .  See YouTube video

The president also was angered by the opposition coalition’s success in passing an internal rule giving the Assembly powers to examine and address cases such as Orellana.

“It was a monumental mistake that the Assembly places the Orellana issue on the day’s calendar.  Tomorrow, the opposition [coalition] could instead settle many latent conflicts, such as mining and La Concordia,” said the president.

Several mining projects throughout the country face protests by extremist NGOs and their followers.  La Concordia is a parish between Santo Domingo and Esmeraldas whose boundaries are in dispute.  Read the Presidential Press Release

The point of the president’s statements was that if a minority coalition could begin addressing the Orellana conflict, it could create a snowball effect giving the Constituent Assembly powers to settle other disagreements, including mining conflicts and border disputes.  His statements reveal a concern over executive vs. legislative authority, but also specific worries over NGO access to the government since the NGOs supporting the Orellana protestors are also consistently anti-mining.  Correa is so irritated that he threatened to quit the presidency last Saturday if the violent protestors are not punished to the full extent of the law.

In Orellana, in Ecuador’s Amazon region, scores of locals demonstrated to call attention to the need for infrastructure such as roads and electricity, and job opportunities.  The demonstrators, some violent but others merely calling attention to the community’s needs, demonstrated for five days.  As a result of protests, several facilities of Petroecuador were closed and national oil production fell by 36,000 barrels per day. 

The protestors’ sabotage came few weeks after the country, which relies on oil income to finance its budget, rejoined OPEC and was assigned a quota of 520,000 barrels a day.  Estimated losses reached $10 million in the impoverished nation, according to Correa’s statements.