At least 13 injured and two detainees walked out of an anti-mining protest in Las Naves, a town in central Andean Ecuador where a company funded by Canada’s Adventus Mining operates, authorities and protesters said.
“Police personnel were attacked without any provocation by those with aggressive attitudes who resisted environmental questioning. As a result of this act of violence, three police officers were injured and property was damaged,” the police reported on Twitter.
He added that a “mob” launched an attack using stones, sticks, firebombs and shotguns against a police unit.
Prosecutors reported on the same social network that “two people were arrested for alleged property damage” at the police facility in the town of Las Naves, which has a population of around 5,000.
The prosecuting entity added that it had asked the police for assistance “to increase security in the area”. The police, in turn, said the situation was under control and “public order had been restored.”
Advertisements – Scroll to continue
Residents are opposed to an environmental consultation that must be carried out in order for the Ecuadorian-Canadian mining company Curimining, which has been operating in the region for 15 years, to further develop its gold and copper mining project.
The so-called National Anti-Mining Front, which includes indigenous sectors, reported via Twitter that at least two people were arrested and ten injured in the clashes with the police.
Some “300 members of @PoliciaEcuador fire tear gas canisters and rocks at the city: an elderly woman’s ankle was broken by a rock,” the source added.
Advertisements – Scroll to continue
Large-scale mining production in Ecuador is opposed by environmentalists and sectors such as the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (Conaie), which took part in social protests that led to the ouster of three presidents between 1997 and 2005.
Parallel to the snap general elections on August 20, an anti-miner-sponsored referendum will be held to decide whether or not to ban resource exploitation in six rural communities in Quito.
sp/cjc