At least 13 injured and two prisoners walked out on Friday (July 14, 2023) from a protest against mining in Las Naves, a town in central Ecuador’s Andes, where a company with capital from Canadian Adventus Mining operates, authorities and demonstrators reported. .
“Police personnel were attacked without any provocation by people with an aggressive attitude who resisted the environmental consultation; as a result of this act of violence, three police officers were injured and property was damaged,” the police published 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.”
The population rejects 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, confirmed via Twitter that at least two people were arrested and ten injured in the clashes with police. About “300 members of the Ecuadorian police fire tear gas canisters and stones at the city: An elderly woman’s ankle was broken by a stone,” the source added.
Large-scale mining production in Ecuador is opposed by environmentalists and sectors such as the 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.
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