So what's the feeling about mining amongst Ecuador's indigenous population, Otto?

Weeeeell...things could be better, has to be said.



Here's an excerpt from IKN43 out yesterday. In the subscription weekly there's a whole analysis of the situation that follows the translation bit here, but that's not going on the open blog. You have Ecuador exposure in your portfolio? Take a good read of this:

Ecuador: CONAIE agrees and makes its final declaration

As reported last week, Ecuador’s indigenous umbrella group CONAIE has been in extraordinary general meeting to decide its position vis-á-vis the Correa government. On Friday it issued its final declaration (11) which is currently only available in Spanish but I hear an English version will be available soon. The declaration has 21 points, from which I’m selecting the ones that matter to us interested in the extraction industries.

1) End the dialogue with the National Government due to its lack of political will, disrespect for the rights of indigenous nations and peoples and for showing no type of result in the dialogue process to date.

2) Invoke a plurinational uprising in Ecuador coordinated with distinct social sectors and preceded by protests and concrete actions, against the neoliberal and extractive policies applied by the government of Rafael Correa.

...................................

14) Prohibit the entry and interference of governmental authorities in indigenous territories, as a show of our collective rights, indigenous justice and right to freedom

15) Declare null and void the adjudications, concessions and authorizations for mining, petroleum, forestry, environmental service, pharmaceutical, hydroelectric and mangrove industries made by the Ecuador state in our lands and ancestral territories.

16) Demand that the constitutional court answers our petition of unconstitutionality and other actions made public by CONAIE concerning the Mining Law, the executive decree on intercultural bilingual education, Codenpe, the environmental licence for (petroleum) block 31 and other demands made by CONAIE.

17) Expulsion of national and international mining and petroleum companies located in indigenous lands and territories.

18) The defence and of non-admission of mining, petroleum or forestry exploitation by national and international companies in the Wuaorani territory made up of 32 peoples, including the voluntarily isolated peoples (Tagaeris, Taromenane, Oñamenani and others) that hold an ancestral possession of more than two thousand hectares where block 31 and ITT is located.

Ecuador and the Latin American Herald Tribune

El duderino over at 'Abiding in Bolivia' has noted on several occasions recently that the online medium Latin American Herald Tribune is one of the few places that offers fair, balanced reporting on his subject country. This humble corner of cyberspace would like to second that opinion of the LAHT today and note that its coverage of Ecuador's issues has been equally fair and balanced.

What I always but always want from a news media is a piece of reporting that doesn't try to pander to my political views or those of anyone else...just tell it to me straight, please. Don't tell one side and don't prefer one opinion over another. These journalistic basics are woefully lacking when it comes to coverage of AxisOfEvo countries such as Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia. None of these countries are political heaven on earth, but neither are they some sort of disaster zone.

And so to the latest newsworthy happenings in ecuador, that of the indigenous protests. that are largely aimed at water rights but encapsulate opposition to mining projects in the region. While the world of whore reporting on LatAm tries its hardest to find controversy where there is none (note President, indigenous groups at odds over fatal protest in Ecuador from CNN, Ecuador Indigenous Groups Threaten More Radical Protests from DJNW as just two of far too many) the LAHT tells things as they are. Here's the first part of its recent report on the current situation in Ecuador as regards the indigenous protests, click through for the rest and kudos for the good job of work done by LAHT.

Indian Representatives Give Petition to Ecuadorian Government

QUITO – Delegates from the Shuar and Achuar Indians delivered to a governmental commission a petition as the Confederation of Indigenous Nations of Ecuador, or Conaie, and the Ecuadorian government are holding discussions, which began because of the Indians’ fears over a bill they say will privatize water.

The government delegation went to Amazonia on Saturday, where the protest has been under way since last Monday, to meet with representatives of the Indians.

The meeting with the Shuar and Achuar tribes took place in the town of Sucua, in Morona-Santiago province.

Miguel Carvajal, the coordinating minister of internal and external security, who headed the government delegation, said that the government complied with what it had offered to do before the meeting, namely to receive a list of the tribes’ demands and construct an agenda for dialogue.

President Rafael Correa said Saturday that Conaie, Ecuador’s largest Indian organization, had requested to meet with him about the water bill, adding that he would receive their representatives “with open arms.”

CONTINUES HERE

Ecuador's mining law; the passage and the protest

A quick update; yesterday Studmuffin said he was changing a small (and inconsequential for foreign mining companies) part of the new mining law and would sign it into law this very week. Just part of the i-crossing-and-t-dotting mentioned last week.

Meanwhile, today's protests organized by indigenous umbrella group CONAIE is taking place as scheduled, with roadblocks reported in the main Panamericana North highway to Colombia as well as the Azuay region that was the centre of last week's protests. Importantly and fortunately, CONAIE has said that it wants and is getting peaceful protests from its supporters.

This afternoon the protest is due to take the form of marches and town square meetings around the country. All in all, the whole thing is going as expected; CONAIE gets to play protest politics and appeases its anti-mining members without upsetting Correa or its pro-mining members too much and then the mining law becomes active a few days later. What they call down here "un negocio redondo".

More on Ecuador's anti-mining protests

Here's the link to a good report from Daniel Denvir in Upside Down World that chronicles some of the protests seen in Ecuador this week about the passage of the new mining law.

The report is biased towards the plight of the protestors and that's all right by me, though to its credit does give the other side of the story further down the note. I've mentioned previously that Denvir does a good job reporting on Ecuador and that hasn't changed. Do read for yourself about the reported police repressions that sounds pretty severe and make up your own mind. But most interesting is paragraph five that reports on the CONAIE national executive position. Here's the extract:

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After emergency meetings on January 7, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) called for a national mobilization on January 20, calling the government “dictatorial.” It is unclear whether the January 20 mobilization will spread road blockades to other provinces in central and northern Ecuador. Protesters are demanding a dialogue with central government leaders and for a broad national discussion on mining before any legislation is passed.

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As noted yesterday in this post, CONAIE is a smart, canny intelligent political animal. Note that it calls for its national mobilization on Janaury 20th, by which time the debate would have happened and the mining project voted into law. You telling me that CONAIE didn't know that? Wanna buy that bridge of mine?

This law is going through.

Dynasty Metals (DMM.to): Be long now

Today in Ecuador, the congresillo continued to take arguments from both sides about the new mining law. Indigenous movement CONAIE spoke today and asked for the law to be suspended. The arguments used by CONAIE were varied, but included the need for a full dialogue with the people to be affected by any mining development as its mainstay line. In the rebuttal period of the debate, the government argued that before the law was presented there were full consultations with all groups to be affected by mining activities.

Two conclusions drawn from today's Congresillo session:

1) The government made much the better argument to the members of Congresillo.

2) The simple fact that the debate continues and the congresillo is spending sequential days on the issue shows the mining law is now close to being approved.

This means that here I am, once again, banging on the table, doing my best Jim Cramer impersonation and telling you that YOU HAVE TO BE LONG DYNASTY METALS (DMM.to). And this isn't because I'm long, either. As a matter of fact I still have no position in the stock as yet. I've been looking to get long the last two days, but with such sketchy volume I haven't hit a fill.

If you prefer, use Corriente (CTQ.to) (ETQ) as your vehicle to play the imminent approval of Ecuador's mining law, but the value investor that dwells inside me cannot ignore DMM.to at these prices. This is one of those trades that don't come along very often, and when they do you want to be there. It's the right stock at the right time. I'll leave it up to you to play either for the short term pop or get in for the longer haul. All I know is that DMM.to right here right now is the most wonderful buy and I'm staking my reputation as a fundamental analyst and a close watcher of LatAm politics on that statement.

I'm very much in favour of social equity, as plenty of the posts on this blog witness. However I'm also an equities analyst by trade and my capitalist roots are strong. It's time to make a profit. Which brings me to the pitch, as I'm still trying to raise money for the Barbie doll's house my daughter wants for Christmas. Today I sold six copies of my NOBS report on Dynasty, which is a good start but I need to sell a few more. I'd also like this blog to pay for itself a little.

If you want to support IKN and do yourself a big favour at the same time, here's your big chance. To find out the details of DMM.to and why the fundamentals are so great will cost you the princely sum of U$10 (not even the commission you pay on a trade). The report crunches the numbers and shows you what DMM.to is capable of, even under a heavy tax burden and even with gold at $800/oz (or less). If you'd like a copy, my PayPal account is under.....

otto.rock1 (AT) gmail (DOT) com

...... or if you like you can drop me a mail at the same address. Or both. As soon as you deposit U$10 in my account and I have your mail address, the report is yours. However that's the end of my hard sell pitch because I'm telling you now, the reco in the report is the same as the reco in this free-to-read blog. I can't be any clearer or fairer than this. Do with this information what you will, but remember where you heard it. As regular readers know, I don't normally pound on about individual stocks being great opportunities, but this is "shoot fish in a dry barrel" time.

Buy DMM.to. Nuff said.


December 1st, when 6,000 people marched to the doors of the Ecuador Presidential Palace
in support of mining. Scenes unlikely to be highlighted by the treehugger NGOs

CONAIE, herding cats and mining protests

Ingapirca

So Ecuador's new mining law is finally with the Congresillo, the lawmakers have until January 9th (my sister's birthday, you'll be fascinated to know) to get the job done and the protests are about to start.

• Protests from Studmuffin that the treehugging NGOs try to stop Ecuador from moving forward, don't care about their country and don't know what they're talking about.

• Protests from the treehugging NGOs that use phrases like "rape of the land" and talk about cyanide being deliberately thrown into streams by mining companies cos they like watching fish die.

• Protests from Canadian investors that just want out of Ecuador once and for all, never want to hear the name of that country mentioned in polite conversation etc, but don't want out enough to sell now and take a loss....the lure of the three bagger keeps their greed alive.

• But most of all, protests from the people that really matter, namely the people who live where the mines will be built. IMHO the others above don't matter a jot, but I have all the time in the world for the people whose lives would be affected by any project going forward. However, that change might be positive or negative, depending on many different aspects. The protests will be anti-mining and pro-mining from these people. Worth thinking about, no?
  

If you follow this ongoing saga, tomorrow you'll hear about the CONAIE protests over mining, especially open pit mining, that are due to take place around the country. But trying to put a single tag and a single voice to Ecuador's indigenous pressure groups, community councils and associations is like herding cats. CONAIE is a national umbrella group for dozens of smaller groups, and each of the smaller groups has its own agenda. There are indigenous groups that are pro-mining, there are anti-mining groups, there are those with a neutral stance. There are groups that live hundreds of miles away from mining projects that shout loud. There are those that live 200 yards from the front gates with soft voices. Towns and villages that sit next to each other in the jungle region have differing views. Basically a real hotch-potch.

So how to make sense of what is going on? Otto suggests the following:

1) Listen to the view of associations and groups closest to any mine or mining project. The people that really matter are the ones that have to live with any development. There are local groups that oppose all forms of mining (e.g. those around the Ascendant Copper/Mesa Copper project) amd there are other locals in different places that support the proposed local projects (e.g. around the Corriente Resources Mirador project). Moral; listen to the local, not the national view. That's exactly what the Correa government will do.

2) Don't make the mistake of thinking these people know little or nothing. There's a latent racism about the way that both pro-mining and anti-mining groups seem to think "well, they don't understand..all we need to do is explain our point of view to the ignorant locals and they'll see the light." Big mistake guys; the ignorants in this case are the foreigners, not the local indigenous.

3) Consider it this way; if somebody told you they wanted to build a big mine three miles from your front door and then told you the benefits of the project, and then the next day some other person knocked on your door and told you to oppose with all your strength the big bad miners that were about to poison your children and rape the land....then these two groups left you to chat with your neighbours for six months or so...and you lived in a place with a very strong sense of community...and that place had intelligent, caring people who find out about both sides of the story....and you had community meeting after community meeting on the subject...and you were a normal human being who can weigh evidence and come to a decision.....and you acted as a democratic society, respectful of other views. After a while I'm willing to bet serious money that you'd be very educated about mining, know both sides of the story inside out and know all the pros and cons of the situation. So what makes you think that the people of Ecuador are any different to you, gringo?

4) Regard CONAIE as a sophisticated political machine, because that's exactly what it is. Its continued existence means that it is constantly compromising between different wings with differing views inside its organization. This means it perfected the art of the compromise a long time ago (otherwise it wouldn't exist any more) and is, at heart, a political party that will move and shake the same as any other regarding its agenda. "The art of the possible" most definitely applies in CONAIE politics and amongst its leaders.

5) Don't believe either Mining Watch (or similar anti-mining NGO) or any mining company when either says something along the lines of "The indigenous in Ecuador support us and here's the signature of the leader to prove it." Be a sceptic about either side's claims until you find out who supports them. The key to any support should always be "the more local the better". If one side has the national committee on its side and the other has the local association, it might sound counterintuitive but go with the locals even though the group may be 20 times smaller.

The bottom line might shock'n'surprise, but fact is that Ecuador's indigenous community is already well-educated about the pros and cons of mining and will decide for themselves what's good for them. Quite right, too. Those espousing the view that all development is bad and it would be better for all those quaint brown people to live as savages forever are an insult to the intelligence and are as racist as those who would oppress for profit. Those espousing capitalism as the way, the truth and the light need to explain why the system won't concentrate all the rewards in very few hands and screw up Joe Ordinary the same way as the current situation playing out in the USA.

You're dealing with a culture that was around hundreds and even thousands of years before the conquistadores arrived and in that time invented a decimal system, invented the suspension bridge, build roads thousands of miles long, built overground and underground aqueducts, understood the concept of cross pollenation to produce better crops, worked gold, silver, copper etc, and had an ordered society that lived in harmony with its surroundings. Underestimating smart people is the job of a moron.

Interesting interview from Ecuador

This is the link to Daniel Denvir's interview (who's doing great journalistic work in Ecuador) with Monica Chuji, a local politician who knows the Correa government from the inside out. Here's the first paragraph of Denvir's note to get the context:

Monica Chuji is an indigenous Kichwa activist from the Ecuadorian Amazon. She served as an Assembly Member from President Rafael Correa’s Alianza País party in the National Constituent Assembly, drafting Ecuador’s new constitution. Prior to Chuji’s election to the Assembly, she was Correa’s Secretary of Communication and spokeswoman. In September, she broke with Correa and left Alianza País, the culmination of months of increasing conflict between the President and Ecuador’s social and indigenous movements.

An excellent interview then follows, giving us a different perspective of what is happening in Ecuador today. Here's the link again, so go read it.