Ecuador suspends mining in Amazon area affected by illegal extraction

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Monday, February 14, the Government of Ecuador announced that it temporarily suspended mining rights in an area of the country’s Amazon region affected by severe contamination caused by illegal mineral extraction.

The Minister of Energy, Juan Carlos Bermeo, during an appearance before the National Assembly (Parliament), announced that all mining rights in the Yutzupino region, near the city of Tena, the capital of the Amazonian province of Napo, will be suspended.

The measure seeks to protect the environment and the area’s populations, remarked Bermeo in declarations reproduced by his office in a communiqué.

“We have taken a radical decision to temporarily suspend mining activities until all the damages caused by the illegal extraction of minerals are corrected,” emphasized the minister.

He pointed out that the Ministry will issue a resolution to make the measure effective, based on the technical reports of specialized agencies such as the Agency for Regulation and Control of Energy and Natural Resources and the Ministry of Environment.

Once the resolution is issued, “no mining activity of any kind can be carried out in the area”, Bermeo emphasized, after pointing out that the Executive is willing to prevent the emergence of polluting illegal mining, as has occurred in other sectors of the country.

More than a thousand military and police personnel carried out, last Saturday, an operation against illegal mining sites in the area of Yutzupino, where machinery and people who opposed the entry of the forces of order were located.

The operation took place after environmental groups warned of severe contamination and alleged rights violations in the area.

The organization Acción Ecológica had warned of “devastation in Yutzupino”, where it estimated the presence of more than 3,000 people involved in illegal mining.

Likewise, the environmental group had denounced the existence of cases of “domestic violence, unsolved deaths, alcoholism, sexual exploitation of girls”, among other crimes.

With information from EFE