Violence in Intag–DECOIN Update
6th August 2007
ISN Folks- The latest from DECOIN.
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ANTI-MINING ACTIVIST NEARLY LYNCHED BY “MINING COMPANY WORKERS”
On Tuesday, 31 of July, Polivio Pérez, president of the anti-mining Community Development Council, was nearly lynched in the town center of García Moreno by a crowd that, according to the police report DECOIN was able to obtain, was composed in part by workers belonging to the “mining company”. Polivio reported that he was beaten by sticks, kicked and hit with rocks before the police intervened and put him in a police patrol car and took him to safety. Polivio’s motorcycle was, according to the police report, thrown over a precipice and pelted with stones, causing major damage. The crowd was taking its anger out on Mr. Perez for the actions of the government which prohibited the company from carrying out its so-called community relations work. The latest prohibition (late july), included the closing down of the company’s redundant “clinic” in Garcia Moreno.
Interestingly enough, the Municipal government has maintained a fully equipped clinic in this town for years. The company has been accused on numerous occasions of using its version of community relations work to divide the communities and exacerbating the conflicts in Intag.
On Thursday of the same week (2 August), two anti-mining activist were beaten up by another crowd of pro-miners, some of them reportedly were also Ascendant workers, in the nearby community of Barcelona. The anti-mining activists were taken to a health center in the town of Apuela the following day for medical examinations.
This comes after the recent death threats against Mr. Pérez and the assault of a young anti-mining activist mother earlier in the month, which led Amnesty to issue a wordlwide alert denouncing these threats and abuses anti-mining activists are facing in Intag.
As a consequence of this violence, people opposed to the mining project are saying that there is a climate of terror in Intag that was not here before Ascendant Copper Corporation came to town.