"International Organizations Call For Accountability Following Attack On Amazonian Land Defender Patricia Gualinga", 08 Feb 2018

Following recent death threats and acts of hostile intimidation towards Patricia Gualinga Montalvo, an Indigenous Kichwa leader from Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest - over 50 prominent global organizations and individuals working for human rights, women’s rights, environmental and climate justice, issued a statement of solidarity and a call for accountability... The collective statement signed by global organizations... expresses deep concern regarding the attack targeting Patricia on January 5, 2018, during which an unknown man attacked her home in Puyo,...Ecuador, throwing stones at the windows while yelling death threats against her. The attack broke windows and the assailant yelled directly at Patricia Gualinga and repeatedly threatened her with death. This attack occurs in the context of the national debate about the future of oil and mining concessions... Amazonian Indigenous women and the affected communities have repeatedly expressed their rejection of these projects, promoted by the government without their free, prior and informed consent. Global leaders...also note the growing trend in attacks, murder and intimidation against human rights and Indigenous land defenders worldwide... Gualinga... has helped lead community efforts to protect their ancestral Amazon territory from industrial extraction, including winning a historic case against the Ecuadorian government before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.