3 June 2018

Judge Paul Serrano of the Cuenca civil court ruled over the weekend that the Ecuagoldming Rio Blanco mining concession financed by the Chinese company Junefield violates articles 57 and 398 of the nation's 2008 constitution. The articles mandate that the government provide various public hearings in communities that may be environmentally affected by nearby projects…Negotiations for the Rio Blanco mine began in 2000 but escalated in 2016, as did protests by community members of Molleturo and Rio Blanco who say that they have seen their local streams become contaminate over the past two years. These same fluvials provide drinking water to one of Ecuador’s biggest cities, Cuenca. The Rio Blanco area serves as a buffer zone that protects the ecosystems of nearby Cajas National Park…The case was brought to the court by Ecuarunari, a decades-old indigenous rights group in Ecuador, citing that the towns potentially most affected by the mining projects - Molletero and Chaucha - had not been consulted as required by the constitution. Critics say that there was never any public hearing made available in Cuenca, a city of well over half a million people…The judge's ruling also ordered the removal of some 300 security forces stationed in front of the site's entrance after community members in the region tried to storm the mining camp weeks ago resulting in severe damage to excavation equipment.