Ecuador likely to join ALBA

El Universal, 8 May , 2008

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa stated that his country next week is to announce whether it is joining the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) or not.

Correa, who attended a meeting of Latin American and Caribbean presidents to discuss food sovereignty and security in Managua, Nicaragua, in a press conference said that he recently instructed the Ecuadorian Minister of Foreign Affairs to prepare a report based on this subject matter.

"We will make a decision next week. I do not see why we should not join ALBA," he declared. Correa regretted the fact that his government had not attached "the adequate importance and attention" to the regional organization.

ALBA, promoted by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, is currently comprised of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Bolivia.

Ecuador Condemns Executions

Quito, May 7 (Prensa Latina) Ecuador denounced that in the March 1 attack of Colombians on a covert guerrilla camp in this territory, four prisoners were murdered in captivity.

Preliminary autopsies, recovered by Ecuadorian forces after the operation, revealed they were executed in cold blood, emphasized government minister Fernando Bustamante on Tuesday.

Bustamante, along with the Security chief Gustavo Larrea and foreign minister Maria Isabel Salvador said they have evidence that several of the victims were shot in the back.

The minister noted that is not clear yet if Ecuadorian Franklin Aisalia was executed in the camp or after being taken to Bogota with the body of Raul Reyes, who was spokesman of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Faced with those revelations the foreign minister demanded from Colombia an autopsy on Aisalia to determine the time of his death as well as details of that operation.

We will accuse the neighbor country at the Organization of American States, he noted.

This attack has generated a diplomatic crisis and collapse in relations with Colombia.

Regional meeting on chemical weapons begins in Ecuador

People's Daily Online, 7 May 2008

A regional meeting on chemical weapons non-proliferation attended by 19 Latin American and Caribbean countries started Tuesday in Ecuador's capital of Quito.

Delegates from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPAQ) will also take part in the two-day meeting, the Ecuadorian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Representatives will discuss efforts on dismantling and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to guarantee peace for the countries that do not own nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and prevent threats from countries with such weapons, it said.

Latin America and the Caribbean are distinguished for being peaceful and have refrained from possessing weapons of mass destruction, said the statement.

Caribbean nations have complained in previous meetings that ships carrying chemical waste on the seas of Latin America and the Caribbean posed potential dangers to the region.

Source:Xinhua

Spearing, Beheadings Reported in Ecuador National Park

Kelly Hearn in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for National Geographic News
May 5, 2008

An illegal logger has been speared to death by Amazon natives in Ecuador's Yasuní National Park, officials say.

The killing, which occurred March 4, reflects mounting tensions between natives and illegal loggers working in one of South America's most prized parks.

It also follows allegations made in February that as many as 15 Amazonian tribal members were beheaded by timber poachers in the region.

The death of the logger was confirmed by a spokesperson at the Orellana provincial police headquarters in Coca, Ecuador (see Ecuador map).

The Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio published a photograph of the scene, showing the body of the logger, Luis Mariano Castellano Espinosa, riddled with wooden spears protruding from his chest and legs.

The killing appeared to be the work of members of the Taromenane tribe, judging from the type of spear used, police captain Edwin Ruiz told the newspaper.

The attack took place in the rain forest of 1.9-million-acre (758,000-hectare) Yasuní park, which has been designated as a biosphere reserve by the United Nations.

Yasuní is rich in marketable trees such as cedar and contains a quarter of Ecuador's untapped oil reserves. The park is also home to Amazon natives such as the Taromenane and Tagaeri, two tribes living in voluntary isolation within the park's "untouchable zone," where logging and oil exploration are prohibited.

But loggers operate with impunity in parts of the park due to lack of enforcement, critics have charged, and violent clashes have resulted.

The murder is the most recent confrontation in Yasuní, where the government has now established a permanent military presence to stop illegal logging, a move that natives and rights groups had long demanded.

"[There] are powerful economic interests" involved in the park's future, said Diego Falconi, a top advisor to the Ecuadorian police. "[But the government] is committed to resolve it."

Beheadings Disputed

The recent killing comes on the heels of a government probe into an alleged massacre of natives in Yasuní.

On February 6 native groups reported that witnesses in the area had said that between 5 and 15 Taromenani and Tagaeri tribesmen had been killed, possibly beheaded, by illegal loggers when the tribal members raided a logging camp.

A team of Ecuadorian police, soldiers, and officials from the Ministry of the Environment were dispatched to the zone to investigate but said it came up empty-handed.

"No evidence was found of the incident in question," according to the government's official report, provided to National Geographic News by the environment ministry.

The report states that locals found four abandoned tribal spears, but no bodies or other signs of violence were found.

Some native leaders were incredulous of the official account.

"I do not believe the government report," said Enqueri Nihua Ehuenguime, president of the Huaorani Nationality Organization of Ecuador. The Huaorani is another tribe that lives within the park.

"If I had the resources I could prove the deaths," Nihua said.

The government report does document several signs of illegal logging activity in the area, including stacks of illicitly cut cedar and the remains of a camp.

The document suggests that the government build a permanent military police post on the nearby River Shiripuno, a common entry point for illegal loggers into the region.

It also recommends taking "pertinent legal actions against traffickers of wood that have been identified."

Ecuadorian officials have since taken steps to build a permanent post on the river.
"I can report now that we have finally, after overcoming many obstacles, established a permanent control post in the entrance point to the Taromenane-Tagaeri territory in Yasuní National Park," said Falconi, the Ecuadorian police advisor.

"We hope that with this action, further incursions by illegal loggers will be stopped, [along with] the risk to the life and well-being of people in voluntary isolation in that region."
Money to Stop Drilling?

Numerous rights groups have pushed for such protections in recent months, and some activists met the news with cautious optimism.

"The Taromenane and Tagaeri are so isolated that they have vulnerable immune systems and are in danger of coming into contact with outsiders," said Matt Finer, a biologist with the U.S.-based group Save America's Forests.

(Read related story: "Oil Exploration in Amazon Threatens 'Unseen' Tribes" [March 21, 2008].)
"We are pleased that the government finally seems committed to stopping loggers. Setting up the control post on the Shiripuno River was a major first step in cracking down on the illegal logging, since that was the loggers' primary entry and exit point."

Still, others say new threats loom.

The Ecuadorian government is threatening to open parts of Yasuní to oil bidding if the international community does not pay U.S. $350 million a year for ten years.

"Today one of the main threats to the lives of the [Indians living in isolation] is illegal wood-cutting," said Milagros Aguirre, a journalist who was written about tribal conflict in Yasuní.

"But while the oil industry so far is not in the untouchable zone, it will eventually be there."

Reflections On Ecuador's Mining Mandate

Written by Carlos Zorrilla
From UpsideDownWorld, Monday, 05 May 2008

It's easy to see why Canada's mining companies have spent so much money on publicity to try to lessen the public relations nightmare caused by the Constitutional Assembly's 95-1 passing of Ecuador's Mining Mandate: The mandate annulled 88 percent of the country's mining concessions- including all of the larger concessions held by the Canadian companies. And it comes as no surprise that Canada's Ambassador to Ecuador, accompanied by a squad of Canadian mining company officials, met with Ecuador's president in a high profile meeting last week. When there's so much at stake, anything goes.

What's at Stake

When the assembly passed the Mining Mandate on April 15 , 4,474 mining concessions were abolished, while only approximately 600 concessions were spared, most being small mines and medium non-metallic projects (for cement and building materials). The anti-mining population cheered the approval of the mandate last month, though not too loudly. Many expected the mandate to completely abolish large-scale metallic mining. However, it was seen as a very important victory by most of the anti-mining factions. If the mandate is implemented as it was meant to be by the Assembly, not a single large-scale metallic mine project should be left standing

The main parameters for the abolition of concession rights include:
* Concessions owners may only own three concessions (totalling 15,000 hectares).
* It forbids mining in protected areas and their buffer zones, and projects that threaten water resources. What metallic mining project doesn't?
* It abolishes concessions rights if the concessions were given to government functionaries, or their relatives. There are rumblings that this could hit the Ecuacorrientes project, among others.
* It puts a freeze on all mining activities: the only exceptions are the 600 small projects not affected by the mandate. It prohibits the approval of new mining concessions.
* Any concessions owner not up to date on their payment of patents to operate lose their concessions.
* The mandate also calls for the creation of a state-owned mining company--which has a lot of mining company owners very worried.

The mandate does allows mining to go ahead if the companies have invested in exploration and related activities, but not if it falls under the other categories. In other words, none of the large project will remain viable.

These measures are effect until a new mining law is drafted, which is expected to be finished within six months. The new law must be approved by the same Constitutional Assembly that approved the current mandate. If the law isn't drafted in six months time, the companies must negotiate with the government for the re-issuance of new concessions. The new law, undoubtedly will take its lead from the Mandate's directives.

The parameters, if applied objectively, will stop all of IMC, IAMGOLD, Aurelian, Dynasty's, All Metals, Corriente Resources (Ecuacorrientes project), and Lowell's - as well as most other metallic mining projects in the country. Ascendant Copper lost their JUNIN concessions in January of this year, but this new legal measure means the loss is permanent (the project poses a great threat to water resources). None of these companies were exploiting minerals. And most, if not all, do not even have their environmental impact studies approved for exploitation or exploration.

What Happened in Montecristi?

The Mining Mandate's overwhelming approval took pro-mining circles here by surprise. This was in part because many thought Assembly members would go a bit easier on the mandate, given President Correa's seeming support for mining. But there is a very strong anti large-scale mining faction inside the assembly, led by the very popular ex-Minister of Energy and Mines, Economist Alberto Acosta, and Monica Chuji, a Sarayaku indigenous Ecuadorian and president of the Assembly's natural resource working group. Both belong to Correa's Alianza Pais political party. Acosta has had no problem stating his anti-large scale and open pit metallic mining stance. Acosta is an economist and knows very well what mining means to developing countries, while Chuji is part of a indigenous community who has successfully resisted oil exploitation on their territories for years.

This issue, more than any other to date, has caused a deep divide within the Alianza Pais, who won 60 percent of the Assembly's seats in last year's election.

Counter Attack

Mining companies are applying tremendous pressure on the government, not to have the mandate vetoed (which is impossible), but to soften it's impact as much as possible. They've also enlisted Canada's Ambassador, Ecuador's Chamber of Mining and the unwavering support of most media outlets. The companies and their public relations firms are using scare tactics, suggesting the mandate and new mining law will cause thousands lost jobs, the country will go bankrupt, and investors will flee. Furthermore they've issued threats of international lawsuits unless their demands are met. And, a lot of money is being spent on trying to convince Ecuadorians that mining will really lift them out of poverty and will solve all of the country's problems- and that it won't contaminate!!

President Correa has recently shown signs of weakness by making pro-mining statements and by rabidly attacking mining opponents every chance he gets- though he has been vague enough to possibly let it be interpreted that he is not against State-owned mining. The President also means to renegotiate mining deals if private mining is permitted, in order for Ecuador to actually make money from mining (a radical idea indeed). In spite of all the evidence proving that mining actually impoverishes developing countries like Ecuador, Correa believes mining rents could replace those now generated by petroleum, which provides a sizable chunk of the nation's budget. The measures being discussed to supposedly make this happen include high royalties (perhaps as high as 20 percent), and a 70-80 percent Windfall Profit Tax (which has been discussed by Ministry of Energy and Mines official this year). No one in government is seriously looking at the social, cultural, environmental and economic impacts of large-scale mining development.

The upshot of all this is that there are many mining company owners and investors that are worried sick; and not just about losing a few hundred million dollars here in Ecuador, but more so about the potential of Ecuador's Mining Mandate influencing to other developing countries. They may not be too worried about whole-scale nationalization of mines (though I would be if I was them), but talk of steep rises in royalties and windfall profit taxes must keep them up at night. Either way you cut it, the days of free, or nearly free, access to mineral resources in developing countries may soon be over for the transnationals.

Everyone knows that natural resources of these countries have been "stolen" by transnationals for centuries, in the process ruining economies and landscapes, and leaving the people impoverished and facing long-lasting social and environmental havoc. All Ecuadorians have to do is look over the Andes at the horror left behind by 30 years of petroleum exploitation in the Amazon to know this isn't just talk ($16 billion is the latest estimate set by a court-appointed assessor in the case against Chevron-Texaco for damages to the people and ecosystems in the Amazon as a result of environmental impacts left behind by the company).

So, the rush is on by the transnationals and their in-house plenipotentiary representatives to kill this initiative before it spreads like wildfire. And there's a lot of money apparently set aside for this. A mayor from an anti-mining local government has publicly said there are three hundred million dollars earmarked by mining companies to win the hearts and votes of Assembly members.

On the other hand, the resistance to large-scale metallic mining has never been stronger in Ecuador. Unlike in the past, the resistance now includes all of the powerful indigenous organizations, who this year joined with the human-rights, local community and environmental groups. Given that the vote was so overwhelmingly pro-communities and anti- mining last month, there's every chance that no matter how much the companies spend, the Assemblistas are not going to sell their vote to betray the prospect of an Ecuador free of large-scale metallic mining, and an end to all natural resource pillaging.

Suturing Latin America's Open Veins

What really is at stake is an opportunity to stop the hemorrhaging of the region´s natural resources and the opportunity for Ecuador to start down a path of community-based, democratic and sustainable development which excludes the dependence on natural resource extractive industries (much to the chagrin of transnation capital and international financial institutions such as the World Bank). If the Assemblistas belonging to the president's party stand firm and justly represent the people whom elected them, there's a good chance of establishing a precedent to suture the open veins of Latin America, which have been hemorrhaging natural resources for five centuries. If Correa gets his way, the hemorrhaging and destruction on the ground will continue unabated, with the difference being that the pillage may have a tint of nationalism and a few superficial social, environmental and economic regulations to make it seem more just and "sustainable".

The mining companies, especially Canadian ones, are using all of their political and economic muscle to make sure these regulations don't seriously affect their outrageous privileges, nor of those of their fellow transnationals working in other impoverished, but natural-resource-rich nations. In the meantime, civil society is focused on the 130-member Constitutional Assembly bunkered down in the small coastal town of Montecristi to see if their representatives can withstand the pressures of foreign capital and set a precedent for the rest of the world.

Carlos Zorrilla is executive director of Defensa y Conservación Ecológica de Intag (DECOIN).

ECUADOR: New Constitution Addresses Demand for ‘Plurinational’ State

By Kintto Lucas
QUITO, May 5 (IPS) - Ecuador’s new constitution, which a constituent assembly expects to finish drafting by mid-June, establishes a united "plurinational" state, recognising equality along with ethnic diversity, as agreed between the government and indigenous organisations."

’Plurinationalism’ means admitting that several different nationalities coexist within the larger Ecuadorean state, which is obvious in this country and need not scare anyone," said President Rafael Correa. "Everyone should have the same opportunities," he added.

"The next step is to properly define the scope of plurinationalism, which basically means recognising the different peoples, cultures and worldviews that exist, and for all public policies, such as education, health and housing, to recognise the plurinational dimension," he said.

The Ecuadorean Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE) agrees that the proposed plurinational state reflects reality in the country.

This recognition is one more step towards uprooting the colonial state, Humberto Cholango, the head of Ecuarunari, an organisation that groups Quechua communities from the country’s highlands and is the biggest association within CONAIE, told IPS.

Cholango, referring to 500 years of discrimination against and struggle by indigenous people, said this is a historic moment.

However, he explained that the new constitution does not mean that indigenous communities will own the natural resources on or under their lands, as these belong to society as a whole and are therefore the property of the state.

About 3.5 million of Ecuador’s 12.5 million people are indigenous, comprising 11 nationalities. Most of them live in rural areas.

The main ethnic group is the Quechua, who live in the Andes mountains and the Amazon jungle in the east, while communities of Awa, Chachi, Epera and Tsáchila live on the Pacific coast, and the Cofán, Siona, Secoya, Huaorani, Achuar and Shuar peoples live in the Amazon.

These communities live according to their traditional values, including a system of sharing and exchanging, a form of solidarity that clashes with the individualism of modern society. They highly value the tradition of the "minga" -- working together to harvest crops or build roads and homes.

The rest of the population is mainly made up of "mestizos" or people of mixed-race (Spanish and indigenous) ancestry.

The declaration of Ecuador as a united plurinational state is supported in the constituent assembly by the governing PAÍS Alliance, the indigenous Pachakutik Movement, the Marxist Popular Democratic Movement and some delegates from social democratic parties.

The democratic revolution that pervades the spirit of the constituent assembly takes as axiomatic the right to have rights, in this case the right to self-determination, and encourages a social pact in which all Ecuadoreans, male and female, based on their own identities, freely agree to be part of a democratic state which they feel represents them, says a joint communiqué.

This is not a question of specific territorial divisions, since the state is united and indivisible. Any interpretation of territorial autonomy would lack any legal basis and validity and there would be no instrument to enforce it, the statement adds.

Collective rights, which will be included in the Charter of Rights, the new constitution and the laws, will establish forms of administration, functioning and self-government for nations and peoples in their own territories, without implying that they have property rights over non-renewable resources in the subsoil, it adds.

Also included is the existing consensus that the state will promote multiculturalism, which fortifies societies and encourages different cultures and lifestyles to live together in harmony, says the statement.

The first time constitutional changes of this kind were proposed was in 1986, when the Socialist Party proposed them in Congress, including the declaration of Ecuador as a plurinational state.

It also proposed making Quechua an official language, recognising ancestral territories and traditional medicine, appointing indigenous people to positions of authority and promoting multicultural bilingual education.

Although that initiative failed, it did set guidelines and an agenda for the subsequent work of indigenous movements.

In June 1990, CONAIE launched a national uprising at Inti Raymi, the solar solstice festival. Indigenous people blocked highways, occupied public offices and buildings, and peacefully occupied the church of Santo Domingo, in Quito, to raise demands for a solution to conflicts over land.

The protest marked the beginning of a new era for indigenous people in Ecuador, who became a social and political force to be reckoned with.

"From that point on, the idea of declaring a plurinational state gained momentum. The concept was tied to the struggle for land and the agrarian revolution, that is to say, the need for structural reform of Ecuadorean agriculture, which in turn involves access to water, markets and credit," Luis Macas, former head of CONAIE and a leader of the 1990 uprising, told IPS.

"When we organised to build unity among our peoples and win basic rights to improve living conditions, we never lost sight of the fact that the state we live in does not satisfy the demands of the majority of the population. That’s why we talked about building a different state, a plurinational state," he said.

In Macas’ view, proclaiming a plurinational state is important so that Ecuador can recognise itself as it really is, and acknowledge its diversity, which is a key factor in achieving harmony among Ecuadoreans.

The united plurinational state assumes that citizenship is the basic link uniting the people of Ecuador, although they may belong to different nations or peoples.

Non-renewable natural resources are the property of the state, but communities have the right to be consulted as to whether or not they are in agreement with the extraction of subsoil resources, and to be fully informed of the impact that mining, oil production and other activities will have on their lives.

The 1998 constitution recognises the Ecuadorean state as multicultural and multiethnic, and within the definition of "collective rights" it refers to indigenous peoples as "peoples who by self-definition are nations with ancestral roots," but it does not include the term "plurinational".

Sociologist Andrés Guerrero, one of the foremost researchers into the world of campesinos (small farmers) and indigenous people, tracks societal power relations through the history of the country’s different constitutions. "

Ecuador followed the models of the Revolutions in France and the United States, which are based on the status of free citizens living in ‘liberty and equality.’ But they also stress homogeneity within a single culture, and that’s where the problem starts," he said.

"If you go out on the street here, you will find that the ‘free, equal and culturally homogeneous Ecuadorean citizen’ does not exist. The indigenous movement showed us the reality that the national state of ‘free and equal’ people was pure fiction," he said.

But "in the domestic sphere and at the community level, there are relationships of solidarity that are not market-oriented, which create a cohesive effect, politically, culturally and symbolically," Guerrero said.

"Some people think the ideal solution would be for indigenous people to stop behaving that way and become buyers and sellers.

"But indigenous peoples are adept at handling a dual code: market forces in the outside world, and reciprocity and solidarity within their communities. If the communal aspect is eliminated, solidarity will disintegrate. If solidarity disintegrates, widespread violence could arise," Guerrero warned. (END/2008)

Ecuador Rebuffs US Charges

Quito, May 3 (Prensa Latina) Ecuador rejected statements by Dell Dailey, Coordinator for Counterterrorism of the US State Department, on an alleged government link with Colombia's guerrilla.

The local Foreign Ministry considers the statement meddlesome in Ecuadorian domestic affairs and an aggresive attempt to adjust national security policy to foreign dictates.

Dailey alleged that the March 1 death of rebel leader Raul Reyes in Ecuador shows poor border protection from intrusions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and is evidence of Ecuadors connection with the FARC, adds the release.

The document responds by saying that rather than proving a link with the government of President Rafael Correa, intrusion by FARC irregular groups in Ecuador show Colombian incompetence to keep the conflict within national borders.

Ecuador also denied Daileys accusations of 14 FARC camps operating in Ecuador, and said there are many more existing in Colombia.

The Foreign Ministry reaffirmed Ecuadorian independence and sovereignty against foreign pressure and its capacity to refute intrusion by foreign regular or irregular troops in its soil.

The government of Ecuador will always rely on ethical principles regardless of what foreign officials may say, concludes the release.

Sex on Ecuador's political agenda

By Daniel Schweimler
BBC News, 3 May 2008
A woman from the governing party in Ecuador has proposed that a woman's right to enjoy sexual happiness should be enshrined in the country's law.

Her suggestion has provoked a lively debate in conservative Ecuador.

Maria Soledad Vela, who is helping to rewrite the constitution, says women have traditionally been seen as mere sexual objects or child bearers.

Now, she says, women should have the right to make free, responsible and informed decisions about sex lives.

'Orgasm by law'

Ms Soledad Vela is a member of the governing party on the Constituent Assembly that is rewriting the country's constitution.

Its aim, among other things, is to ensure a better distribution of wealth and rights for indigenous communities and the poor.

Women, she believes, should not be left off that list.

But her comments have provoked a lively response - mostly, unsurprisingly, from men.
Opposition assembly member, Leonardo Viteri, accused her of trying to decree orgasm by law.
Another called the proposal "ridiculous" and said that such an intimate topic should stay intimate and not be enshrined in law.

Ms Soledad Vela responded to the criticism, saying she had never requested the right to an orgasm - merely the right to enjoy sex in a free, fair and more open society.

She explained that sex was a difficult subject to discuss in Ecuador and that what she wanted were clearer laws covering life, health and sexual education.

Ecuador Confirms Bolivia Support

Quito, May 2 (Prensa Latina) The Ecuador Constituent Assembly approved a resolution conveying full support for Bolivia and its President Evo Morales as legal and Constitutional representative.

Ecuador and Latin America that the May 4 referendum undermines the sister countrys unity and integrity.

The resolution submitted by Assembly member Paco Velasco also forecasts possible clashes and rejected a clear secessionist plot that affects democracy in Bolivia and the region.

It clearly states opposition to the vote for autonomy of Santa Cruz and calls the world, the Group of Rio and the OAS to give the Bolivian government full support.

The document will be published on the Official Gazette and presented to the Bolivian Ambassador to Ecuador.

Ecuador to buy Brazilian warplanes

PressTV, Wed, 30 Apr 2008
Brazil's Defense Minister Nelson Jobim has said that Ecuador would buy 24 warplanes made by Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer.

"It's a done deal," Jobim told Reuters during a visit to Ecuador's capital Quito when asked if Ecuador had agreed to buy the turboprop Super Tucano planes.

Earlier, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said he planned to strengthen country's air force to protect its border with Colombia after the country bombed a leftist rebel camp inside Ecuador.

Jobim did not say how much Ecuador will spend for the planes, but local media speculates it could cost more than $200 million.

"I don't know the price... the purchase details were arranged by the Ecuadorian government and Embraer directly," Jobim concluded.

Ecuador Assembly Drafts Constitution

Quito, Apr 28 (Prensa Latina) Ecuador's Constituent Assembly began an important week of plenary sessions on Monday to discuss several articles of the new Constitution and the report on the crisis with Colombia.

Assembly President Alberto Acosta says Table One will draft 50 articles on political, media and civil rights, Table Two will produce 30 on citizen power and Table Five on Natural Resources will address rights of nature and environment.

The Assembly will even work May 1st to advance the drafting of the future Constitution's 256 articles to reach completion by mid May.

Sovereignty Table Chair Maria Augusta Calle will submit a report to the plenary this afternoon on Colombia's March 1 attack on a clandestine guerrilla camp in north Ecuador.

The document confirms rejection of regular or irregular groups in national territory and calls to assess the Manta military base that hosts US troops and probe their fighter planes' possible involvement in the northern border rebel slaughter.

Calle called to ask Colombia to surrender the videotapes of its planes involved in the military operation.

Tuesday's sessions will approve a package of articles on labor that, among other items, eliminates contracting by hours.

Ecuador wants more community clout for foreign-owned mining projects

President Rafael Correa has assured foreign mining and exploration companies and Ecuadorans that he supports responsible mining, which he defines as giving local communities a stronger voice in local mining and exploration projects.
Dorothy Kosich, Monday , 28 Apr 2008

While junior mining and exploration companies claim that Ecuador President Rafael Correa has assured them that responsible mining will be allowed in Ecuador, Correa stressed Saturday that "communities will have to be shareholders in these mining projects."

During his weekly radio address Correa said local communities, government and mining stockholders should all be shareholders in mining projects. However, Correa added that he rejects fundamentalist -type groups, who are vehemently opposed to the mining, petroleum and hydroelectric power sectors because their beliefs would financially bankrupt the country.

Correa said he would support large mining projects if they benefit the poor nations with billions of dollars in revenues. Currently Ecuador does not mine significant quantities of precious metals. "For their (companies') benefit, to lower the social conflict...to have clear rules of the game and have national consensus the mining decree was needed," Correa said. "We will have to try a new legal framework ready as soon as possible. ...We welcome foreign investments."

Last August Correa claimed that concessions for large-scale mining operations in the country have generated extremely negative effects for local communities, which he asserted were not previously consulted as established by the constitution, and on the state, which receives no mining royalties in most cases.

At the time, the domestic, social NGO, the Defense of Life and Sovereignty has called for all foreign mining and exploration companies to leave Ecuador. However, Correa said at the time, that it was not possible to cancel most of the mining concessions because Ecuador would risk being sued by the companies for millions of dollars.

Ecuador's Mining Chamber said nearly 1.8 million hectares have been granted to mining companies through 1,200 mining concessions, and contracts for another 1.6 million hectares are in the pipeline.

Earlier this month, Ecuador's Constitutional Assembly passed a Mining Mandate. Correa said the purpose of a recently enacted Mining Mandate was to draft and implement the new mining law so that responsible mining can proceed. The Mining Mandate limits companies to a maximum of three concessions, imposed an immediate 180-day suspension of activity on mining concessions throughout the country, invalidates some claims, and provides for the possible creation of a state-owned mining enterprise.

Several foreign mining companies met recently with President Correa and other top officials, including the Minister of Mines and Petroleum, the Deputy Secretary of Mines, the Mining Advisor to the President, the Minister of Politics, and the Business Advisor to the President. The companies included Aurelian Resources, Cornerstone Capital Resources, Corriente Resources, Dynasty Metals & Mining, Ecometals, Iamgold, International Minerals and Salazar Resources. The companies said they were told the suspension of mining activity is to enable the government to organize and pass new mining laws.

The President invited the mining companies to meet today with the ministry to help formulate the proposed new mining law.

ECUADOR: Doubts Surround Carbon Absorption Project Near Galápagos

PUERTO AYORA, Galápagos, Ecuador, Jul 13 (Tierramérica via IPS) - By Stephen Leahy

Later this month a U.S. company, Planktos Inc., plans to dump 100 tonnes of iron dust into the ocean near Ecuador's Galápagos Islands, despite opposition from environmental groups and marine scientists.

This will be the first-ever commercial effort to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, one of the main gases blamed for climate change, by using iron particles to create a 10,000-square-kilometre "plankton bloom".

Planktos says the extra volume of these small, floating organisms will absorb large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere and take it deep into the sea. And this method may be the fastest and most powerful tool to battle climate change.

"The currents will likely bring the bloom into the [Galápagos] Marine Reserve," covering 133,000 sq. km, the world's third largest marine reserve, says Washington Tapia, director of the Galápagos National Park, which includes the reserve.

"We don't have any idea what will happen... We have tried to contact Planktos to get more information, without success," Tapia told Tierramérica in Puerto Ayora.

The 19 islands of the archipelago, located 1,000 km from the Ecuadorian coast, and the surrounding seas are seen as a prime example of natural history, and inspired part of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution after visiting the Galápagos in the 19th century.

"Why is this being done so close to the Galápagos, a World Heritage site," asks Pablo Barriga, project coordinator for FUNDAR Galápagos, a non-profit organisation based in Puerto Ayora that supports sustainable development and conservation of the islands.

"Some scientists say there may be ecological risks with this experiment. Why not do it elsewhere in the Southern Ocean?" Barriga said in an interview.

Planktos is in the new and growing business of carbon sequestration. "Removing CO2 from our oceans and atmosphere by healing the seas, growing new climate forests, and erasing carbon footprints" is the Planktos vision according to its website.

Sequestration means that trees the company plants in Eastern Europe absorb carbon from the atmosphere as they grow. That carbon is trapped for 60 or 80 years, depending on the lifespan of the tree. In Europe, Planktos can sell carbon credits to companies to offset their own emissions to meet local or international regulations.

Ocean carbon sequestration has been tested in several small experiments over the past 20 years. Most have shown that adding iron to ocean waters with an iron deficit -- like the Southern Oceans -- will promote growth of plankton, which need this nutrient to live. And since the plankton absorb carbon, this boosts the amount of atmospheric carbon taken up by the ocean fauna.

However, in choosing the Galápagos for its first large-scale ocean sequestration experiment, Planktos sparked a firestorm of protest.

"There's a real risk that this experiment may cause a domino effect through the food chain," said Sallie Chisholm, microbiologist and board member of the World Wildlife Fund, in a statement.

The Planktos project "threatens our climate, our marine environment and the sovereignty of our fisherfolk, and it should be stopped," according to Elizabeth Bravo of the Ecuador-based Acción Ecológica.

But Planktos maintains it is only trying to correct imbalances caused by human activities, including climate change, that have cut the natural aerial dust delivery of iron to the open oceans by nearly 30 percent in the last three decades.

"This has resulted in serious ecological impacts, namely a 50 percent die-off of plankton in many regions," says Planktos spokesperson David Kubiak.

And one of the regions suffering from this decline is 300 to 400 miles west of the Galápagos, where the company plans to put 100 tonnes of micron-sized iron particles into the ocean, Kubiak told Tierramérica.

"The waters in the Galápagos region itself have plenty of iron and any excess iron or plankton from our experiment won't cause any problems for the marine life there," he says.

This is the first of six experiments adding iron to oceans that Planktos hopes to carry out over the next two years.

The company believes that if plankton were restored to 1980 levels it would annually remove three to four billion tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere, helping to slow global warming five times more effectively than immediate universal compliance with the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which obligates industrialised countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

A February 2007 article in "Science" magazine reviewed previous experiments -- called iron enrichment or fertilisation -- between 1993 and 2005. Scientists concluded that large-scale enrichment could affect the planet's climate system and that more study was necessary.

"It works -- enrichment does remove carbon from the atmosphere. But we do not know how long carbon will be removed," says co-author Kenneth Coale, director of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, in California.

Planktos is simply taking previous experiments to the next larger-scale level and will monitor the effects for up to six months on average, says Kubiak.

If the company can verify how much carbon is sequestered, then the sales of carbon credits likely will more than cover the costs of the experiments, he says.

"I think it should be carried out under the umbrella of a United Nations agency which we (various colleagues) are trying to set up," Victor Smetacek, another co-author of the Science report and a bio-oceanographer at the University of Bremen, Germany, told Tierramérica in an e-mail interview.

However, such large-scale experiments in oceans suffering from overfishing and the impacts of climate change make many scientists nervous.

"It is far too soon to market iron fertilisation as a carbon sequestration tool," says Ed Boyle, with the chemical oceanography group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the U.S. city of Boston.

"There is too little known about the effectiveness of large-scale, human-injected iron (compared to natural iron) and the consequences of this injection," Boyle told Tierramérica.

UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) on Jun. 26 added the Galápagos Islands to its list of World Heritage Sites in Danger, due to impacts and threats from illegal immigration and fishing, invasive species and a booming tourism industry.

"The last thing we need here is another environmental problem," says park director Tapia.

(*Stephen Leahy is an IPS correspondent. Originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme.) (END/2007)

Ecuador Assembly Sets Executive Power

Quito, Apr 24 (Prensa Latina) Ecuador's National Constituent Assembly members of Structure and State Institutions group were finalizing details Thursday on a 19-article package of the Executive function, defining the powers of Ecuadorian presidents.

Approved texts need to be reviewed now, before being presented to the Assembly leadership, which will analyze them and propose their discussion in the Constituent Assembly plenary, a spokesman of this institution explained.

The articles have to do with the head of State's temporary absence, cessation of function, attributions and duties, revocation of an assembly member's mandate and the country's vice presidential responsibilities.

One such regulation, for example, establishes that with definitive absence of the president, the National Electoral Council will call general elections to choose a new presidential duo.
The vice president would assume the mandate temporarily, until general elections were held and a new president was elected.

"Being ill or in other circumstances that prevent him from exercising his function for a maximum period of five months, or being granted a leave by the National Assembly for a similar period," are considered a temporary absence of the head of State.

Different from the current Constitution, they are proposing revocation of the presidential mandate in midterm office, that is, after two years in power.

Another new item is granting the president to be reelected for another four years.

Article 11 says the head of State will be able to request that the National Electoral Council revoke the mandate of the National Assembly (Parliament) members just once in his term of office.

Creation of a State Council, presided over by the head of State, to be summoned at least twice a year and composed of the incumbents in the Executive, Legislative, Electoral and Social Control functions, is also within the approved package.

Ecuador's Correa facing ire over Colombia dispute

By Alonso Soto

QUITO, April 23 (Reuters) - President Rafael Correa's popularity will likely suffer if he further prolongs a dispute with Colombia because Ecuadoreans want him to focus instead on fighting inflation and spurring an anemic economy.

Correa, who has used much of the political capital from his popularity to exert control over Ecuador's institutions, initially boosted his high ratings seven weeks ago with a tough response to Colombia's bombing of rebels inside his country.

The leftist leader severed diplomatic ties with Bogota and rallied regional leaders to condemn President Alvaro Uribe.

But now he is the main obstacle to ending a dispute that the rest of Latin America, including his chief ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, thought was over just days after it began when Uribe shook Correa's hand at a summit.

Correa, whose confrontational style discomfits many Ecuadoreans, still refuses to restore ties or even talk with his conservative counterpart, limiting his comments to a public discourse laced with accusations such as "bare-faced liar."

Correa says he can no longer trust Uribe and has so far shrugged off pleas from the Organization of American States -- the Western Hemisphere's top diplomatic body -- to move on.

That poses a risk to Correa's popularity and means tensions will remain between two neighbors over Marxist Colombian rebels who finance their war against the state with drugs and launch bombings, kidnappings and army ambushes from the border area.

Ecuadoreans are increasingly focused on the problems of a slow-growing economy rather than a dispute that is unlikely anyway to escalate into an armed conflict.

"It is not that I'm unpatriotic, but what our people want is lower prices and more jobs, not a war with Colombia," said Patricio Gomez, a 25-year-old computer salesman.

Correa is expected to have to stand for re-election this year due to a change in the constitution. And when they vote, most Ecuadoreans will be focusing on sharply higher prices for staples such as bread and milk and an economy that is generating few new jobs.

The economy grew by less than 3 percent last year due to scarce foreign investment, and lengthy floods in the agricultural coastal region are likely to hurt growth in 2008.

RATINGS MUSCLE

Correa and Uribe are both are strong-willed, highly popular, and used to confronting their opponents head-on.

Still, pollsters say Correa will lose at home by continuing to seek a diplomatic victory.

"If there is no solution to this issue in sight, it will likely take a toll" on Correa's image, said Santiago Perez, an independent pollster often hired by the government. "The dispute is irrelevant and little understood by Ecuadoreans ... Employment, poverty and (food) prices are the key issues.

"Correa's popularity is unusual in the unstable oil-exporting nation that saw three of his predecessors toppled in just over a decade when Congress and the military sided repeatedly with street protesters.

Correa has pledged to help the poor and uproot corruption from traditional power centers such as the legislature.

He has used his popularity to wrest influence from institutions. He emasculated Congress with a new assembly and, this month, he did what would have been unthinkable for previous governments -- attacked the powerful military.

He railed at the armed forces over their handling of intelligence on the raid, replaced his defense minister with a close palace aide and prompted resignations byt top generals.

According to the country's most influential pollster Cedatos-Gallup poll, Correa's popularity bounced at the height of the Colombia crisis in mid-March to 66 percent, up from a low of 54 percent the previous month.

But that support began to erode as the spat dragged on, dipping to 62 percent by April.

"It seems the government attention is focused only in Colombia, and Ecuadoreans are not too happy with that," said Cedatos' head pollster Polibio Cordova.