RE: Winds of change in EcuadorYOU'RE AN IDIOT. THERE ARE NO "WINDS OF CHANGE HAPPENING IN ECUADOR"
ASCENDANT COPPER IS RUN BY A BUNCH OF ARSE HOLE TROUBLE MAKERS AND CORREA HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THESE ONGOING PROBLEMS
FURTHERMORE THE HOSTAGE TAKERS WERE NOT LOCALS AS CLAIMED AND THIS IS NOWHERE NEAR ARUS PROPERTY SO GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT.
SO GET LOST
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Ecuador activists free 56 Canadian mine workers
Web posted at: 12/10/2006 11:0:57
Source ::: Agencies
QUITO • Ecuadoran indigenous activists freed yesterday 56 workers taken hostage at a Canadian mine, a leader said, ending a six-day protest over a planned strip mine in the Andes.
Earlier, Ecuadoran indigenous activists continued to hold hostage 56 employees of Canada’s Ascendant Copper, demanding that the company drop plans to build a strip mine in a nature preserve in the Andes.
Some 15,000 indigenous Ecuadorans living near a preserve targeted for copper prospecting have been complaining that the mining concession Ascendant was granted in 2004 is illegal since they were not consulted.
Besides their claim to the land, locals are also afraid of the environmental damage the planned strip mine might cause to a 205,000-hectare wilderness stretching across four provinces bordering with Colombia.
To press their demands, the locals on Monday took 57 Ascendant employees hostage, keeping them inside a church in the village of Junin.
Among the hostages are 34 former army soldiers the protesters say are members of paramilitary groups and the mining company insists are armed security guards hired to protect their facilities.
“The detainees will be turned over to authorities when the concessions are declared groundless, and the mining company leaves the area as its 15,000 inhabitants are demanding,” protest leader Gustavo Leon said.