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From Intag:

An Open Letter to Economist Rafael Correa

President of Ecuador

Mr. President,

In relation to the statements made by you in the weekly national address on Saturday September 28 and

October 5 of this year related to the opposition to mining in Intag, I regret that heard various statements

about myself, my work and the current situation in Intag that have nothing to do with reality.

To begin with Mr. President, I have never gone against the law in this or any other country, as I am

accused of, and I consider it a reckless accusation. I've never participated in road blockades, or violent

actions - be they verbal or physical. Moreover, on the September 28th

slide show, you mistakenly said I

have called a tourism business called Casa de Intag Intag. I would like to point out that the Casa de Intag

is located in Otavalo, approximately three hours from Intag, and it is not a tourist site. La Casa de Intag

is a nonprofit, fair trade business established by DECOIN, organization of which I am proud founding

member of. Its purpose is to open markets for handicrafts, organic coffee, handmade soap and other

products made by Ecuadorian producers belonging to groups in Intag.

The tourist site referred to in your address is possibly Ecojunin, an eco-tourism initiative in the hands of

Chalguyacu Alto and Junn community members. Ecojunin is another example of an economic

alternative initiative which DECOIN has created and supported throughout the nearly 20 years of its

existence. I say alternative because it is an alternative to the social conflicts, destruction of thousands of

hectares of primary forests and pollution of dozens of pristine rivers and streams that the Llurimagua

mining project would generate, and which community tourism actively protects.

Another mistake of your speech was to identify Ms. Lindsay Shade and others as members of DECOIN. It

is truly unfortunate, as well as surprising, just how misinformed your informants are. Not one person

from those presented in the slides to the world on Saturday September 28th, besides myself, is a

member of DECOIN. In the case of Ms. Shade, for example, she is a student working on her PhD thesis

who chose Intags resistance as the subject of her thesis. The other two Americans mentioned in your

speech are volunteers who are in Intag as human rights monitors to prevent human rights violations.

Miss Shade is not the only foreign or Ecuadorian student who has chosen this theme, nor will she be the

last. Resistance in Intag draws attention for several reasons, including the fact that it has created

economic alternatives to mining and that communities have peacefully resisted for almost two decades

an extractive project Japanese experts say will raze thousands of hectares of primary cloud forests, will

contaminate several rivers with heavy metals, and lead to the relocation at least four communities.

Deforestation will be so destructive that the authors of the Environmental Impact Study- which was

prepared for a small copper mine- predicted it would dry up Intags climate, and also destroy the home

of dozens of endangered species . A year after its publication, the Japanese found evidence that the

deposit could contain five times more copper. In other words, the social and environmental impacts, if

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the mine is ever opened, will be much more extensive than described. If you are interested in knowing

an important part of what motivates Intags resistance, I suggest you to study in detail the above

document, since space limitations do not allow me to include all the projected impacts in the Study.

Knowing these impacts, I would sincerely like ask you: What individual, conscientious and responsible

with their community, would not oppose the project?

One of the things I was most distressed to hear is the part where you labeled me "a foreigner who

opposes the development of the country." I may be a foreigner, but my four children are proudly

Ecuadorians and they will be the most affected by you unfortunate statements. I am a foreigner, but I

have lived in Intag permanently for 35 years and, as you can see by the projects that we have supported,

I am not opposed to development. I am opposed, Mr. President, to the type of development that large-

scale mining brings to places like Intag. I am opposed to the social chaos that this kind of "development"

brings - a chaos that we have experienced twice in Intag before; and I am opposed to and will always

oppose, the environmental destruction of one of the most biodiverse and threatened ecosystems on the

planet; much more threatened than Ecuadors Oriente.

Intags forests are not only the home to dozens of endangered species- species such as jaguars,

spectacled bears and spiders monkeys- but also provide stability to Intags climate and the whole

country, and are where dozens of rivers and streams are born. Many of these sources of clean water are

utilized by communities, and will be needed to supply the hydroelectric projects being developed by

your government in this area. One of the DECOINs most successful conservation initiatives has been

creating hydrological and forest reserves that benefit 35 communities and five of the seven Parish

Governments in Intag. Thousands of Intag residents benefit daily from these community forested areas,

as they are the only sources for healthy drinking water for communities and parish centers alike. On the

other hand, these same forests are used by various communities to enrich the experience of community

ecotourism, an activity that holds fantastic potential in Intag and that is perfectly logical for this area and

the rest of Ecuador.

It is truly tragic, probably due to the defective quality of the information you are receiving, that you

perceive Intags resistance so wrong. The scenario is very similar to that of the transnational corporation

Ascendant Copper, who likewise was radically wrong in perceiving that the opposition to the Junn

mining project was due to only a few opponents and one or other foreigner. That misperception made

the company completely fail and led to its bankruptcy and, together with the strategy to use force,

generated serious acts of violence and human rights violations in the population, which left deep

wounds and divisions in Intags civil society; wounds that has taken more than five years to heal.

Unfortunately, the wounds are today being reopened by the presence of Enami EP and CODELCO. In this

context, I hope you do not trust the farcical support that the pro-mining thesis received at the October 5

national address coming from a few Intag residents whose only interest is to access mining jobs and

who, with very few exceptions, came from communities that will not be affected by the mining

project ** .

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Finally, it is ironic that on the presentation of the 28th

you implied that I was involved in the alleged road

blockade of the 14th

of September when Enami attempted to enter the Llurimagua mining concession

without asking or consulting with the communities or local governments. The truth is that on day I was

traveling to Washington D.C., invited by Ecuadors Procurator-General, to be part of the country's

defense in the lawsuit filed by Ascendant Copper against Ecuador for tens of millions of dollars. Two

other Intag residents, also identified as mining opponents, likewise lent their hand to legally defend the

country. Inexplicably, for this work it did not matter that I was a foreigner.

It is almost inevitably that you will reject the following invitation, but I feel I have to issue it: I invite you

to visit the area of the mining project, and speak with affected communities, visit the cloud forests that

will be destroyed and the rivers that will contaminated so you learn first-hand just how misinformed you

are regarding the opposition, the real impacts anticipated, and of this unique ecosystem. But I suggest

you leave your advisers at home; enough is the damage they have caused.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Carlos Zorrilla

Intag

October 7, 2013

**You should know that several of the persons who supported mining in Intag on the October 5 national

address ,including Oswald Erazo, were loyal employees of Ascendant Copper, the same company that

today is suing Ecuador for 80 million dollars (authors correction;$ 120 million). Just from Chalguayacu

Alto, there are five persons with the Vallejos last name and six with the same maternal surname

recorded in Ascendant Coppers payroll, which was turned over to the government on March 2007 .