Press Bulletin Nº 1
To our Shuar brothers and sisters, the Indians of the Amazon and the Andes, the men and women of Ecuador and the World, we send this manifesto.
For five months, the problem in Nankints has grown more serious, due to a radical decision by the Government of Ecuador to give way to mining activities to a Chinese company, without any previous, free and informed consultation, resulting in a series of human rights violations and aggression against the Shuar people, who are being evicted from their homes. The crisis intensified with the declaration of a State of Exception and the militarization of the area, which followed the confrontations of December 10, 2016 between the police and military and the Shuar defenders of their territories.
On January 4, 2017, members of the Shuar Arutam People’s Government Council (PSHA) visited different communities within the area to gain a sense of the reality our people are experiencing. We saw firsthand the plight of displaced families of the Tsuntsuim, Upunkius and Kutukus communities, who had been forced to flee with their children, wives and grandparents into the jungle at night, leaving their animals and personal property behind, as the patrols and military siege, including infantry, helicopters and drones, continued. The siege is still in effect, as we write this.
Most of these families are now taking refuge in the forests of the Cordillera del Condor. There are 32 women and 168 infants and children in the group. They are isolated from each other, and their lives are at risk. They lack food, medicine and clothing. There is a sense of growing crisis as some of the children have begun to fall ill with diarrhea and influenza. The army is harassing the people of the Tiink community with continuous helicopter and drone flybys.
Our people are committed to protecting our families. For many years, we have prevented the entry of strangers to ensure the safety of our families, and we will not allow physical and psychological abuse of our people, nor the violation of our homes. The presence of military personnel generates the danger of violence in our population: we have already seen some of our communities sacked and houses burned to the ground.
We urgently appeal to national and international public opinion and call the attention of the world to the threatened security and welfare of Shuar families. We hold the Government of Ecuador responsible for any violence from military action that our Tiink families and other communities may suffer.
We call for a peaceful dialogue to promote peace in our State, based on the rule of law, knowing that coercive acts lead to convulsion and social crisis, conditions that are not deserved by the Plurinational State of Ecuador.
GOVERNING COUNCIL OF SHUAR ARUTAM PEOPLE