Hortencia Zhagüi, Fanny Kaekat and Zenaida Yasacama (pictured front row L-R) with members of CUPE’s National Global Justice Committee.
Ecuadorian Indigenous women defending land and human rights shared a powerful message of resistance with our Global Justice Committee as part of a recent solidarity tour. Hortencia Zhagüi, Fanny Kaekat and Zenaida Yasacama (pictured front row L-R) were in Ottawa speaking out against a proposed Canada-Ecuador free trade agreement that will worsen the country’s human rights crisis and harm the environment, including in the Amazon.
“Once the free trade agreement is signed, we will see the end of wetlands, the end of the Amazon which we have struggled for so long to protect,” Zhagüi told committee members.
Environmental damage and human rights violations are on the rise with existing Canadian mining projects in Ecuador. The new deal would give Canadian mining corporations even more power through arbitration tribunals known as investor state dispute settlement, or ISDS, that can override laws protecting people and the planet. The deal will violate the Ecuadorian constitution and is being rushed through with no transparency or consultation.
“Who has the wisdom and knowledge, who faces these violations? It’s us above all. We’re here to speak our truth. We don’t come from desks in the big cities, we’re not writing fancy reports or scientific studies. We live it in our flesh and what we speak here comes from our lived experience,” said Yasacama.
Kaekat has called out the secrecy surrounding the trade talks. “The Ecuadorian government has not consulted with us, and is hiding information about its negotiations as it turns our territories into sacrifice zones,” she said in a news release announcing the tour.
“We have lived these human rights violations as individuals, as communities, as well as violations of the rights of nature, by over 15 mining companies. The free trade agreement will deepen these violations,” Ivonne Ramos told the committee.
CUPE stands in solidarity with the delegation and their struggle to stop a new Canada-Ecuador trade deal. Our union demands an end to mining corporation abuses and Canadian resource extraction projects that harm human rights and the environment. We call on the Canadian government to live up to its international human rights and labour obligations, reject any trade deal that gives corporations special powers, and hold mining companies accountable for their actions in Ecuador and other countries.
Learn more about the delegation and their demands: https://www.cpac.ca/headline-politics/episode/ecuadorian-women-bring-mining-concerns-to-ottawa-october-2-2024?id=d404d6c9-a0d5-49f6-ab5b-66362dc6f797
About the delegation
Hortencia Zhagüi is a representative of the Board of Potable Water Administrators of Victoria del Portete and Tarqui and a member of the Kimsakocha Women’s School of Agroecology, which promotes food sovereignty.
Fanny Kaekat leads external affairs for the Shuar Arutam People (PSHA) and is a member of Amazonian Women Defenders of the Forest, a collective formed by women belonging to the seven Indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Zenaida Yasacama of the Kichwa Ancestral People of Pakayaku is vice-president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), the largest Indigenous rights organization in Ecuador.
Ivonne Ramos is a member of Acción Ecológica (Ecological Action) and works with Ecuadoran women defenders of nature.
The “Why we say no” tour was co-hosted by Amnesty International Canada, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the Canadian Labour Congress, KAIROS Canada and MiningWatch Canada.