Indigenous and environmental leaders in Ecuador they say they are facing a wave of government intimidation ahead of a national referendum next month on whether to rewrite the world's only constitution recognizing the rights of nature.
Pressure comes from right-wing President Daniel Noboawho began his second term with a Trumpian agenda of consolidating power and removing legal and social barriers to extractive businesses such as mining.
The 37-year-old heir to the powerful Noboa family business group says the existing constitution is an obstacle to his national security and economic development agenda, which includes building a U.S. military base and new residential and hotel complexes in the Galapagos Islands, a UNESCO world heritage site and biosphere reserve.
A referendum on November 16 will decide whether to create a constituent assembly to reform or replace the constitution. This process will allow the president to put pressure on the main institution that resists his desire for more power: the Constitutional Court. It will also address some of the other far-reaching changes proposed by Noboa, including cuts to legislative seats, party funding and foreign military bases.
The referendum would be the most controversial move by a president who has already raised alarms with several pieces of legislation that critics say undermine environmental safeguards and democratic checks and balances.
The Protected Areas Act, for example, purports to improve environmental sustainability and management of protected areas, but Indigenous groups say it is a ploy to circumvent their rights to free, prior and informed consent while potentially opening protected lands to privatization and extractive industries.
The National Solidarity Act was ostensibly passed to bolster the government's power and resources in the fight against organized crime, but observers say it has been used to militarize public safety and ensure impunity for police and military killings carried out in the name of the war on gangs. The new intelligence law gives the administration unprecedented surveillance powers that can intercept communications without a court order. Meanwhile, the Public Integrity Act, which claims to curb corruption, has become a tool to suppress civil society.
Social unrest in Ecuador is growing steadily. The country has one of highest murder rate in the world. Rising food and diesel prices have increased tensions, prompting an ongoing national strike. Last month, indigenous land advocate Efrain Fueres was shot and killed by the army during a protest against the high cost of living, lack of medicine in hospitals, deteriorating conditions of schools and growing social insecurity.
Demonstrators are also unhappy that at least 61 leaders and civil society organizations have had their bank accounts frozen pending a prosecutor's investigation into “unjustified private enrichment.”
The Guardian has seen the list of those at risk of prosecution. More than half were indigenous activists, some of them anti-mine activists. Another quarter were environmentalists. The rest were scientists, journalists, women's rights activists and local politicians.
Among those who came under scrutiny was the Pachamama Foundation, which published statement that it will resist this attempt at intimidation. “We categorically reject the ongoing process of criminalization,” the foundation said.
The allegations come as Noboa's administration has been criticized for pushing ahead with mining projects that have been blocked by public consultations and accused of failing to implement the 2023 plan. referendum decision stop oil production in Block 43 of Yasuni National Park, an area of the Amazon rainforest known for its ecological diversity. Instead, the President incorporated the Ministry of Environment into the Ministry of Mines.
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Alberto Acosta, who helped draft the current constitution as president of the last constituent assembly, said: “We have the only constitution in the world that recognizes the rights of nature. All of this is being systematically trampled upon by the government of President Daniel Noboa. The president does not want to respect the constitution or public consultation.”
Acosta sees this as part of a global trend led by US President Donald Trump: “What is happening in the United States is prompting many governments in Latin America, and Ecuador in particular, to mobilize extractivist forces that are destroying the ecological balance and affecting indigenous communities.”
Judges fear the rule of law is under threat; In recent months, the Constitutional Court has been the only check on presidential power, successfully delaying several of Noboa's moves to roll back civil liberties and protect the environment. When the judges suspended security law in August, Noboa called them “enemies of the people” and organized protests outside the court.
Over the past decade, Ecuador's highest court has also set a global example in its decisions upholding the rights of nature. most famous in 2021 when he declared mining permits in the Los Cedros Cloud Forest unconstitutional because they threatened the biodiversity of the protected forest.
Retired Constitutional Court judge Agustin Grijalva, who played a key role in the Los Cedros decision, said his former colleagues were under intense pressure that could worsen depending on the outcome of the referendum. “They want to reform or replace the constitution so they can hold constitutional judges accountable,” he said. “They will have their own court. And this is very dangerous for democracy and also for nature. It will jeopardize all the rulings of the past.”
