Carbon Trading is Making a Killing and Destroying the Environment

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Press Release: Carbon Markets Violate Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Threaten Cultural Survival

“Indigenous Peoples are being forced to sign over their territories for REDD to the Gangsters of the Century, carbon traders, who are invading the world’s remaining forests that exist thanks to the knowledge of Indigenous Peoples,” denounced Marlon Santi, President of the CONAIE, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, one of the most powerful native organizations in the world. “Our forests are spaces for life not carbon markets.”

Indigenous leader kidnapped and forced at gunpoint to surrender carbon rights for REDD in Papua New Guinea

New York, USA — As carbon traders hawk permits to pollute at the Second Annual Carbon Trading Summit, Indigenous Peoples denounced that selling the sky not only corrupts the sacred but also destroys the climate, violates human rights and threatens cultural survival.

“Carbon trading and carbon offsets are a crime against humanity and Creation,” said Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of Indigenous Environmental Network. “The sky is sacred. This carbon market insanity privatizes the air and sells it to climate criminals like Shell so they can continue to pollute and destroy the climate and our future, rather than reducing their emissions at source.”

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Leave a Comment » | Amazonia, Anti-capitalism, bio-privateering, Capitalism, capitalism is murder, climate change, Collective Bio-Cultural Heritage, CONAIE, ecological justice, Ecuador, enclosure, environmental destruction, Environmentalism, Globalisation, grass-roots, Green Politics, greenwash, human rights violation, indigenous movements, indigenous rights, Marlon Santi, Politics, rain forest, sarayaku, Tree Hugging | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by colono

Indigenous Mobilisation for Life – CONAIE Communiqués

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

colonos is here reproducing two CONAIE (Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador) updates in Spanish on the ongoing “mobilisation for life” which has brought thousands of indigenous activists, peasants and their allies onto the streets, walking from all over the country to the capital, Quito, in protest against the new Mining Law. As was to be expected, the demonstrations have been violently repressed, and at least four people, including a journalist, have been arrested in the North of Ecuador where clashes are said to have been most aggressive.

Please see the preceding post in this blog for an action alert.
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1 Comment | Amazonia, Anti-capitalism, Anti-militarism, Capitalism, capitalism is murder, CONAIE, Direct Action, ecological justice, Ecuador, environmental destruction, Environmentalism, grass-roots, Green Politics, indigenous movements, nature, Neo-socialism, police brutality, police violence, Rafael Correa, Road Protest, South America | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by colona

Mining Action Alert

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Action Alert: Ask the Ecuadorian Government to Protect Human Rights During Upcoming Anti-Mining Demonstrations

The Ecuador Solidarity Network, an organization based in Canada and the United States, is joining human rights and indigenous peoples organizations in calling on President Rafael Correa to respect human rights during nation wide protests against large-scale mining that will begin on Monday January 19th.

The protests will spread from the Amazon and reach Quito, Ecuador’s capital, on January 20th. Anti-mining protests earlier this month were met with police violence in the Southern provinces of Azuay, Loja, Zamora Chinchipe and Morona Santiago. A number of activists were beaten and detained, and one leader was critically injured after being shot in the head.

The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and a number of farmer and environmental organizations are protesting against the recent approval of a mining law by Congress, opening the country to large-scale metal mining. Canadian mining companies would benefit from many of the concessions. The CONAIE and other organizations contend that the new law will allow large-scale mining in protected areas and contaminate critical community water supplies. The CONAIE is also protesting against government plans to drill for oil in the Yasuni National Park, the rainforest home of two indigenous communities in voluntary isolation.

Following recent statements from the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (APDH) and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), the Ecuador Solidarity Network calls on activists around the world to support the human rights of protesters demonstrating against large-scale metal mining in Ecuador. The CONAIE emphasizes that the demonstrations will be peaceful and calls on President Correa to not use police or military forces against protesters.

E-mail President Rafael Correa and President of Congress Fernando Cordero and ask that the government take preventative action to ensure that protesters’ human rights are respected. We also denounce any attempt by right-wing organizations in the U.S. or Canada to opportunistically use the upcoming mobilizations to attack President Correa for motives that have nothing to do with indigenous rights or environmental protection.

Please send emails to:

Presidencia de la República, Presidente Rafael Correa:

presidencia @ presidencia . gov . ec

Presidencia Legislativa, Presidente de la Comision Legislativa y de Fiscalizacion, Fernando Cordero Cueva:

presidencia @ asambleaconstituyente . gov . ec

Please send a carbon copy of the messages to

ecuadorsolidarity @ gmail . com

Media Contacts:

Ecuador: Jennifer Moore, Ecuador Solidarity Network (593) 8-877-8928 / jenmoore0901 @ gmail . com

Canada: Jamie Kneen, Mining Watch (613) 761-2273

3 Comments | Amazonia, Anti-capitalism, Anti-militarism, asamblea constituyente, Capitalism, climate change, CONAIE, ecological justice, Ecuador, enclosure, environmental destruction, Environmentalism, grass-roots, Green Politics, human rights violation, indigenous movements, nature, Rafael Correa, rain forest, revolution, Road Protest, yasuni | Permalink
Posted by colona

Marlon Santi on Correa’s government and the Constituent Assembly

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Interview with Marlon Santi, New President of Ecuador’s Indigenous Confederation
Written by Patricio Zhingri T.
Thursday, 17 January 2008

And so it goes, that history repeats itself and the day after the revolution anyone is a conservative, I think Hannah Arendt once wrote. The morning after in Ecuador – after the floods – and we know which way the wind blows. For that we don’t need a weather man.

Here is, however, what CONAIE’s new president, Marlon Santi, reckons about the Correan revolution and the reconstructive Constituent Assembly – well no news there, really, it is business as usual:

“PZT: As the new president of CONAIE, how would you evaluate the first year of this government?

MS: Proposals from the Indigenous movement and other social sectors from the coast, highlands, and Amazon are not present on the national government’s political agenda. Nor are they on the agenda of the Constituent Assembly. The government says a lot and they say that they are going to open petroleum explorations, that they are going to privatize water, rivers, páramos (high communal grasslands). Nothing has changed. The only change is when the Indigenous movement rises up, because even in light of this we have made some advances in Collective Rights and other demands. Rafael Correa has not recognized the demands of Indigenous nationalities and peoples, and he should do so.

PZT: How will the government of Indigenous Nationalities and Peoples act with the current government of Correa?

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1 Comment | Amazonia, Anti-capitalism, Capitalism, capitalism is murder, CONAIE, constitutent assembly, ecological justice, Ecuador, environmental destruction, Environmentalism, Globalisation, grass-roots, Green Politics, indigenous movements, Marlon Santi, Miriam Cisneros, Neo-socialism, people power, Politics, Rafael Correa, rain forest, revolution, sarayaku, South America | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by colono

Abducting and torturing: Carrying out the orders of Rafael Correa?

Monday, February 25, 2008

This is a shocking story – if it is not an ultra right wing conspiracy to discredit Correa it ought to be the end of any support for the Correan experiment:

Via Ukhamawa noticias/23 February 2008

“The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador CONAIE announces its objection, before the country, public opinion, international agencies, and the media, to the abduction, and psychological and verbal assault committed against Compañera Miriam Cisneros 28 years, spouse of President Marlon Santi.

While Compañera Miriam was prepapring to travel to Puyo, she was intercepted by two men in civilian clothes at approximately 4:30 pm, Friday 22 Febryuary, 2008, and immediately carried in a van heading south of Quito, where she was repeatedly interrogated with 5 questions:

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1 Comment | abduction, Amazonia, anti-terror laws, asamblea constituyente, CONAIE, constitutent assembly, dark forces, Ecuador, grass-roots, indigenous movements, Life, Marlon Santi, Miriam Cisneros, Neo-socialism, News, people power, police brutality, police state, police violence, Politics, Rafael Correa, sarayaku, South America, state of exception, strategy of tension, torture | Permalink
Posted by colono

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