Translation11 Jun 2019 08:19
Interview with Santiago Yépez, president of the Mining Chamber of Ecuador from 2017 to the present. What is the position of the sector against the new request for popular consultation on the future of mining in four parishes in the provinces of Imbabura and Carchi? After the position of President Lenin Moreno during the Report to the Nation on May 24, which was quite clear, the sector finally feels supported. We believe that the Government is signaling what the country's development means by promoting responsible industrial mining. We must also highlight the request made by the President to the Constitutional Court regarding the consultation that took place in the canton Girón. Despite this support, there are citizen initiatives that seek to stop mining. Evidently. The new request for popular consultation, which can be seen in the Court, worries us a lot, because this could open the possibility of carrying out a general consultation on any subject of national interest. This is not an exclusively mining issue. What is discussed is that the local communities should decide and stop strategic projects in the oil, mining and hydroelectric sectors, when this is the exclusive competence of the central government. After the popular consultation of the Giron on mining, last March, the results are published to generate a precedent. Why is this new initiative calling attention? The Constitutional Court has a work history that finally expands to the Law and the Constitution. What happened with the popular consultation of Girón, in Azuay, is different. Why? The National Electoral Council (CNE) presented in 2012 to the Constitutional Court a question about the future of mining in Girón. Then, the Court had 20 days to rule, but the agency at that time did not respond. For this reason, in November 2018, the CNE said that since the request had not been answered within the deadline established to be understood as a tactic of the Court to the question asked. And so a step was taken to the consultation in Girón. The Court did not rule, because the deadline had expired, but neither did an analysis on the merits of the question. What is your expectation now about the treatment of this new initiative? We hope that this Court will pronounce itself in the sense that natural resources are all Ecuadorian and therefore its management is the exclusive competence of the central Government. We understand that the opinion of the communities is valid and fundamental for the development of a project, but this must be manifested in the manner established by the Constitution and the Law. And popular consultation is not one of those forms. The proponents of the new initiative are based on prior consultation for the development of mining projects. The subject of prior consultation is rather diffuse. It should be understood that this is the convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), of which Ecuador is a subscriber. The consultation fits where there are aboriginal a
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