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QUITO - Kayaking down the Napo River in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest, environmentalist Matthew Terry bemoaned how the once-lush riverbanks are now barren and full of dredges, excavating machines and bulldozers as illegal gold mining spreads across the region. In certain areas, miners have completely rerouted the river channel, while some smaller tributaries of the Napo …
QUITO, ECUADOR - Deep in Ecuador’s northern Amazon rainforest live the Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous nations, the last two communities in the country who have never set foot outside of the jungle. They have long resisted all outsiders’ contact and continue fiercely defending their remaining territory. But over the years, three massacres in 2003, 2006 …
MACHALA, Ecuador - The small motorboat left the dock at the end of Neiva Carrascal's street and hummed out into the ocean off the southern coast of Ecuador, keeping close to the shore lined with tangled branches of mangroves. Every day, Carrascal and 80 others from her port community in the city of Machala go out to collect …
Continue reading "Crabbers face danger and poverty to save Ecuador’s mangroves (Reuters)"
MAIKIUANTS, ECUADOR - The brightly colored chiva bus rocked back and forth, branches scraping across its sides, as it traveled down the narrow dirt road traversing mountain ranges of the Cordillera del Condor, in Ecuador's southern Amazon. The region, which stretches about 150 km (93 miles) along the border with Peru, is famous for its …
Continue reading "Indigenous Ecuadorans fight back as metal mining eats into Amazon (Reuters)"
GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR – Alex Burbano’s youngest brother, Jonathan, was quiet and serious. The 23-year-old was halfway through a two-year prison sentence when he was killed in a massacre at Guayaquil’s Litoral Penitentiary in September 2021. It was one of the deadliest in a string of Ecuadorian prison riots last year, resulting in 119 deaths. Alex …
Continue reading "Traumatised families demand reforms after Ecuador prison riots (Al Jazeera)"
QUITO, ECUADOR – More than 300 people have been killed inside Ecuador’s prisons so far this year, as a series of violent riots between rival gangs left officials scrambling to find ways to end the bloodshed. The latest riot took place last week behind the cement walls of Penitenciaria del Litoral, a facility in the …
Continue reading "‘We are all suffering’: What’s going on inside Ecuador’s prisons? (Al Jazeera)"
SINANGOE, ECUADOR - Early on the morning of Nov. 15, five Constitutional Court judges arrived by canoe to the Indigenous Cofan community of Sinangoe in Ecuador’s northern Amazon rainforest, wearing rubber boots and loose clothing to weather the intense jungle heat. This visit marked the first time in the country’s history that judges from the …
QUITO, ECUADOR - After coming down with COVID-19 in December, Vinicio Sánchez visited three health centres in a single day. At the first, a clinic in the south of Ecuadorian capital, Quito, he was told he needed oxygen but they had none left to give him. He was referred to a specialist COVID-19 centre in …
QUITO, ECUADOR - A few months ago, the California based World Affairs podcast contacted me to talk about a previous article I had written about Carmen Carcelen, an Ecuadorian woman who lives in the small town of Juncal, near the border with Colombia, and turned her home into a shelter for Venezuelans migrating through. By …
Continue reading "In Carmen’s Hands (World Affairs, Podcast)"
SINANGOE, ECUADOR - Era un día soleado de febrero de 2020, cuando 12 hombres indígenas Cofán decidieron realizar un control de rutina en su territorio en el norte de la Amazonía ecuatoriana. Estaban caminando por la selva por los senderos que alguna vez sus ancestros atravesaron, sospechando que podrían encontrar mineros operando ilegalmente en su …
Continue reading "La última línea de resistencia cofán (GK, Ecuador)"
Kimberley (Michelle) Brown 