Ecuador: New Mining Law Approved Amidst Rising Tension

  Source: Free Speech Radio News

Ecuador’s interim legislative commission approved a highly contentious mining law Monday. The legislation aims to bolster state benefits from the new industrial sector deregulated by World Bank-sponsored reforms in 2000. President Rafael Correa’s government argues that local rural communities will be the main beneficiaries of future gold and copper production. But rural and urban activists from north to south disagree, and protests against the mining law resulted in heavy repression this past week. Jen Moore reports from Cuenca, in Southern Ecuador.

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