LatinNews Daily - 22 September 2020

* Ecuador’s constitutional court (CC) has approved a request for a popular consultation to be held in the city of Cuenca, the capital of Azuay province, on whether to prohibit medium and large-scale mining projects in areas surrounding the five rivers that provide water to the city. The CC had on three previous occasions rejected requests issued by Yaku Pérez (prefect of Azuay and current presidential candidate for the indigenous party Pachakutik) for such a consultation in the province as a whole, but the approval of this latest request, filed by Cuenca Mayor Pedro Palacios, could lead to a referendum being held in parallel with the February 2021 general election. While this is a victory for campaigners against water pollution in Azuay, the impact on the mining sector remains unclear – Ecuador’s energy and non-renewable resources ministry has previously opposed a popular consultation in order to protect one of the country’s most lucrative industries. Andrés Ycaza, spokesperson for mining sector lobby group Cámara de Minería del Ecuador (CME), appealed for the CC to clarify whether a mining ban would apply retrospectively to mining concessions already granted in the area, and warned that an unconstitutionality appeal could follow.

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