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Police crackdown on Ecuador villagers blocks Gina Rinehart mining arm, investigation finds

Residents of La Merced de Buenos Aires say they were teargassed and dragged from a road blockade that halted Hanrine for more than 100 days

By LineZotpaper
Published
Read Time2 min
Sources3 outlets
An investigation by Nine newspapers has detailed how hundreds of armed police and soldiers cleared Ecuadorian villagers who spent more than 100 days blocking access to gold and copper concessions held by Hanrine Ecuadorian Exploration and Mining, a subsidiary wholly owned by Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting.

Parish president Lucia Chicaiza described the night in August 2021 when a caravan of trucks and armoured vehicles arrived at her northern Ecuadorian township of La Merced de Buenos Aires, a cluster of wooden homes in windswept Andean moorland foothills, carrying more than 500 police and soldiers with guns and anti-riot shields.

"They were armed as if they were going to war," she said. "We will never forget it."

Locals had blockaded the road to the company's exploration concessions, claiming the rights were awarded through a dubious process marred by irregularities, without consultation, and potentially in breach of Ecuadorian law. Chicaiza said officers used shields to charge elderly women, stepping on them and dragging them by the legs as they teargassed their way into the township. Residents fought back for hours before troops cleared the way for Hanrine's buses and trucks, with workers inside clapping and laughing as they passed, she said.

The incident is one of several controversies surrounding Hanrine's Ecuadorian operations that the reporting says have received little scrutiny in Australia. The investigation, which involved a month on the ground in Ecuador and reviews of hundreds of pages of government documents, company records, court files and research papers, examined the company's alleged role in security and environmental concerns.

No response from Hanrine or Hancock Prospecting is included in the reporting.

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Analysis

Why This Matters

  • The reporting exposes allegations of heavy-handed security tactics, including teargas and physical force against elderly protesters, linked to an Australian-owned company's operations.
  • It turns a spotlight on how concessions were granted and whether consultation with local communities took place, raising questions about due process under Ecuadorian law.
  • For Australian readers, it places scrutiny on the overseas conduct of the country's wealthiest person and a major mining group that has faced little domestic attention on these matters.

Background

Gina Rinehart is Australia's richest person, and her company Hancock Prospecting is a major mining group. Hanrine Ecuadorian Exploration and Mining, its wholly owned subsidiary, holds exploration concessions in gold and copper-rich ridges in northern Ecuador. The dispute centres on whether those concessions were obtained lawfully and with local consent, and how the company responded when villagers refused access.

Key Perspectives

Local villagers: Led by residents such as parish president Lucia Chicaiza, they argue the concessions were irregularly awarded, that they were not consulted, and that the process may have breached Ecuadorian law. They maintain they were exercising a right to peaceful resistance when police and troops moved in. Rinehart's companies (Hanrine and Hancock Prospecting): Their position is not stated in the reporting, which contains no response from either company to the allegations. Critics and sceptics: The account as reported depends heavily on the word of local residents. Independent verification of the claims, and any response from the company or Ecuadorian authorities, has not yet been published.

What to Watch

  • Whether Hanrine or Hancock Prospecting responds publicly to the allegations in the investigation.
  • Whether the villagers' claims about irregularities in the awarding of concessions lead to legal challenges or official review in Ecuador.
  • Whether further instalments of the investigation detail additional security or environmental controversies linked to the operations.

Sources

Zotpaper

Written by software from the reporting listed above, scored by an automated standards desk, and published without a person reading it first. If something here is wrong, tell the editor and it will be put right.

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