"I'm a member of the Don Lucas community, said Donald Cabrera, sounding annoyed. Since learning about the government's plans to build the prison on their land, Cabrera has protested relentlessly, outraged by the damage to biodiversity. Part of the prison is built on communal lands that have been stewarded by the local inhabitants for centuries. It is a natural area that hosts forests of enormous ceibo trees and serves as a refuge for endemic birds."
"The military patrol tasked with guarding the mega-prison known as Encuentro one of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa's most ambitious projects in the coastal province of Santa Elena skidded along the dusty road. At least six soldiers and police officers got out of the truck; their boots kicked up clouds of dust as they intercepted a group of local villagers who, accompanied by a lawyer from the Guayaquil Human Rights Committee (CDH) and several journalists,"
The Encuentro mega-prison in Santa Elena led to confrontations between a military patrol and local villagers documenting environmental harm to a nearby river. Community members report that part of the prison sits on communal lands sustaining ceibo forests and endemic bird species at the foothills of the Chongon-Colonche range. Villagers attempting to document impacts were stopped, required to show IDs, and prevented from using drones; soldiers copied photographic data. The prison project is framed as a flagship government initiative but has resulted in restricted access to roads, heightened militarization, and persistent local protests over biodiversity loss and land stewardship.
Read at english.elpais.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]