It's an unfair fight: Environmentalists against the Government and Chinese interests.

Members of Acción Ecológica, one of the main Latin American environmentalist NGO's, are fighting to survive after Ecuador’s government decision to shut them down.

The attempt to close the Quito-based organization came six days after violent clashes emerged between soldiers, police and indigenous people opposed to a Chinese-run copper development, Panantza-San Carlos, in the Cordillera del Condor region, and just two days after Acción Ecológica had called for a Truth Commission to be set up to investigate events there, reports British newspaper The Guardian.  

According to Ecuador government, Acción Ecológica has been using social media to support violence by Shuar against soldiers and police, to claim that extractive operations will negatively affect the environment, and to allege “supposed human rights violations” against the Shuars.

The decision of the Ecuador government has been criticized by the U.N human experts, who are calling on Ecuador to backtrack closing Acción Ecológica and to reform its legislation.

Support for Acción Ecológica has poured in from around the world, reports The Guardian. US NGO Amazon Watch calls it a “pioneering” organisation “largely responsible” for Ecuador’s modern environmental movement, having worked on issues such as extractives, climate change, deforestation, trade and GMOs.

To the south of Panantza-San Carlos is another copper project, Mirador, also in Shuar territory. Both are run by companies reportedly controlled by two Chinese state-owned firms: the China Railway Construction Corporation and the Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holding Company. Both projects have been marked by conflict. 

As reported in The Guardian.