Activists march to fight mining in Amazon

QUITO, Ecuador -- The lands of the Shuar Indians in the Amazon are rich in wildlife such as tapirs, toucans and red howler monkeys. They also hold treasures more coveted by outsiders: rich deposits of copper and other minerals that the government is eager to cash in on.

Projects to build open pit mines that would rip into their forest-covered hills have spawned a protest movement that sets leaders of the ethnic group against the popular president, Rafael Correa, who says development is essential to the future of the nation.

Hundreds of indigenous people have been marching for nearly two weeks to protest planned mining projects, and yesterday they were nearing Quito, the capital.

Earlier protests, including road blockades, have led to conflicts with police and with government prosecutors who have been quick to issue criminal charges.

Pepe Acacho, who wore a yellow-and-red feathered headdress during the long days of the hike, said he was undeterred by criminal sabotage charges that he faces from leading a 2009 protest.

Acacho's Shuar ethnic group is the largest in southeastern Ecuador's Amazon with more than 100,000 members. "I can't abandon a cause that is an entire people's struggle," he said.

He is among at least 205 activists who have been criminally charged, mostly with sabotage and terrorism, during Correa's tenure, according to a study by human rights and environmental groups.

Typically jailed for a week or so, all but 16 of the activists have been cleared, and none has yet been convicted.

The aim, says Cecilia Cherrez, spokeswoman for the environmental group Acción Ecológica, is to "intimidate those most critical of what the current regime considers to be priority projects." The Shuar are recognized as owners of the land, but the government owns mineral rights.