October 25, 2006

ECUADOR: REPRESSION RELATED TO CANADIAN-U.S. ASCENDANT MINING COMPANY

BELOW: Testimony, written by Carlos Zorrilla, about the illegal and abusive
raid of his own home.

Just last year, Carlos Zorrilla was in Canada on an educational speaking
tour concerning the environmental and development harms and human rights
violations associated with the Ascendant Copper Mining Company.

WHAT TO DO: Write or call the people listed at the bottom. There is real
danger of more repression against Carlos Zorrilla, and other Ecuadorans
criticizing abuses and harms caused by North American mining companies.

To get on/ off this elist: info@rightsaction.org

===

DETAILED AND TRUTHFUL ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED IN INTAG ON 17 OF OCTOBER

From: Carlos Zorrilla [mailto: intagcloud@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 6:22 PM

I know some of you will find the account below difficult to believe, but
there's nothing exaggerated or untruthful about it. Feel free to share with
journalist or other contacts. Carlos

***

When I received the very early phone call around 6:15 on the morning of the
17th of October informing me that there were "very many policemen" headed my
way, I did not hesitate. I closed down my computer, said goodbye to my son,
and left my home. I didn't even have to say goodbye to my wife. Since I had
been connected to the Internet, and thus kept my line busy, I didn't know
for how long the person calling had been trying to reach me. The nearest
place cars can drive to is a 15 minute easy walk from our home. Five to
seven if you run. As it turned out, I had about 10 minutes to spare before
the first group of police arrived looking for me. The nightmare had begun.

As I hid in the nearby forest more police arrived, some bearing automatic
weapons, others wearing ski-masks and all in bullet-proof vests. They
pointed their guns at my wife and son ordering them not to move and informed
them that they were looking for me and that they had a search warrant to go
into our home. They then burst into our home without the warrant looking for
me. She insisted on seeing the warrant, and 20 minutes later a District
Attorney from the city of Cayambe showed up supposedly bearing the warrants.
When my wife asked the DA to show her the search warrant, he briefly showed
it to her, but was not allowed to hold it and read it, but merely read it to
her from several yards away. As she recalls, the warrant said that I had
stolen some goods, but didn't specify what.

By then there were a total of 17 police around our home, and some entered
our home (in all, 19 persons participated in the raid). Some of police
wearing uniforms did not have name tags to identify them, and when asked to
identify themselves, they refused. Some were very aggressive and violent,
yelling and insulting my teenage son and wife, and at one point, pushing
them aside for no reason.

Around this time, several police showed up with one of our workers, who had
been violently roused out of bed by one of the agents. The police had
broken into his home, without a search warrant and violently pushed Roberto
down on the bed because he dared asked for his identity and called him all
kinds of names, forcing him to hurry up and get dressed and accompany the
agent down to our home.

Six police then went into our home and went through everything, but
specially my room, which they tore apart. They threw the hundreds of books
on my bookshelves on the ground, searched in every drawer and closet space,
and forced open a locked wooden box where we kept cash. Outside, the police
had taken Roberto to every farm building and cabin to search them. When my
wife Sandy asked what they were looking for, they said it was anything that
might be damaging to the State!

After about an hour or so, and after Roberto had returned to our home, the
police said something to the effect that "we found nothing and that they
should leave as they had other things to do". My wife was at that moment
outside the house comforting our son, who was extremely upset and angered by
the police action, and especially the abusive way they had been treated.

It was then that one of the police took Roberto away from the house under
the pretense that he wanted to talk to him in private. From a distance of
about a dozen meters he saw another police walk into the house. Minutes
later this same police walks out of the house and talks to one of the
officials, who then goes back into the house, and comes back with the hand
gun and a plastic bag containing what they way was drugs that they had
planted in our home.

Recall that there was approximately 10 minutes time lapse between the time I
received the warning and the time the police started arriving. Who, in
their right mind and if impartial, will ever believe that if I had guns and
drugs in my home that disposing them would not be the first thing I would
have done before the police showed up? But then again, impartiality is not
even a question here (the police, by the way, said they found the gun under
a magazine in my son's bookshelf, out in the open and the so-called drugs,
were found right in the living room behind some books. BOTH ITEMS WERE
"FOUND" AFTER MORE THAN ONE HOUR OF INTENSE SEARCHING.

To date, I've been able to certify that they took personal videocassettes,
hundreds of CD ROMS with personal information and photographs, DVD's,
several thousands of dollars in cash, and a debit card from a US bank. I am
sure if I could return and go carefully through my house I will discover
other missing things. It is not the missing stuff that is so upsetting, but
the outright violation of our privacy, and our basic fundamental rights that
are so deeply disturbing, and the ease how a transnational mining company
can buy such gross violations.

It is also worth pointing out that according to several eye-witnesses, the
police were transported in five unmarked cars, without license plates.
Apparently, at least one car is said to belong to the mining company. In
addition, eye-witnesses told me that they saw at least one person known to
work for the mining company hanging around Santa Rosa, the village closest
to my home, the night before the raid. The same person, accompanied by
others known to support the mining company and perhaps also being employed
by them, were also waiting for the police the day of the raid. No doubt
hoping to see the police take me in handcuffs.

Some of you are no doubt wondering why I would leave my wife and son to
confront such a situation on their own. We, in fact, had discussed this
probable scenario before, concluding that if it ever came to pass, that I
would leave because it was clear that it was not them, but me the company
was after.

For nearly three years I, along with other leaders of the resistance to
Ascendant Copper Corporation's mining project, have been subjected to
countless instances of intimidation, including death threats, criminal
lawsuits, and very dirty defamation campaigns against DECOIN and me
personally. I knew I was one of the main leaders they were after, and that
they wanted me out of action really badly.

All along, the company's CEO has been badly mislead into thinking that the
opposition is based on the leadership of a few people. They could hardly be
more wrong. The resistance to their mining project is deeply entrenched in
Intag's population.

THE MADE-UP ACCUSATION
But to understand what a bunch of police and a crooked DA were doing in my
home at 6:15 in the morning with 17 heavily armed thugs and bearing a search
and a arrest warrant against me, we have to go back to the events of July
13th 2006 outside the doors of the Ministry of Energy and Mines in Quito.

On that date, approximately 400 people from Intag had marched down Amazonas
Avenue to demand that the Minister of Energy and Mines meet with Intag
officials and force Ascendant Copper to leave the Intag area. I went mostly
along to photograph the event (later producing a 15 minute photo video with
my older son).

All of a sudden I was called to a smaller crowd that had broken away from
the main crowd, and told to translate, because there were some women
distributing anti-Decoin information. When I arrived, there were
approximately 50 people surrounding the two foreign-looking women, demanding
an explanation of why they were there. My youngest son, Martin was already
there and translating, and I just had time to ask the older women, Leslie
Brooke Chaplin of Sun City, Arizona, and her companion, who it was that had
hired them to do this. All they said was that a friend had hired them.

I then became aware that the crowd had started to block the traffic on the
street, and was worried for their safety. As I left to try and move the
crowd out of the street I do remember distinctly saying to the crowd "don't
do anything to them". I was concerned that if there was violence on the
part of the crowd, it would be used to smear the opposition even more. That
was the last I saw of the Ms. Chapman and her companion.

But a few days later, Ms. Chapman filed robbery and assault charges against
me, saying that I had stolen a $1200 video camera and $500 in cash. It's
worth emphasizing that the whole exchange with Ms. Chapman was not only
witnessed by several dozen witnesses, but also was photographs by several
photographers, and filmed by at least one person.

Based on these made-up charges, obviously orchestrated by the company,
Ecuador's legal system initiated a criminal lawsuit against me, but without
notifying me. The court appointed a public defender, who also failed to
notify me I was charged, so that I could present evidence during the 90 day
period assigned to prove I was innocent. When the 90 day period expired, the
District Attorney asked the judge to issue the warrants, and it was then
that they mysteriously were able to find me.

As it stands now, if I am arrested, I will have to remain jailed until early
January, which is the period assigned to the trial. The lawyer defending me
will try to get the arrest order revoked, but he admits this is will be very
difficult. The more so because of the "new evidence" against me that the
police planted in my home, and which undoubtedly result in new criminal
lawsuits.

Public pressure will play a very important role in the outcome of this
outrageous miscarriage of justice. This means letters written denouncing
all this, contacting the press, and letters of support. Already, many of
you have done some of this, and I am deeply moved by the amount of support
I've received. Please don't give up. Help make this Ascendant's last
mistake in Ecuador (see below for some addresses you can write to)

Thank you,

Carlos Zorrilla

PLEASE WRITE YOUR PROTEST LETTERS TO THE FOLLOWING, LETTING THEM KNOW WE
WILL DO OUR BEST TO HOLD THEM ACOCUNTABLE FOR ANY MORE REPRESSION AGAINST
CARLOS ZORRILLA, OR OTHER ECUADORANS PROTESTING THE GLOBAL MINING INDUSTRY:

ASCENDANT COPPER CORPORATION
Gary E. Davis, President and CEO
10920 West Alameda Avenue, Suite 201
Lakewood, CO 80226, USA
T: (303) 824-0271
F: (303) 297-0538
e: info@ascendantcopper.com
www.ascendantcopper.com

ASCENDANT COPPER CORPORATION
PO Box 1609
Summerland, BC, V0H 1Z0, Canada
Contact: Linda Holmes, lhomes@ascendantcopper.com

CANADIAN AMBASSADOR TO ECUADOR CHRISTIAN LAPOINTE
Av. 6 de Diciembre 2816 y Paul Rivet
P.O. Box 17-11-6512
Quito, Ecuador
T: +593 2 2232-114 / 2506-162
F: +593 2 2503-108
E: quito@dfait-maeci.gc.ca

BRITISH COLUMBIA SECURITIES COMMISSION
Sasha Angus, Director, Enforcement Division
PO Box 10142, Pacific Centre
701 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC V7Y 1L2
Inquiries@bcsc.bc.ca
Enquiry Log: 19242
T: 604 899-6500 - Main switchboard
T: 604 899-6854 - Inquiries or Complaints
T: 800 373-6393 - Toll Free in BC and Alberta
F: 604 899-6506 - fax

***

FOR MORE INFO: MiningWatch Canada, Jamie Kneen, 1-613-569-3439,
jamie@miningwatch.ca, www.miningwatch.ca

===

Rights Action is a development, enviro- and human rights organization. With
tax-charitable status in the U.S. and Canada, and our main office in
Guatemala, Rights Action funds over 50 community development, environment
and human rights organizations in Guatemala, Chiapas, Honduras, El Salvador,
Haiti; and carries out education and activist work with partner groups about
global human rights, environment and development issues.
(www.rightsaction.org, info@rightsaction.org)