The following comes from Leila Salazar-López, Executive Director for Amazon Watch.

Ecuador’s Environment Ministry just announced that it has rejected the Interior Ministry’s request to shut down Acción Ecológica. Thank you for taking action and contributing to this important victory for the environment, for indigenous rights, and for freedom of speech and assembly in Ecuador.

Amazon Watch and Acción Ecológica’s allies mobilized immediate international support to pressure Ecuador’s government and those efforts proved effective. Environmental defenders from Ecuador to Standing Rock remain under threat, but global solidarity continues to grow. There is much more work to be done – together. Thank you for acting to defend the defenders!

https://youtu.be/csXKYRveP5w

The Guardian published this feature on Acción Ecológica’s legal battles earlier this month. 

Members of one of Latin America’s most well-known environmental organisations, Acción Ecológica, are fighting for their survival against a controversial attempt by Ecuador’s government to shut them down.

The move by the government came six days after violence between soldiers, police and indigenous Shuar 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. The attempt to close the organisation has sparked severe criticism from UN human rights experts and outrage from numerous civil society organisations in Latin America and elsewhere.