Latest / The Morning Edition / How a remote Ecuadorian village took on Gina Rinehart

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How a remote Ecuadorian village took on Gina Rinehart · The Morning Edition

0:01
S1: Lucia Chikahisa lives in northern Ecuador in a sleepy farming
0:06
S1: town full of just over 2000 people at the foot
0:09
S1: of the Andes. She also just happens to live near
0:12
S1: a lucrative gold and copper deposit that has the eye
0:15
S1: of Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart. Investigative reporter Marta Pascual
0:21
S1: Gianola spent a month in Ecuador investigating a mining industry
0:26
S1: that operates in shades of gray, where she found alleged
0:29
S1: worker exploitation, intimidation, tactics and violence. I'm Samantha Cylindromas, and
0:36
S1: you're listening to Morning Edition from The Age and The
0:39
S1: Sydney Morning Herald. It's Monday, October 12th. So, Marta, when
0:47
S1: many of us think of Gina Rinehart, you know, maybe
0:49
S1: we think about her iron ore empire in Western Australia,
0:52
S1: or perhaps some notable appearances she's made recently with some
0:55
S1: of the most powerful people. But perhaps we don't think
0:58
S1: very much about the extent of her overseas operations, but
1:02
S1: she's actually got her hand in many pies through her company,
1:05
S1: Hancock Prospecting. Right.
1:06
S2: You're spot on. So like a lot of the time
1:08
S2: when we think about Gina Rinehart, we think about iron
1:11
S2: ore in the Pilbara. We think about Lang Hancock, her
1:14
S2: late father, and his fortunes. We think about the family
1:18
S2: feud between her and her children for access to the
1:20
S2: family fortunes. And most recently, she's been in the news
1:24
S2: a lot for her support for One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
1:28
S3: We need an orange bulldozer. Let's hear the noise.
1:35
S2: Also, for her support of US President Donald Trump. She's
1:38
S2: been to the US a bunch in like conservative conferences.
1:43
S2: But in the last few years, she's been trying really
1:46
S2: hard to diversify her business portfolio away from iron ore,
1:50
S2: keeping her core iron ore interests, but also looking at
1:52
S2: other commodities like rare earths and copper. And so Ecuador
1:57
S2: sits in the copper belt of the Andes, which is
2:00
S2: essentially a series of metal belts that run along the
2:03
S2: mountain range that are very rich in copper and gold.
2:06
S2: And so those two commodities at the moment are seeing
2:09
S2: a huge rise in value.
2:11
S4: There's a global race to secure the supply of so-called
2:14
S4: rare earth materials.
2:15
S5: Trump and Anthony Albanese sealing a multibillion dollar deal on
2:19
S5: critical minerals energy transition.
2:23
S2: And so that's fits right within Gina Rinehart's interest. You know,
2:26
S2: this is a country that is very rich in those resources.
2:29
S2: And so she's since 2017 and even a bit before that,
2:33
S2: she's been looking to branch out into Ecuador and Latin America.
2:42
S1: Okay. Well, this takes us to a really interesting research
2:45
S1: trip you took to northern Ecuador for about a month.
2:48
S1: You were there speaking to locals of all stripes. So
2:51
S1: I guess, what is it like there?
2:53
S2: Yeah. So this story set in a very remote village
2:56
S2: called La Merced, Buenos Aires, which is effectively a few
2:59
S2: hours drive from Quito, which is the capital of Ecuador.
3:03
S2: So this is a very remote part of the country.
3:05
S2: The town itself is basically a collection of weatherboard houses
3:08
S2: that are nestled between the high altitude moorlands, which in
3:12
S2: Ecuador is known as the Paramo and also the essentially
3:16
S2: the subtropical valleys that are in the along the little
3:18
S2: river down below. There's a community of about 2000 farmers.
3:22
S2: A lot of them are cattle and dairy farmers. And
3:25
S2: other than that, they just grow crops like coffee naranjilla
3:28
S2: or even in some places, avocados. And I spent weeks
3:31
S2: with some of the locals and they hosted me in
3:34
S2: their houses and we shared meals. I met their families
3:37
S2: and their children. I went into their farms. I even,
3:40
S2: you know, milked their cows at one point. And I
3:43
S2: think coming from a Spanish speaking background, that meant that
3:46
S2: I could go into this community and speak to these
3:49
S2: people directly.
3:50
S1: You spoke to one woman there. This is Lucia Chikahisa.
3:53
S1: She also serves as the president of the town's local government.
3:56
S1: But she grew up in this area. Right. And she
3:58
S1: told you about how she remembered it when she was
4:00
S1: growing up. So I guess tell us a bit about that.
4:03
S2: Yeah. So she grew up in a satellite community attached
4:06
S2: to La Merced, Buenos Aires town known as El Triunfo.
4:09
S2: And she remembers a pretty blissful existence when she was
4:12
S2: a child, she'd go and run up in the mountains
4:14
S2: like it was full of birdsong and like animals. And
4:16
S2: it was like a really peaceful, blissful existence.
4:20
S6: Mi infancia.
4:22
S2: And that's like the same thing that most locals told
4:24
S2: me while I was there, that up until 2017, it
4:27
S2: was a pretty simple, blissful life. And that that all
4:30
S2: came to a head in 2017 when they discovered gold
4:33
S2: in the ridges around the town. And so what that
4:36
S2: created was a mad rush that drove thousands of illegal
4:40
S2: miners into the parish. And with that came a massive
4:45
S2: campaign of violence, as different organized crime groups try to
4:47
S2: take control of those illegal mines. With it also came
4:50
S2: things like prostitution, alcoholism. All of a sudden, in a
4:54
S2: town that barely had any shops, you all of a
4:56
S2: sudden had like bars, brothels, all controlled by those organized
5:00
S2: criminals that were running the mines. And so that all
5:03
S2: goes on until about 2019, when there's a major shootout
5:07
S2: between different organized crime groups. And so the Ecuadorian government
5:10
S2: has no other option but to actually intervene. And so
5:13
S2: they send a contingent of police and military to essentially
5:17
S2: evict all the illegal miners that are sort of lodged
5:19
S2: in this part of Buenos Aires. So after that piece
5:23
S2: sort of returns to the parish for a little bit.
5:25
S2: And so Lucia tells me it was a pretty blissful
5:29
S2: short period. But then locals started hearing rumors about a
5:32
S2: mining company that was tied to Australia's richest woman, Gina Rinehart.
5:38
S2: And so locals that are horribly scarred by that experience
5:41
S2: of what illegal mining had brought to their parish decide
5:44
S2: that they don't want mining on their land. And at
5:47
S2: that point in time is where the resistance against Hanrahan starts.
5:50
S1: Okay, well, let's get into this because the scene that
5:53
S1: you write about, when this does all come to a
5:54
S1: head in 2021, I mean, it's, it's violent. It's extraordinary really,
5:58
S1: because as you put it, Rineharts mining company Hand Ryan
6:02
S1: really forced its way into this tiny hamlet. You know,
6:04
S1: you mentioned something like 500 officers with guns and anti-riot shields.
6:09
S1: A bunch of locals, they form a human chain. Amid
6:13
S1: them are elderly women to try to stop this company
6:16
S1: from coming in. So, I guess just tell us what
6:18
S1: you heard about this confrontation.
6:20
S2: It's like a level of brutality that's quite outstanding, really.
6:23
S2: When you look at some of those images and you
6:25
S2: see what's essentially farmers draped in ponchos, just kind of
6:29
S2: waiting in the main road, you see like a group
6:31
S2: of women at the front, including children and elderly women,
6:34
S2: essentially forming a chain, blocking the main access road into
6:38
S2: the parish. And so locals had done that for about
6:44
S2: a hundred days in 2021, just blocking the company from
6:48
S2: coming in, which had left Hanrahan essentially buses full of
6:52
S2: employees just basically stuck on the side of the road,
6:54
S2: unable to come into the parish. So Hanrahan, fed up
6:57
S2: with this, goes to a courtroom in Quito and says,
7:00
S2: you know, authorities need to intervene. They need to clear
7:03
S2: the road for us to be able to come in.
7:05
S2: And at at that point that a court in Quito
7:07
S2: gives the green light for the police to actually use
7:11
S2: force to usher Hanrahan into the parish. And so on
7:16
S2: August 3rd, 2021, those 500 officers sort of roll in
7:19
S2: in armored vehicles.
7:21
S7: The idyllic town of La Mesa de Buenos Aires, high
7:24
S7: in the Andes Mountains, has become a battleground, the flashpoint
7:28
S7: between those who want to exploit its nearby gold and
7:31
S7: copper reserves, and those who want to maintain a way
7:34
S7: of life unchanged for generations.
7:38
S2: They just charge in and try to break that human chain,
7:42
S2: throwing tear gas, women being dragged by the legs across
7:47
S2: the road. We've heard from people being stomped on. As
7:54
S2: the buses of staff rolling through the town. Lucia told
7:58
S2: me that she could see the workers inside clapping and
8:00
S2: cheering and, you know, celebrating that they had finally subdued
8:05
S2: what was essentially like a the local resistance to mining.
8:16
S8: And so what would you say to those listeners who
8:17
S8: are listening.
8:18
S1: And they're thinking, okay, well, this mining company, which is
8:21
S1: owned by Gina Rinehart, they had legal course to to
8:24
S1: do this mining, they were being stopped by protesters. So
8:26
S1: what would you say to those listening going? Well, they
8:28
S1: actually had a legal right to be there.
8:30
S2: Yeah. So it's a fair thing to point out that,
8:33
S2: you know, Han Ryan did obtain through through the court system,
8:37
S2: you know, essentially the green light to be able to
8:39
S2: come in with a military escort. So we're not alleging
8:42
S2: that that in itself is illegal in any respect. However,
8:46
S2: in Ecuador, there's also a right for people to resist
8:49
S2: authority in instances where they sort of think that their
8:53
S2: actions might actually interfere within their constitutional rights. And so
8:57
S2: what people in Buenos Aires did when they declared that
9:00
S2: we're in resistance to mining was exercising this right to
9:04
S2: peaceful resistance. And so there's a bit of a clashing
9:06
S2: of rights here. And because of the way that the
9:08
S2: legislation in Ecuador works, it's like everything is very fuzzy.
9:12
S2: It operates in a very gray sort of space where
9:16
S2: what trumps what is not really clear, but something that's particularly,
9:20
S2: I think, concerning for locals around the process behind obtaining
9:24
S2: that green light is the fact that it happened in
9:26
S2: a courtroom in Quito, which is several hours away by car,
9:30
S2: down dusty and sealed roads, and none of the locals
9:34
S2: or their legal representatives were actually notified to attend that hearing,
9:38
S2: so they couldn't be heard on it. And so that's
9:41
S2: a crucial part of what makes it particularly egregious for
9:43
S2: people in this part of Ecuador.
9:46
S1: Okay. And then Henry comes into the hamlet, and eventually
9:49
S1: some of the local farmers, they decide to work as
9:51
S1: laborers for the company. Right. They're looking for a steady income.
9:54
S1: They say they were promised all kinds of benefits. Right.
9:56
S1: But they told you this is not what they got.
9:59
S1: And they actually worked under fairly atrocious conditions. So I
10:01
S1: guess tell us about that.
10:02
S2: Yeah. So a lot of people, you have to think
10:05
S2: being dairy farmers living in farmland, like the idea of
10:07
S2: having a steady income is something that can be quite
10:10
S2: attractive in a place where people are quite cash strapped.
10:12
S2: That can be quite enticing. But what we heard from
10:15
S2: the former handwriting workers that we talked to was that
10:17
S2: the reality was really different. They were sent on 20
10:22
S2: day swings up in the mountains around La Mercedes, Buenos Aires,
10:25
S2: to work as laborers, building camps, roads, carrying materials to
10:29
S2: build all the stuff that the company needed in order
10:31
S2: to be able to start exploring in the parish. And
10:35
S2: on those 20 day swings, they weren't allowed to bring
10:37
S2: their cell phones with them. They were left completely incommunicado
10:40
S2: from family members. They had to work day and night,
10:43
S2: whatever shift they were allocated. And I spoke to a
10:47
S2: former handwriting worker called Fausto de la Cruz, who described
10:50
S2: the experience working for the company like this. And then
10:57
S2: on top of that, they were served raw food, including
11:00
S2: raw meat. So we heard accounts that workers had actually
11:03
S2: fallen sick after eating some of the food that they
11:06
S2: were provided, and then they were made to work sick
11:08
S2: as well.
11:12
S9: No less important.
11:15
S2: And so on top of that as well, we heard
11:17
S2: of instances where they were told by their supervisors to
11:20
S2: go take a hike in the mountains and then wait
11:23
S2: there all day. And the reason for that, we're told,
11:25
S2: is because there were actually workplace inspectors coming in to
11:29
S2: carry workplace checks at the site. And so they were
11:32
S2: told to go away on a hike to be hidden away.
11:35
S2: And so we know that there's a lot of those
11:37
S2: instances in there that even for a place like Ecuador,
11:40
S2: where perhaps their working conditions are quite different from those
11:44
S2: here in Australia is particularly bad.
11:47
S1: And I think workers also told you that there were
11:51
S1: staff members at Hen1 who would come into the area
11:54
S1: with a rifle and dogs to intimidate people. So tell
11:56
S1: us about that.
11:57
S2: Yeah. So we've heard accounts of Carlos de Miguel, who
12:00
S2: is a Handwriting's chief executive in Latin America. So essentially,
12:04
S2: Reinhardt's men on the ground in Ecuador, who would come
12:08
S2: into the concessions in Buenos Aires armed with a rifle
12:11
S2: and flanked by two large dogs, in what workers described
12:14
S2: as an attempt at intimidating them and sort of warning
12:17
S2: them to stay in line or face the consequences. Now,
12:21
S2: Carlos de Miguel is, according to local media reports, he's
12:24
S2: a former U.S. Navy Seal who's got a military background.
12:27
S2: He's also worked as a private security contractor for a
12:30
S2: former Ecuadorian president, Rafael Correa. And on top of that,
12:34
S2: he was also involved in providing the security arrangements for
12:37
S2: the Ecuadorian embassy when it was providing asylum to Wikileaks
12:40
S2: founder Julian Assange. So that's his background. To give you
12:43
S2: an idea of, you know, when someone with that kind
12:47
S2: of background comes into the concessions, armed with a weapon
12:50
S2: and with dogs, that can be quite intimidating for people
12:53
S2: that are essentially farmers working the field in a remote
12:56
S2: part of Ecuador. We've heard as well accounts of Carlos
13:00
S2: de Miguel holding weapons at company premises. And on top
13:04
S2: of that as well, some local anti-mining advocates, like Lucia herself,
13:09
S2: has told us about threats that they received from employees.
13:13
S2: They were told, you know, dead dogs don't bite. Or
13:17
S2: when I catch you alone, you'll find out. We know
13:20
S2: of a local farmer that was assaulted by a handwriting employee.
13:24
S2: We know of another local that was stabbed by a
13:27
S2: handwriting employee. All in the context of those escalating tensions
13:31
S2: between the company and locals that did not want them
13:33
S2: in their land. And there should be an expectation that
13:36
S2: Australian companies, when they operating overseas, even through subsidiaries, that
13:40
S2: they operating to the standards that we would expect them
13:43
S2: to operate in Australia. And I think this is an
13:46
S2: example of where we need to ask ourselves whether some
13:48
S2: of the stuff that's coming out of Ecuador, some of
13:50
S2: those allegations are things that we would approve of or
13:53
S2: tolerate if they happened in Australia.
13:56
S1: And there's no suggestion that Gina Rinehart authorized or condoned
13:59
S1: Hanrahan's alleged conduct or was aware of the allegations against
14:03
S1: her company. But how has Henrion actually responded to all
14:05
S1: of these allegations?
14:07
S2: They strenuously deny any wrongdoing. They say that they've always
14:11
S2: complied with the rules and regulations of the country in
14:14
S2: which they operate, and that to suggest otherwise would be
14:17
S2: blatantly defamatory. They deny that they mistreated workers. They pointed
14:22
S2: us to a couple of messages from who they claim
14:25
S2: were former or current employees that spoke very kindly of
14:30
S2: the support that they had received by the company.
14:34
S1: We'll be right back. And it's really interesting. This takes
14:38
S1: a turn because locals in the area that you visited,
14:41
S1: they actually manage to use the issue of water allocation
14:44
S1: rights to stall Hanrahan's progress there, and eventually Hanrahan leaves.
14:48
S1: Is that right?
14:50
S2: Yeah. So after that big clash in 2021, um, you know,
14:55
S2: locals in Buenos Aires continued their resistance against the company
14:59
S2: and eventually they were able to stake claim over different
15:02
S2: water sources in the parish for use for their homes
15:04
S2: and for farming, which meant that that water had been
15:07
S2: allocated to them and it could no longer be allocated
15:10
S2: to the company for things like advanced exploration, essentially sort
15:14
S2: of halting their progress from being able to move into
15:17
S2: a more advanced exploration stage. So we know that from
15:20
S2: late 2023, Hanrahan fired a lot of their local workers
15:24
S2: and masks, and it has since abandoned the three different
15:27
S2: camps that it had in the parish. And by the way,
15:30
S2: Hanrahan haven't been able to actually mine anything in La Merced,
15:34
S2: Buenos Aires in that time, so they haven't been able
15:36
S2: to advance beyond doing some early work like drilling, but
15:40
S2: not even much of that. So they've actually not been
15:43
S2: able to make money out of those concessions. And so
15:47
S2: they've effectively withdrawn from the area, but they still hold
15:51
S2: the rights to the concessions, which means they still can
15:53
S2: reactivate the project and they still can come back into
15:56
S2: the parish. And now they have their eyes on a
15:59
S2: different part of Ecuador. This is a very lucrative copper
16:02
S2: concession that's broadly considered the jewel of the crown of
16:06
S2: copper deposits in Ecuador. It's a concession called Yurimaguas in
16:10
S2: the Intag Valley, which is an extremely biodiverse part of Ecuador,
16:14
S2: home to species that are found nowhere else in the world.
16:17
S2: And so that's going out to international tender technically before
16:20
S2: the end of the year. And so locals broadly expect
16:23
S2: Hanrahan to toss their hat in the ring for that.
16:26
S1: And so that's not where it ends though, right? Because
16:28
S1: my understanding is this is not the end of mining
16:30
S1: in the area. And you've been there. You were there
16:32
S1: in 2025. So tell us about what you witnessed on
16:35
S1: the ground.
16:36
S2: Yeah. So after this de facto withdrawal from hand, Ryan,
16:39
S2: what happened is that the illegal miners that had been
16:42
S2: mining previously to their arrival in 2017 to 2019, they
16:46
S2: returned to the area to pick up their illegal mines
16:49
S2: up in the ridges around La Merced, Buenos Aires. When
16:52
S2: we were there, we were able to see the mines operating.
16:55
S2: We were able to get a bit of cover from
16:56
S2: the military in Ecuador to get as close as possible. And,
17:00
S2: you know, you can see the miners in town, you
17:02
S2: can see the sex workers in the street, you can
17:05
S2: see them partying. So once again, we've got organized crime groups,
17:09
S2: including factions of the former Colombian FARC, as well as
17:13
S2: like a prison gang known as Los Lobos, which means
17:15
S2: the wolves in Spanish that are sort of basically in
17:18
S2: a turf war trying to get control of those mines.
17:20
S2: So we're seeing, once again, levels of violence, perhaps not
17:24
S2: to the degree in 2019, but we're still seeing that
17:26
S2: in fighting the shootings quite regularly, there's been bodies that
17:30
S2: have been found in the mines. It's it's very much
17:33
S2: still an ongoing crisis over there.
17:36
S1: Marta, just to wrap up, you've been working on this
17:39
S1: investigation for about a year, on and off. What are
17:43
S1: your reflections? Because Lucia and other villagers, they've told you
17:47
S1: that they are perpetually under siege. So I guess reflect
17:50
S1: on that a bit if you can, and where to
17:52
S1: from here?
17:53
S2: Yeah, that's a really good question. I mean, we know
17:55
S2: that it's a game of cat and mouse. Stamping it
17:58
S2: out completely will take years for what we're told by
18:01
S2: legal experts is just not something that you can change overnight.
18:05
S2: Mining laws in Ecuador need to be updated. The legal
18:08
S2: framework needs to be extended and bolstered. There's a need
18:12
S2: for like military interventions, there's a need for reparations. There's
18:16
S2: been no environmental reparation. And you're talking about a part
18:18
S2: of the world where like heavy toxic chemicals have been
18:21
S2: dumped into rivers that people use for cattle and that
18:24
S2: they use for farming. And then figuring out the handwriting
18:27
S2: question because at this point in time, we're in a
18:29
S2: situation where we've got a fraught process that has happened
18:32
S2: without consultation with a community that doesn't want it. And
18:36
S2: so the question remains, is anything going to be done
18:39
S2: about it? And I think part of why this isn't
18:43
S2: known in Australia is because there is a big language
18:46
S2: gap there. There's not many reporters that speak Spanish that
18:49
S2: can actually access some of the information. That has been
18:52
S2: very broadly published in Ecuador about a lot of these issues.
18:56
S2: And I think coming from a Spanish speaking background, that
18:58
S2: meant that I could go into this community and speak
19:01
S2: to these people directly. And so I opened the doors
19:03
S2: to a whole host of issues that would have largely
19:05
S2: gone unreported here.
19:08
S1: And so for locals, in that meantime, you know, you
19:10
S1: asked Lucia if she had a message for Gina Rinehart.
19:13
S1: So what did she say?
19:15
S2: Yeah. She said that she'd like to see her face
19:17
S2: to face and show her all the damage that she
19:20
S2: had done to fulfill her ambition to mine the minerals
19:24
S2: of La Merced, Buenos Aires. And I think she also
19:30
S2: issued a pretty stern message there that when we all die,
19:34
S2: we don't get to take a cent of the money
19:35
S2: that we make and that we are, I guess, the
19:38
S2: actions that we engaged in in this world.
19:40
S6: Lagrima de nuestros pueblos se le puede cargar.
19:43
S2: And so I think it was quite powerful to, you know,
19:47
S2: hear her say, you know, all the millions that she has,
19:49
S2: all the millions that she's made, the only thing she
19:52
S2: will do with them once she dies is put, you know,
19:55
S2: get buried with them in her coffin. I mean, it's
19:58
S2: essentially a group of farmers fighting one of the world's
20:01
S2: richest women and like her interests, her mineral interests in Ecuador.
20:05
S2: And I think what always moves me about it is
20:08
S2: the stoicism and the strength and the resilience of these
20:11
S2: people and the dignity as well, being like, yes, we're farmers,
20:15
S2: but we know better than this and we don't want
20:17
S2: people to take advantage of us.
20:21
S1: Wow. Well, thank you so much for your time.
20:24
S2: Thank you for having me.
20:44
S1: Today's episode of The Morning Edition was produced by Julia Carcasole.
20:49
S1: Our executive producer is Tami Mills. To listen to our
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21:17
S1: Links are in the show notes. I'm Samantha Selinger Morris.
21:20
S1: Thanks for listening.