Manuel Mesías urgently needs $16,000 for dental surgery and care after being shot in the jaw by armed forces during a protest to defend indigenous territory from a Canadian mining company seeking to exploit minerals without free, prior, informed consent from the affected communities.
This protest happened on March 26, 2024, in Palo Quemado, Ecuador, and it's one of many events of resistance in the territory that have led to state-backed violence against the residents. The Palo Quemado parish, nestled in the Sigse mountain range of Sigchos Canton, Cotopaxi Province, rests along the Toachi River, fed by the breathtaking Quilotoa lagoon. This land, cherished and protected by its people, is the home of many rural communities of La Sierra ecuatoriana (the Ecuadorian highlands). The rise of the mining industry in Ecuador now threatens these pristine ecosystems—mountains, wetlands, páramos, and vital water sources. With the backing of Ecuador's government, mining companies, primarily from Canada and Australia, are expanding into areas like Palo Quemado in Cotopaxi without consent and without clear community benefits. Many residents of rural communities in the Ecuadorian Sierra are resisting these efforts to protect their access to safe water and fertile land, which they need to survive.
Manuel is a community leader who has dedicated his entire life to defending water. The corporate mining project seeking to develop in this part of Cotopaxi has been in an exploration phase for the last eight years to determine the profitability of the land (i.e., the land's gold, silver, and copper deposits). In recent years, the project has begun advancing into the Indigenous territory without free, prior informed consultation of all affected communities. A project with immense social and environmental implications has prompted social activists like Manuel to take a strong stance to protect the rights of nature and keep water and mountains untouched by corporate interests.
These uprisings have been met by military and police brutality. During the March 2024 protest, Manuel was injured when armed forces shot him in the face with a rubber bullet, which shattered his jaw. His wife had given birth soon after this incident. His diagnosis shows a recovery from a coma but over the last four months, his body has rejected treatments. Now he requires implants, custom prosthetic plates, and immediate surgery.
Although the environmental issues at hand are structural and systemic, it is the expenses resulting from Manuel's inability to work and provide for his family combined with the medical and dental expenditures and childcare needs burdening his wife that inspire this crowdfunding campaign.
We invite you to participate in this cause by donating, sharing this page with your network, or reaching out with ideas for how to support water defenders like Manuel.
Any contribution is valuable and of great impact to Manuel, his wife and newborn child, his community, and the natural resources that he is devoted to protect in this territory.
