Frente de Mujeres Defensoras de la Pachamama
The Women's Front for the Defence of Mother Earth (Frente de Mujeres Defensoras de la Pachamama) was created in 2008, in Cuenca, Azuay Province, to promote human rights with a focus on environmental and gender issues in rural areas. The organisation is invested in the struggle against the Río Blanco and Loma Larga mining projects, which they claim will have profound negative social and environmental impacts on the region.
While the new Constitution promulgated in 2008 contained clauses referring to the environment and its protection, over the last couple of years, the government has permitted multinational corporations to enter and exploit oil and gas reserves to the detriment and devastation of the environment and indigenous communities. HRDs working to protect the environment increasingly find themselves targeted and in need of protection.
