Luis Caiza
Luis Caiza is a Kichwa indigenous community leader and environmental human rights defender from San Luis de Pambil of Guaranda, province of Bolívar in Ecuador.
Since 2007, Luis has participated in the pacific resistance of indigenous and campesino communities of the province of Bolívar against Curimining mining company, subsidiary of Canadian companies Adventus Mining Corporation and Salazar Resources Corporation.
Due to his constant work defending the right of his community to a prior, free and informed consultation, he has being condemned to prison in March of 2024 for the crime of illicit association despite the lack of solid evidence against him, which has limited his work and affected him at a public and private level.
Human rights defenders have been victims of a wide range of violations in Ecuador, such as police brutality, judicial harassment, arbitrary detentions, smear campaigns, threats, harassment and the oppression of indigenous and campesino communities. Recent incidents have shown that the situation for human rights defenders in Ecuador is precarious. Throughout the month of August 2015 thousands of people gathered in different parts of the country to protest against President Correa's proposed amendments to the constitution that would allow him to run for re-election indefinitely. During this demonstration, many HRDs were detained and beaten by the police.
