This Stolen Country of Mine (2022) Movie Script
Take off your shirt.
For you, to pray.
Give it back to me afterwards.
I ask you, great spirit,
father, universal mother,
great Pachacama, great Pachamamita,
that you carry us through this struggle.
May you,
guardians of these mountains,
guide this matter, this body.
Once again,
I give myself to you, Mother Earth,
to you, Mamayacu,
to you, comrades,
so that Mother Earth
and her infinite intelligence
may guide our actions
through this struggle and resistance.
Hello?
Compi?
Hello?
We're on the road, on the way there.
We're still far away,
we're taking it easy.
The mine destroys the way of life,
our worldview, the way we live,
the way we relate to the land, to life,
to water, to our income,
to our livelihoods.
Then my other brother calls my mom.
She says he should tell
his other brother too,
to get him to support
the people in the struggle.
Since he has no wife and no children,
he can support the cause.
Shit, they're coming. Record it.
Record it.
Shit, we have to warn our comrades.
Buddy, the tank is on its way to you.
It just passed the second checkpoint.
Yes, hurry.
Look, the police on their way with a tank.
We're here in Ro Blanco,
the police are coming in
to attack the people.
Right here and now in Ro Blanco,
San Pedro de Yumate,
here come the police to attack the people.
We're shooting this video to warn you all.
Step on it.
- There's more behind us.
Step on it.
- There's more police behind us.
Film everything.
They're overtaking us.
Step on it, brother.
- We'll let them by.
No, we have to go.
What do we do? Drive in?
- Drive in.
We can see all the police arriving.
Look at all the police.
Get down with the camera.
What should I do about the car?
I'm from the Ombudsman Council.
What's wrong?
Mr. Prosecutor, what's wrong with them?
Carlos, Andrs, what's wrong with them?
What's wrong with you, officers?
Hey, don't hit me.
I'm from the Ombudsman's Office.
Sir, I'm from the council.
They're taking away my phone.
What's going on, sir?
What's going on?
I'm not doing anything.
Let him go!
Free him!
Leave him alone!
Women, comrades!
Come back, Paul. Stay here.
Let him go!
Free him!
- Leave him alone!
Do it!
Shit, get down, the gas...
Let's go this way.
Get in the cars.
Come on, buddy.
That way.
What's going on with them?
Yeah, I know...
Look at how...
Hello.
How's it going?
They immediately attacked me,
they beat me to the floor,
they hit me,
they took my glasses,
they took my phone and broke it,
which I hope is totally broken
because I'm worried
about the information I had on it,
relating to the struggle, all my contacts,
photos and videos
of the struggle and the resistance.
The police and military
don't want to talk.
They tried to change the whole story.
The prosecutor and the colonel.
Because they consider us to be...
They call us criminals.
They criminalize us,
call us criminal guerrilla fighters.
We're standing up for our rights,
but they say we're criminals.
They just said we're thieves.
The police said it. I heard it.
Why are they calling us thieves?
To our police,
we're not comrades, we're thieves.
This is our land.
We're claiming our rights,
and they call us thieves.
With all their supposed right,
they call us criminals and terrorists.
We are being persecuted
because we are "terrorists".
The reality is that
we're defending our rights.
The confrontation
the comrades find themselves in
is down to indignation.
It has been several years
since the Ecuadorian state
has unjustly begun
to hand over land to other.
China is currently
the largest beneficiary.
It has caused problems
in all parts of the country.
There have been imprisonments,
deaths, persecution.
Around 38 percent of the province
is currently under concession.
Unfortunately,
more documentation is needed,
because in this area,
in Molleturo and Chaucha,
there is not only gold
but other minerals such as uranium.
We want to ensure these minerals
stay in the earth too.
But if we let them
turn Molleturo into mining camps,
all the future will bring us
is death and disease.
That's the cause I'm fighting for.
Some of you are armed.
Are you prepared to use these weapons?
Yes.
It would take the conflict
to another level.
They don't listen,
it's what we have to do.
Do you think that will happen?
If they don't leave, yes.
The truth is dangerous
for the powers that be.
When a journalist takes on this task
and follows their passion
to investigate and publish stories,
they will always encounter
the powers that be.
They always appear
and try to silence them.
I had about 20 safe houses
to go into hiding.
One time they had me confined to silence,
to darkness.
I couldn't move more
than two or three meters,
or go close to any of the windows
because I knew they were behind them.
But the opposite was true.
They were wrong.
I discovered,
during that time of pain,
a way of flipping the story around
and telling it differently.
I found an envelope at home
containing documents and a memo.
I opened my email and found information.
People on the inside
were giving me the information.
Truly spectacular information,
more than 4,000 documents.
Coffee?
Here we go, you can sit there.
I'll go make a coffee.
There's no password, right?
You have to do everything yourself.
What's the folder called?
"External debt China".
It's good, it's not Chinese coffee.
Ecuadorian coffee.
Right...
These are all contracts?
- Yes, they're all contracts.
Look here.
Another Excel sheet
with all the information and folders here.
2014. Take a look at this.
2015, 2013, 2012, 2014.
All the data right here,
ten years' worth of government debt.
Then you have interest, commission...
All the losses from oil trading.
You basically have a whole chain
of black holes of losses.
It's a crazy web. It's huge.
We're screwed.
The country has screwed itself over.
We're talking about 2009 to 2017.
Correa's government
received from China and Thailand
around 18.2 billion dollars.
Approximately.
That's 18.2 billion dollars
with interest rates
ranging from 7 to 8.25 percent.
All these credit lines,
some of which are disguised as pre-sales,
are repaid in the form
of crude and fuel oil.
Sixteen contracts have been signed
for the supply of crude and fuel oil
for a volume of 1.2 billion barrels
until 2024.
In all of these credit lines,
there are two components:
tranches A and B.
If the credit line is 1 billion dollars,
tranche A, let's say 800 million dollars,
goes to the Treasury,
the Ministry of Finance.
The other 200 million
never comes near the country.
The Chinese keep that
in Chinese bank accounts.
Then they use it
to force us to sign contracts.
Correa was on his knees in Beijing,
he made Ecuador kneel down
before the Asian dragon,
and sign contracts
with Chinese companies
to provide services:
telecommunications services,
oil companies,
road construction,
building construction,
IT companies.
I realized that behind
these credit lines...
The credit lines
are the long bridge, the highway
over which all the other
contracts have passed.
This is very important.
The credit lines are the big umbrella,
the great bridge from China to Ecuador.
China, an age-old power,
is now a fundamental partner for Ecuador
in the development
and financing of major projects.
Even more so
during this sensitive time for the country
due to the fall in global oil prices.
China is a strategic partner
in our transformation process
that will change forever our country's
production and energy networks.
We're basically being plundered.
There are no words.
There are no words
to describe this tragedy.
They have control
of the natural resources.
China took control
of the natural resources.
They control the hydroelectric plants,
they control the oil,
a large part of mining,
and they control political power.
We've been colonized.
Again.
Attention, comrades. Please.
Comrade Paul.
Paul Jarrn, representative
of the peoples of the South.
Comrades, we are at war.
We are witnessing
a transnational war against life.
Mining is only possible
if people have their land taken from them.
The people are stripped
of their culture and their community.
The war we are witnessing in Ro Blanco
is being fought
in Mexico, in Peru, in Colombia,
in all the villages of Abya Yala.
Our continent is not called America.
America is a name that was
imposed upon us 500 years ago.
We have a history
of more than 15,000 years.
A history full of science.
A history full of wisdom.
They've taken control of the camp?
- Yes.
Nice. At last.
That's it, get in.
They're already in Miguir.
And a truck is coming
with about 40 to 50 more policemen.
Here we go.
There we go, comrades.
We are now heading towards Ro Blanco.
Behind us...
our comrades are following us,
but there's a motorbike and other vehicles
that we don't know where they came from.
Get out.
We speak as the people.
You have made
many people in the town angry,
and for the people there is no law.
Let me tell you that.
It is a peaceful march.
We are peaceful.
But they've called for reinforcements.
300 soldiers are on their way.
I'm from Miguir.
Reinforcements are on the way.
They are there to keep order,
not to mistreat citizens.
Yes to water! No to the mine!
No to the mine!
We are ready to die!
We won't let them mine
in the Cajas mountains,
and contaminate the water we all drink.
Long live water!
Long live the Cajas!
Why is he hiding from us?
Watch out! Watch out!
Run!
Don't shoot at the people!
Don't shoot!
Paul, what's going on here?
The Ro Blanco communities
have been fighting for months, years,
for water and for life.
In recent months, 330 tons of gold
and silver have been extracted here.
Today, the people,
exercising their legitimate right to life,
their legitimate right to water
and to live in a place of peace,
have told the Chinese mining companies
to leave their land, to go away,
to let them live healthily and in peace.
We just witnessed how the police
defend the economic interests
of Chinese mining companies.
Don't shoot! There are children and women!
I have a lot of respect
for what Paul thinks.
I always wanted him to be different...
but he thinks very differently.
He wants to save the world.
He's already way more different
than I wanted him to be.
I respect what he wants, I have to.
That's my way of supporting him.
I'm very afraid
of everything he's got involved in.
I always tell him that I'm scared.
And he tells me...
I always tell him, "I love you."
Then he says, "If you love me,
you have to support me. In everything.
If it's my fight, it's your fight too."
We were talking with a friend,
and I said to her, "When I die,
I'm going to be cremated."
She asked why,
I said, "Because I want to be free."
I said, "But don't throw me in the river
because I'm scared..."
Then Paul arrives.
I say, "Son, if you die,
what should we do with you?"
And he says,
"Do you think you'll find me?"
That's what he said.
And I said, "Of course, why not?"
He said, "No. You won't find me.
But if you do, take me to the Cajas
and throw me into a lagoon."
I told my mother,
"If you find me,
all I ask is that you bring me
here to the Cajas."
To a lagoon.
It could be the Patoquimas,
a lagoon I've been to many times.
I often go to the lagoon alone,
at dawn.
I stand there facing the lagoon
and I talk to it.
I talk and listen to it.
I listen to it,
I embrace it.
I love that lagoon.
It's interesting because
if you go with other people,
it's kind of silent.
But when you go alone,
it's like a concert.
Sounds everywhere, the animals, the birds,
everything is just alive.
So, if my mom
has to cry before the time has come,
then let her tears
feed the lagoon
where I would like to...
rest and follow the path,
follow the spiral.
When we started reporting on it,
when I started working on my book
"Ecuador Made in China" in 2012,
and I had published a series of reports
nationally
and...
with Reuters,
with fellow journalists in New York,
about the presence
of Chinese capital in Ecuador,
that's when the government realized
how much information I had,
and it started to worry them.
Open the door, sir.
My wife and I were both semi-naked.
And the police made us...
They made my wife get dressed
in front of an armed police officer.
My little son,
who was screaming in despair,
was one year and two months old.
It was a whole new level
of brutal paranoia.
They accused me of having hacked
into the accounts and emails
of the presidency of the Republic
and of having published
confidential information,
while Correa is simultaneously suing me
to drive me to bankruptcy.
I had to pay 48,000 dollars to Correa,
which I didn't have.
They declared me bankrupt
and took away my civil rights.
I had no rights.
It was a civil assassination.
They came here
with a court order to take all this.
They came to take the TV, the computer,
the furniture, the beds,
the refrigerator, the kitchen,
everything I have.
The warrant also included
"all the data
and the books."
That included my books in any bookshops.
They seized my bank account.
I only had one.
I had no money.
A friend who works in intelligence
told us,
"Fernando, you have to leave.
Correa, "Correism",
is going to win the election.
They've got it all set up.
Your life is in danger."
That night, I left my house.
If Sarayaku
decided to open the doors to you,
it was because Sarayaku
saw the future
and what was going to happen.
It saw the threats on the horizon.
Now the threats
are coming from all directions.
The current situation...
It's an international court sentence,
but the government won't comply with it.
I'm not optimistic
that the government will agree
to guarantee our lives, our security,
or that it will treat Ecuadorian citizens
the way it should.
I'm not convinced.
Secondly, this is unfolding
on a huge political stage.
It's a huge issue we're involved in.
He wants our heads.
He wants our head
so he can take us to jail and then say,
"I am the king."
You walk out of here,
one step into Shell, Quito,
or anywhere in the country,
you're in there.
There are no guarantees of rights.
Look at the government's speeches.
Analyze anything
he has said about your issue.
Those are the words of a dictator.
The government wants
to cover up everything
that you've denounced.
I've been persecuted for five months.
I personally have been persecuted
for five months.
Since the night of December 26, at 11 p.m.
when a squad of androids,
with all due respect to androids,
robots
with machine guns and rifles,
entered my house.
Thirty people.
Twelve men from the special unit.
And they panicked my children, my wife.
I left my house that night
and I have not returned since.
There was talk every day
of them sending in paratroopers.
Correa was ready for anything.
He asked them for two WIO warriors
to accompany me.
They came up to the square with us,
and the helicopter
was circling over my head.
We've come to...
discuss some very serious issues and...
they're going to be a bit painful.
The overview first
at the national level is...
The government is not giving in.
A confrontation would mean
men from both sides dying.
It would be terrible...
So we made a decision,
and discussed it with the WIOS.
The decision is to leave.
If they arrested me, I was dead.
So we had to choose.
Free or dead. Period.
We set off on foot.
Two in the afternoon, through the jungle,
to avoid the police cordons.
And thanks to the people
of Sarayaku, I'm still alive.
A week or 15 days later,
I left for Washington.
I had a serious job offer.
I had guaranteed political asylum.
I had talked to people
in the state department,
to senators.
The case...
became a big deal.
Many US and international
human rights organizations
reacted very sympathetically.
I had the option of staying in the US.
Then I thought of Clever Jimnez,
and my colleagues who were in Ecuador.
They were going to be imprisoned.
That was a certainty.
So I spoke to my wife, to my family,
and told them I had decided to return.
I called a colleague
from "El Pas" in Spain,
who I met in Washington.
And I told her, "Look,
I'm returning to my country
with an arrest warrant."
She said, "You're crazy."
"How can you do that?"
I said, "I'm crazy.
But can you publish it
in tomorrow's "El Pas" in Spain:
'Journalist with arrest warrant
returns to Ecuador'?"
She said, "It's the least I can do."
She wrote a long article,
it made the front page of "El Pas",
if I remember correctly.
Rafael!
Rafael!
What about the internal administration?
How has it been restructured?
We asked those four or five questions
about the state from the outset.
As we were answering these questions,
we were finding out
why we're here talking about this.
Wherever I asked questions, the answers...
were these.
Here are the contracts.
This contract worth 600 million dollars,
stipulated the supply
of 122 million barrels.
So, if you multiply by 120...
you multiply the value of the oil
by 122 million barrels...
it covers it ten times over.
I guarantee you
we would supply ten times the oil
that is needed to repay the loan.
We wanted to find arguments or reasons
that would allow us to get out of this.
When I say "us",
I mean the country.
That the country could
get out of these commitments.
And in fact,
a team of people,
including the general manager,
traveled to Houston,
where we had some very tense meetings
with people from PetroChina and Unipec.
Very tense because we knew
our stance from the beginning.
And they knew our stance.
Namely, that these contracts
are bad for the country.
You, the Chinese,
are benefiting from this.
Excessively so.
Sure, the buyer should benefit.
But not as disproportionately as this.
You have a profit margin, of course.
It wouldn't be a business otherwise.
But to commit ten times Ecuadorian crude
at such outrageous prices,
hey, something's wrong with you.
And that's what we went to tell them.
We sat them in front of us
and we told them.
And they said, "There's a contract."
We informed the government about this
and we told the Chinese representatives
from PetroChina and Unipec,
"Gentlemen, we are going to pay you."
I think they got scared.
"How are they going to pay the money?
It would be crazy.
We had some team meetings,
with investors from other countries.
Some companies told us, "Take the money,
pay those loans, we'll support you."
A lot of people were interested
in us implementing this third strategy.
The issue here is
that when China
tries to colonize South America,
it affects other interests as well.
Right?
At 9 o'clock in the morning,
a press conference was scheduled
to go public with
what we had found in the contracts
and the results
of the meetings we had with the creditors.
At 8 o'clock in the morning,
we received a call
from someone in the government
saying our chief had resigned.
And that was the end of it.
That's the truth of what happened.
So...
it hurts us.
It hurts us as Ecuadorians.
It hurts us as good people.
And it hurts us even more
that future generations
are going to pay for this.
In terms of the economic policy
of the Correa regime,
Moreno is continuing down the same road,
and worsening the extractivist model.
In terms of oil,
he has just signed contracts
with corporations,
most of which are Chinese,
for the exploration and exploitation
of the Ecuadorian Amazon,
mostly in protected areas.
As for mining,
some even more brutal projects
are going ahead:
Fruta del Norte, Mirador,
in the province of Azuay,
in Imbabura.
In other words, there are no limits.
The indigenous people were next.
They're the victims.
Their houses were violently destroyed,
their children attacked,
children witnessing brutal attacks,
people being detained, trials,
the criminalization of their parents,
women...
They don't care about anything.
That's it! Higher!
That's it, then jump forward!
Jump forward.
It really is a mafia.
It's a perverse, criminal,
murderous mafia.
I use those terms
because fellow Ecuadorians have died.
Comrades have died.
Those guys were behind us.
Now they're saying...
that they want to capture
all three of us at once.
We only captured one of them,
because they were fighting
among themselves.
We went and grabbed him.
We grabbed him and...
gave him a good beating.
I said, "Tell us, brother!
He didn't want to talk.
Let's see whose bike it is.
It has a load of gear on it.
They ran away.
Whose bike is this Honda?
They've left all this gear on it.
Show me the gun, where is it?
Who has the gun?
Let's see.
The gun.
That's it. No, not that one.
That's the one.
That's the one.
That's the one.
- It's not.
How come Manuel asks me...
Take it.
Now the motherfuckers will collaborate.
Take them.
Grab that one.
Take it.
3.80, that's it.
How many bullets?
- Ten.
Ten bullets.
Nice, ten bullets.
This one's yours, Simon?
- Yes.
Simon was carrying this one.
Right, Simon?
- Yeah.
Look over here.
Were you carrying this gun?
- Yes.
So now you're going to get rid of them?
For over a year
you've been conspiring with the miners,
with Javier Snchez and his men,
and now you say
you're going to scare them off?
You don't know who's boss around here?
Who gave you that gun?
- That gun?
Manuel.
The man told us that Manuel,
Manuel from Cochapamba,
hired the other guys.
The other guys hired him,
and we know who...
He told us.
The man told us,
"They hired me too, to kill you."
It's scary.
It's scary, brother,
because they're hunting us down.
Our patience is running out.
There will be no mining. Not on any scale.
We're running out of patience now.
If we continue to be passive,
our deaths will come soon.
And worse than war,
we will lose all our land.
So now, comrades,
the time has finally come to defend it.
I think it would also be a good idea
to call on our comrades
from further down the coast,
those from Molleturo,
so we have around 1,000.
Then we go up together
and get them out of that camp.
We are ready
to pay the price
for defending what is ours,
our water,
the future of our children.
I am and we are ready to pay the price,
be it prison or death.
That's all, comrades.
We go in and nobody talks after that, OK?
We go in, we attack,
we come out the same way we went in,
and then go back to where we came out.
If someone dies, what do we do?
Sorry?
- If someone dies, we all come back?
Nobody will die.
In case someone does,
we are all there, we strike back.
We open fire, but not until then.
Let's go.
It's burning, the camp is burning.
Watch out, they're shooting.
They've gathered down below.
Watch out!
They're shooting!
What the hell?
Let's go down.
Son of a bitch.
No public, no press, and only
some of the key figures in the trial
are present at Ecuador's
National Court of Justice
for Ivn Len's pronouncement
of the verdict
against former president Correa,
which was reached
after 26 days of deliberation
with federal judges
Marco Rodrguez and Ivn Saquicela.
This is the final phase of the trial.
Now the court will adjourn
to evaluate the evidence presented
and reach...
a judgment.
For the first time in the history
of this country and perhaps Latin America,
a regime that governed for a decade
has been brought before a criminal court,
accused of corruption, of bribery,
that is, of having bribed
large construction companies
that had contracts with the state
to obtain funding from bribes
to finance political campaigns
for a decade.
In my investigation,
I spoke to one of the agents
and he confirmed that he was on a flight
without passengers,
and there was money on that flight.
Yes.
We're talking about 185 flights
made by presidential planes
with no passengers and no destinations.
Most of them flew to tax havens.
The prosecutor's office
has requested 12 criminal prosecutions
based on my information.
That was my victory.
For five years,
I evaded the powers that be,
the most brutal regime
that Ecuador has ever endured.
It's possible in a republic.
Today they are in prison,
they are on the run.
They are in handcuffs.
And I'm free.
I wasn't in prison for one second.
Not one second.
Many of those I investigated,
or some of them, are in prison.
And the others will be soon.
It's no longer a camp.
Three little trees...
Here it's written,
"We Chinese have to get out of here."
"We can't mine in Ecuador, let's leave."
This contaminates the water.
So we just...
took a sweet little sip.
Just for a few seconds.
Because in October,
the people took over this mining camp.
And here begins another story,
another way of life.
But the bitter sip
is one we drink every day,
and we want to keep on drinking it,
so we don't get carried away
and think we've triumphed,
so we don't think
we've achieved something,
because we know there are
832 other mining projects in Azuay.
All these projects are around
the Macizo del Cajas biosphere,
which is the area we're trying to protect.
What this does is it encourages us,
and it encourages other struggles
that have begun in the country
since the people of Ro Blanco
were able to banish
this Chinese corporation.
Long live...
Long live Pan de Azcar.
Long live San Bartolo.
Long live Ro Blanco.
Long live Cochapamba.
Long live Santa Mara.
Long live the community.
Long live...
Long live the Resistance.
Long live our land.
Thank you.
We warn you: never come back.
We await you with stones in our hands.
We have sworn to love each other until death.
And even if we have to die...
for the flower called our homeland.
I was traveling to the city of Cuenca
to visit my mother
and while I was on this trip,
I received two calls.
One from one of the leaders of Molleturo
and another from a lawyer
who supports our cause.
"We have it from good sources
that you're in the red."
He says,
"You have to withdraw for a while."
But in spite of that,
the Resistance goes on,
this struggle goes on.
In spite of
being persecuted, criminalized,
in spite of evil governments
and corporations wanting us dead.
Brother, I am here asking for your life,
for your courage,
for you to safely
make it through this struggle.
I'm going to pass you the tobacco,
so you can pray,
and declare your intention
to be well tempered,
and that even if
we have to go to the other side,
it will be beautiful.
If the great spirit
offered me the choice,
I would choose
the great honor to die fighting.
For you, to pray.
Give it back to me afterwards.
I ask you, great spirit,
father, universal mother,
great Pachacama, great Pachamamita,
that you carry us through this struggle.
May you,
guardians of these mountains,
guide this matter, this body.
Once again,
I give myself to you, Mother Earth,
to you, Mamayacu,
to you, comrades,
so that Mother Earth
and her infinite intelligence
may guide our actions
through this struggle and resistance.
Hello?
Compi?
Hello?
We're on the road, on the way there.
We're still far away,
we're taking it easy.
The mine destroys the way of life,
our worldview, the way we live,
the way we relate to the land, to life,
to water, to our income,
to our livelihoods.
Then my other brother calls my mom.
She says he should tell
his other brother too,
to get him to support
the people in the struggle.
Since he has no wife and no children,
he can support the cause.
Shit, they're coming. Record it.
Record it.
Shit, we have to warn our comrades.
Buddy, the tank is on its way to you.
It just passed the second checkpoint.
Yes, hurry.
Look, the police on their way with a tank.
We're here in Ro Blanco,
the police are coming in
to attack the people.
Right here and now in Ro Blanco,
San Pedro de Yumate,
here come the police to attack the people.
We're shooting this video to warn you all.
Step on it.
- There's more behind us.
Step on it.
- There's more police behind us.
Film everything.
They're overtaking us.
Step on it, brother.
- We'll let them by.
No, we have to go.
What do we do? Drive in?
- Drive in.
We can see all the police arriving.
Look at all the police.
Get down with the camera.
What should I do about the car?
I'm from the Ombudsman Council.
What's wrong?
Mr. Prosecutor, what's wrong with them?
Carlos, Andrs, what's wrong with them?
What's wrong with you, officers?
Hey, don't hit me.
I'm from the Ombudsman's Office.
Sir, I'm from the council.
They're taking away my phone.
What's going on, sir?
What's going on?
I'm not doing anything.
Let him go!
Free him!
Leave him alone!
Women, comrades!
Come back, Paul. Stay here.
Let him go!
Free him!
- Leave him alone!
Do it!
Shit, get down, the gas...
Let's go this way.
Get in the cars.
Come on, buddy.
That way.
What's going on with them?
Yeah, I know...
Look at how...
Hello.
How's it going?
They immediately attacked me,
they beat me to the floor,
they hit me,
they took my glasses,
they took my phone and broke it,
which I hope is totally broken
because I'm worried
about the information I had on it,
relating to the struggle, all my contacts,
photos and videos
of the struggle and the resistance.
The police and military
don't want to talk.
They tried to change the whole story.
The prosecutor and the colonel.
Because they consider us to be...
They call us criminals.
They criminalize us,
call us criminal guerrilla fighters.
We're standing up for our rights,
but they say we're criminals.
They just said we're thieves.
The police said it. I heard it.
Why are they calling us thieves?
To our police,
we're not comrades, we're thieves.
This is our land.
We're claiming our rights,
and they call us thieves.
With all their supposed right,
they call us criminals and terrorists.
We are being persecuted
because we are "terrorists".
The reality is that
we're defending our rights.
The confrontation
the comrades find themselves in
is down to indignation.
It has been several years
since the Ecuadorian state
has unjustly begun
to hand over land to other.
China is currently
the largest beneficiary.
It has caused problems
in all parts of the country.
There have been imprisonments,
deaths, persecution.
Around 38 percent of the province
is currently under concession.
Unfortunately,
more documentation is needed,
because in this area,
in Molleturo and Chaucha,
there is not only gold
but other minerals such as uranium.
We want to ensure these minerals
stay in the earth too.
But if we let them
turn Molleturo into mining camps,
all the future will bring us
is death and disease.
That's the cause I'm fighting for.
Some of you are armed.
Are you prepared to use these weapons?
Yes.
It would take the conflict
to another level.
They don't listen,
it's what we have to do.
Do you think that will happen?
If they don't leave, yes.
The truth is dangerous
for the powers that be.
When a journalist takes on this task
and follows their passion
to investigate and publish stories,
they will always encounter
the powers that be.
They always appear
and try to silence them.
I had about 20 safe houses
to go into hiding.
One time they had me confined to silence,
to darkness.
I couldn't move more
than two or three meters,
or go close to any of the windows
because I knew they were behind them.
But the opposite was true.
They were wrong.
I discovered,
during that time of pain,
a way of flipping the story around
and telling it differently.
I found an envelope at home
containing documents and a memo.
I opened my email and found information.
People on the inside
were giving me the information.
Truly spectacular information,
more than 4,000 documents.
Coffee?
Here we go, you can sit there.
I'll go make a coffee.
There's no password, right?
You have to do everything yourself.
What's the folder called?
"External debt China".
It's good, it's not Chinese coffee.
Ecuadorian coffee.
Right...
These are all contracts?
- Yes, they're all contracts.
Look here.
Another Excel sheet
with all the information and folders here.
2014. Take a look at this.
2015, 2013, 2012, 2014.
All the data right here,
ten years' worth of government debt.
Then you have interest, commission...
All the losses from oil trading.
You basically have a whole chain
of black holes of losses.
It's a crazy web. It's huge.
We're screwed.
The country has screwed itself over.
We're talking about 2009 to 2017.
Correa's government
received from China and Thailand
around 18.2 billion dollars.
Approximately.
That's 18.2 billion dollars
with interest rates
ranging from 7 to 8.25 percent.
All these credit lines,
some of which are disguised as pre-sales,
are repaid in the form
of crude and fuel oil.
Sixteen contracts have been signed
for the supply of crude and fuel oil
for a volume of 1.2 billion barrels
until 2024.
In all of these credit lines,
there are two components:
tranches A and B.
If the credit line is 1 billion dollars,
tranche A, let's say 800 million dollars,
goes to the Treasury,
the Ministry of Finance.
The other 200 million
never comes near the country.
The Chinese keep that
in Chinese bank accounts.
Then they use it
to force us to sign contracts.
Correa was on his knees in Beijing,
he made Ecuador kneel down
before the Asian dragon,
and sign contracts
with Chinese companies
to provide services:
telecommunications services,
oil companies,
road construction,
building construction,
IT companies.
I realized that behind
these credit lines...
The credit lines
are the long bridge, the highway
over which all the other
contracts have passed.
This is very important.
The credit lines are the big umbrella,
the great bridge from China to Ecuador.
China, an age-old power,
is now a fundamental partner for Ecuador
in the development
and financing of major projects.
Even more so
during this sensitive time for the country
due to the fall in global oil prices.
China is a strategic partner
in our transformation process
that will change forever our country's
production and energy networks.
We're basically being plundered.
There are no words.
There are no words
to describe this tragedy.
They have control
of the natural resources.
China took control
of the natural resources.
They control the hydroelectric plants,
they control the oil,
a large part of mining,
and they control political power.
We've been colonized.
Again.
Attention, comrades. Please.
Comrade Paul.
Paul Jarrn, representative
of the peoples of the South.
Comrades, we are at war.
We are witnessing
a transnational war against life.
Mining is only possible
if people have their land taken from them.
The people are stripped
of their culture and their community.
The war we are witnessing in Ro Blanco
is being fought
in Mexico, in Peru, in Colombia,
in all the villages of Abya Yala.
Our continent is not called America.
America is a name that was
imposed upon us 500 years ago.
We have a history
of more than 15,000 years.
A history full of science.
A history full of wisdom.
They've taken control of the camp?
- Yes.
Nice. At last.
That's it, get in.
They're already in Miguir.
And a truck is coming
with about 40 to 50 more policemen.
Here we go.
There we go, comrades.
We are now heading towards Ro Blanco.
Behind us...
our comrades are following us,
but there's a motorbike and other vehicles
that we don't know where they came from.
Get out.
We speak as the people.
You have made
many people in the town angry,
and for the people there is no law.
Let me tell you that.
It is a peaceful march.
We are peaceful.
But they've called for reinforcements.
300 soldiers are on their way.
I'm from Miguir.
Reinforcements are on the way.
They are there to keep order,
not to mistreat citizens.
Yes to water! No to the mine!
No to the mine!
We are ready to die!
We won't let them mine
in the Cajas mountains,
and contaminate the water we all drink.
Long live water!
Long live the Cajas!
Why is he hiding from us?
Watch out! Watch out!
Run!
Don't shoot at the people!
Don't shoot!
Paul, what's going on here?
The Ro Blanco communities
have been fighting for months, years,
for water and for life.
In recent months, 330 tons of gold
and silver have been extracted here.
Today, the people,
exercising their legitimate right to life,
their legitimate right to water
and to live in a place of peace,
have told the Chinese mining companies
to leave their land, to go away,
to let them live healthily and in peace.
We just witnessed how the police
defend the economic interests
of Chinese mining companies.
Don't shoot! There are children and women!
I have a lot of respect
for what Paul thinks.
I always wanted him to be different...
but he thinks very differently.
He wants to save the world.
He's already way more different
than I wanted him to be.
I respect what he wants, I have to.
That's my way of supporting him.
I'm very afraid
of everything he's got involved in.
I always tell him that I'm scared.
And he tells me...
I always tell him, "I love you."
Then he says, "If you love me,
you have to support me. In everything.
If it's my fight, it's your fight too."
We were talking with a friend,
and I said to her, "When I die,
I'm going to be cremated."
She asked why,
I said, "Because I want to be free."
I said, "But don't throw me in the river
because I'm scared..."
Then Paul arrives.
I say, "Son, if you die,
what should we do with you?"
And he says,
"Do you think you'll find me?"
That's what he said.
And I said, "Of course, why not?"
He said, "No. You won't find me.
But if you do, take me to the Cajas
and throw me into a lagoon."
I told my mother,
"If you find me,
all I ask is that you bring me
here to the Cajas."
To a lagoon.
It could be the Patoquimas,
a lagoon I've been to many times.
I often go to the lagoon alone,
at dawn.
I stand there facing the lagoon
and I talk to it.
I talk and listen to it.
I listen to it,
I embrace it.
I love that lagoon.
It's interesting because
if you go with other people,
it's kind of silent.
But when you go alone,
it's like a concert.
Sounds everywhere, the animals, the birds,
everything is just alive.
So, if my mom
has to cry before the time has come,
then let her tears
feed the lagoon
where I would like to...
rest and follow the path,
follow the spiral.
When we started reporting on it,
when I started working on my book
"Ecuador Made in China" in 2012,
and I had published a series of reports
nationally
and...
with Reuters,
with fellow journalists in New York,
about the presence
of Chinese capital in Ecuador,
that's when the government realized
how much information I had,
and it started to worry them.
Open the door, sir.
My wife and I were both semi-naked.
And the police made us...
They made my wife get dressed
in front of an armed police officer.
My little son,
who was screaming in despair,
was one year and two months old.
It was a whole new level
of brutal paranoia.
They accused me of having hacked
into the accounts and emails
of the presidency of the Republic
and of having published
confidential information,
while Correa is simultaneously suing me
to drive me to bankruptcy.
I had to pay 48,000 dollars to Correa,
which I didn't have.
They declared me bankrupt
and took away my civil rights.
I had no rights.
It was a civil assassination.
They came here
with a court order to take all this.
They came to take the TV, the computer,
the furniture, the beds,
the refrigerator, the kitchen,
everything I have.
The warrant also included
"all the data
and the books."
That included my books in any bookshops.
They seized my bank account.
I only had one.
I had no money.
A friend who works in intelligence
told us,
"Fernando, you have to leave.
Correa, "Correism",
is going to win the election.
They've got it all set up.
Your life is in danger."
That night, I left my house.
If Sarayaku
decided to open the doors to you,
it was because Sarayaku
saw the future
and what was going to happen.
It saw the threats on the horizon.
Now the threats
are coming from all directions.
The current situation...
It's an international court sentence,
but the government won't comply with it.
I'm not optimistic
that the government will agree
to guarantee our lives, our security,
or that it will treat Ecuadorian citizens
the way it should.
I'm not convinced.
Secondly, this is unfolding
on a huge political stage.
It's a huge issue we're involved in.
He wants our heads.
He wants our head
so he can take us to jail and then say,
"I am the king."
You walk out of here,
one step into Shell, Quito,
or anywhere in the country,
you're in there.
There are no guarantees of rights.
Look at the government's speeches.
Analyze anything
he has said about your issue.
Those are the words of a dictator.
The government wants
to cover up everything
that you've denounced.
I've been persecuted for five months.
I personally have been persecuted
for five months.
Since the night of December 26, at 11 p.m.
when a squad of androids,
with all due respect to androids,
robots
with machine guns and rifles,
entered my house.
Thirty people.
Twelve men from the special unit.
And they panicked my children, my wife.
I left my house that night
and I have not returned since.
There was talk every day
of them sending in paratroopers.
Correa was ready for anything.
He asked them for two WIO warriors
to accompany me.
They came up to the square with us,
and the helicopter
was circling over my head.
We've come to...
discuss some very serious issues and...
they're going to be a bit painful.
The overview first
at the national level is...
The government is not giving in.
A confrontation would mean
men from both sides dying.
It would be terrible...
So we made a decision,
and discussed it with the WIOS.
The decision is to leave.
If they arrested me, I was dead.
So we had to choose.
Free or dead. Period.
We set off on foot.
Two in the afternoon, through the jungle,
to avoid the police cordons.
And thanks to the people
of Sarayaku, I'm still alive.
A week or 15 days later,
I left for Washington.
I had a serious job offer.
I had guaranteed political asylum.
I had talked to people
in the state department,
to senators.
The case...
became a big deal.
Many US and international
human rights organizations
reacted very sympathetically.
I had the option of staying in the US.
Then I thought of Clever Jimnez,
and my colleagues who were in Ecuador.
They were going to be imprisoned.
That was a certainty.
So I spoke to my wife, to my family,
and told them I had decided to return.
I called a colleague
from "El Pas" in Spain,
who I met in Washington.
And I told her, "Look,
I'm returning to my country
with an arrest warrant."
She said, "You're crazy."
"How can you do that?"
I said, "I'm crazy.
But can you publish it
in tomorrow's "El Pas" in Spain:
'Journalist with arrest warrant
returns to Ecuador'?"
She said, "It's the least I can do."
She wrote a long article,
it made the front page of "El Pas",
if I remember correctly.
Rafael!
Rafael!
What about the internal administration?
How has it been restructured?
We asked those four or five questions
about the state from the outset.
As we were answering these questions,
we were finding out
why we're here talking about this.
Wherever I asked questions, the answers...
were these.
Here are the contracts.
This contract worth 600 million dollars,
stipulated the supply
of 122 million barrels.
So, if you multiply by 120...
you multiply the value of the oil
by 122 million barrels...
it covers it ten times over.
I guarantee you
we would supply ten times the oil
that is needed to repay the loan.
We wanted to find arguments or reasons
that would allow us to get out of this.
When I say "us",
I mean the country.
That the country could
get out of these commitments.
And in fact,
a team of people,
including the general manager,
traveled to Houston,
where we had some very tense meetings
with people from PetroChina and Unipec.
Very tense because we knew
our stance from the beginning.
And they knew our stance.
Namely, that these contracts
are bad for the country.
You, the Chinese,
are benefiting from this.
Excessively so.
Sure, the buyer should benefit.
But not as disproportionately as this.
You have a profit margin, of course.
It wouldn't be a business otherwise.
But to commit ten times Ecuadorian crude
at such outrageous prices,
hey, something's wrong with you.
And that's what we went to tell them.
We sat them in front of us
and we told them.
And they said, "There's a contract."
We informed the government about this
and we told the Chinese representatives
from PetroChina and Unipec,
"Gentlemen, we are going to pay you."
I think they got scared.
"How are they going to pay the money?
It would be crazy.
We had some team meetings,
with investors from other countries.
Some companies told us, "Take the money,
pay those loans, we'll support you."
A lot of people were interested
in us implementing this third strategy.
The issue here is
that when China
tries to colonize South America,
it affects other interests as well.
Right?
At 9 o'clock in the morning,
a press conference was scheduled
to go public with
what we had found in the contracts
and the results
of the meetings we had with the creditors.
At 8 o'clock in the morning,
we received a call
from someone in the government
saying our chief had resigned.
And that was the end of it.
That's the truth of what happened.
So...
it hurts us.
It hurts us as Ecuadorians.
It hurts us as good people.
And it hurts us even more
that future generations
are going to pay for this.
In terms of the economic policy
of the Correa regime,
Moreno is continuing down the same road,
and worsening the extractivist model.
In terms of oil,
he has just signed contracts
with corporations,
most of which are Chinese,
for the exploration and exploitation
of the Ecuadorian Amazon,
mostly in protected areas.
As for mining,
some even more brutal projects
are going ahead:
Fruta del Norte, Mirador,
in the province of Azuay,
in Imbabura.
In other words, there are no limits.
The indigenous people were next.
They're the victims.
Their houses were violently destroyed,
their children attacked,
children witnessing brutal attacks,
people being detained, trials,
the criminalization of their parents,
women...
They don't care about anything.
That's it! Higher!
That's it, then jump forward!
Jump forward.
It really is a mafia.
It's a perverse, criminal,
murderous mafia.
I use those terms
because fellow Ecuadorians have died.
Comrades have died.
Those guys were behind us.
Now they're saying...
that they want to capture
all three of us at once.
We only captured one of them,
because they were fighting
among themselves.
We went and grabbed him.
We grabbed him and...
gave him a good beating.
I said, "Tell us, brother!
He didn't want to talk.
Let's see whose bike it is.
It has a load of gear on it.
They ran away.
Whose bike is this Honda?
They've left all this gear on it.
Show me the gun, where is it?
Who has the gun?
Let's see.
The gun.
That's it. No, not that one.
That's the one.
That's the one.
That's the one.
- It's not.
How come Manuel asks me...
Take it.
Now the motherfuckers will collaborate.
Take them.
Grab that one.
Take it.
3.80, that's it.
How many bullets?
- Ten.
Ten bullets.
Nice, ten bullets.
This one's yours, Simon?
- Yes.
Simon was carrying this one.
Right, Simon?
- Yeah.
Look over here.
Were you carrying this gun?
- Yes.
So now you're going to get rid of them?
For over a year
you've been conspiring with the miners,
with Javier Snchez and his men,
and now you say
you're going to scare them off?
You don't know who's boss around here?
Who gave you that gun?
- That gun?
Manuel.
The man told us that Manuel,
Manuel from Cochapamba,
hired the other guys.
The other guys hired him,
and we know who...
He told us.
The man told us,
"They hired me too, to kill you."
It's scary.
It's scary, brother,
because they're hunting us down.
Our patience is running out.
There will be no mining. Not on any scale.
We're running out of patience now.
If we continue to be passive,
our deaths will come soon.
And worse than war,
we will lose all our land.
So now, comrades,
the time has finally come to defend it.
I think it would also be a good idea
to call on our comrades
from further down the coast,
those from Molleturo,
so we have around 1,000.
Then we go up together
and get them out of that camp.
We are ready
to pay the price
for defending what is ours,
our water,
the future of our children.
I am and we are ready to pay the price,
be it prison or death.
That's all, comrades.
We go in and nobody talks after that, OK?
We go in, we attack,
we come out the same way we went in,
and then go back to where we came out.
If someone dies, what do we do?
Sorry?
- If someone dies, we all come back?
Nobody will die.
In case someone does,
we are all there, we strike back.
We open fire, but not until then.
Let's go.
It's burning, the camp is burning.
Watch out, they're shooting.
They've gathered down below.
Watch out!
They're shooting!
What the hell?
Let's go down.
Son of a bitch.
No public, no press, and only
some of the key figures in the trial
are present at Ecuador's
National Court of Justice
for Ivn Len's pronouncement
of the verdict
against former president Correa,
which was reached
after 26 days of deliberation
with federal judges
Marco Rodrguez and Ivn Saquicela.
This is the final phase of the trial.
Now the court will adjourn
to evaluate the evidence presented
and reach...
a judgment.
For the first time in the history
of this country and perhaps Latin America,
a regime that governed for a decade
has been brought before a criminal court,
accused of corruption, of bribery,
that is, of having bribed
large construction companies
that had contracts with the state
to obtain funding from bribes
to finance political campaigns
for a decade.
In my investigation,
I spoke to one of the agents
and he confirmed that he was on a flight
without passengers,
and there was money on that flight.
Yes.
We're talking about 185 flights
made by presidential planes
with no passengers and no destinations.
Most of them flew to tax havens.
The prosecutor's office
has requested 12 criminal prosecutions
based on my information.
That was my victory.
For five years,
I evaded the powers that be,
the most brutal regime
that Ecuador has ever endured.
It's possible in a republic.
Today they are in prison,
they are on the run.
They are in handcuffs.
And I'm free.
I wasn't in prison for one second.
Not one second.
Many of those I investigated,
or some of them, are in prison.
And the others will be soon.
It's no longer a camp.
Three little trees...
Here it's written,
"We Chinese have to get out of here."
"We can't mine in Ecuador, let's leave."
This contaminates the water.
So we just...
took a sweet little sip.
Just for a few seconds.
Because in October,
the people took over this mining camp.
And here begins another story,
another way of life.
But the bitter sip
is one we drink every day,
and we want to keep on drinking it,
so we don't get carried away
and think we've triumphed,
so we don't think
we've achieved something,
because we know there are
832 other mining projects in Azuay.
All these projects are around
the Macizo del Cajas biosphere,
which is the area we're trying to protect.
What this does is it encourages us,
and it encourages other struggles
that have begun in the country
since the people of Ro Blanco
were able to banish
this Chinese corporation.
Long live...
Long live Pan de Azcar.
Long live San Bartolo.
Long live Ro Blanco.
Long live Cochapamba.
Long live Santa Mara.
Long live the community.
Long live...
Long live the Resistance.
Long live our land.
Thank you.
We warn you: never come back.
We await you with stones in our hands.
We have sworn to love each other until death.
And even if we have to die...
for the flower called our homeland.
I was traveling to the city of Cuenca
to visit my mother
and while I was on this trip,
I received two calls.
One from one of the leaders of Molleturo
and another from a lawyer
who supports our cause.
"We have it from good sources
that you're in the red."
He says,
"You have to withdraw for a while."
But in spite of that,
the Resistance goes on,
this struggle goes on.
In spite of
being persecuted, criminalized,
in spite of evil governments
and corporations wanting us dead.
Brother, I am here asking for your life,
for your courage,
for you to safely
make it through this struggle.
I'm going to pass you the tobacco,
so you can pray,
and declare your intention
to be well tempered,
and that even if
we have to go to the other side,
it will be beautiful.
If the great spirit
offered me the choice,
I would choose
the great honor to die fighting.