'Green' government shuts down leading environmental group.In March, environmentalists were shocked to hear that the Ecuadorian Government had shut down Accion Ecologica (Environmental Action), withdrawing the legal status of one of South America's best-known environmental groups, reports Daniel Denvir in Grist magazine Grist (originally Grist Magazine; also referred to as Grist.org) is an award-winning non-profit online magazine that publishes environmental news and views with a fresh twist - informing, inspiring, and linking the next generation of green activists. . Accion Ecologica, which has played a central role in the ongoing campaign to save the Yasuni rainforest, has in recent months supported indigenous-led mass protests and highway blockades against President Rafael Correa's support for large-scale mining. Health Minister Caroline Chang initially claimed that Accion Ecologica failed to undertake the work specified by the country's NGO NGO abbr. nongovernmental organization Noun 1. NGO - an organization that is not part of the local or state or federal government nongovernmental organization charter. But as a public outcry arose in Ecuador and criticism poured in from civil society organizations around the world, including Amnesty International Amnesty International (AI,) human-rights organization founded in 1961 by Englishman Peter Benenson; it campaigns internationally against the detention of prisoners of conscience, for the fair trial of political prisoners, to abolish the death penalty and torture of , Chang changed tack, saying that it was simply an administrative matter. Nonetheless, it meant that Accion Ecologica suddenly had no legal right to operate. 'If the elimination of our legal status is a retaliation RETALIATION. The act by which a nation or individual treats another in the same manner that the latter has treated them. For example, if a nation should lay a very heavy tariff on American goods, the United States would be justified in return in laying heavy duties on the manufactures and against our organization's opposition to government policies such as large-scale mining and the expansion of the oil frontier,' said Accion Ecologica leader Ivonne Ramos, 'it would set a precedent for authoritarianism authoritarianism Principle of unqualified submission to authority, as opposed to individual freedom of thought and action. As a political system, authoritarianism is antidemocratic in that political power is concentrated in a leader or small elite not constitutionally that is intolerable in a democratic regime.' In his 2006 election campaign, Rafael Correa Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado (born 6 April 1963 in Guayaquil) [1]is the President of the Republic of Ecuador. A trained economist, he previously served as the country's finance minister. spoke in favour of environmental rights. But disagreements over mining, and the concessions awarded to foreign companies, have created a growing rift between the President and the country's grassroots movements. Nonetheless, Correa's Government is not immune to pressure, and has since reinstated Accion Ecologica, albeit on a provisional Temporary; not permanent. Tentative, contingent, preliminary. A provisional civil service appointment is a temporary position that fills a vacancy until a test can be properly administered and statutory requirements can be fulfilled to make a permanent appointment. basis. In an open letter, Ivonne Ramos expressed her gratitude for all the national and international support they have received. 'With your words and support we feel closer to that great wave, ever more universal, defending life and nature, which finds a home in the struggle of each and every one of us.' |
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