Ecuador: Communities affected by fumigation within the Plan Colombia submit claim for constitutional protection

The human rights of about 25,000 persons in the Ecuadorian province of Sucumbios at the Colombian-Ecuadorian border are being violated by fumigations from the air carried out in the framework of the Plan Colombia in the Colombian department of Putumayo. These fumigations have destroyed the food resources of the communities, unleashing a food and health crisis in this province. The Ecuadorian Government has failed to protect the access to resources of these people through quick and objective actions.   Peasant and indigenous organisations have presented their claim for protection to the Constitutional Court of Ecuador which collects the petitions of the peasant and indigenous people leaving around the border who are suffering the impact of the fumigations carried out in the month  of July 2003.  

The intervention of FIAN will be determinant for the Constitutional Court to decide in favour of the peasant and indigenous populations who are being affected by the fumigations on the Colombian-Ecuadorian border. Please send the attached letter to the President of the Republic of Ecuador and to members of the Constitutional Court, expressing your concern and asking to resolve the Constitutional protection of these communities. Please send copies to the  NGO Acción Ecológica.