Bolivar is Weeping

(larepublica.ec)

While China has been able to keep accusations of "neocolonialism" over her investment activities in Africa at bay, the same may not be true for similar ventures in Ecuador. Quartz reports: 

Tendetza’s death is at least partly related to what critics say is Ecuador’s unhealthy dependence on China. The country—once hailed for a “green constitution” that protected the environment and pledged to prosecute those that harm the country’s biodiversity—has more recently turned to exploiting its supplies of oil, gas and minerals to pay off its massive debts, mostly owed to China.

The Guardian goes further:

Tendetza had been a prominent critic of Mirador, an open-cast pit that has been approved in an area of important biodiversity that is also home to the Shuar, Ecuador’s second-biggest indigenous group.

The project is operated by Ecuacorriente – originally a Canadian-owned firm that was brought by a Chinese conglomerate, CCRC-Tongguan Investment, in 2010. According to the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, the project will devastate around 450,000 acres of forest. 

“This is a camouflaged crime,” said Ankuash. “In Ecuador, multinational companies are invited by the government and get full state security from the police and the army. The army and police don’t provide protection for the people; they don’t defend the Shuar people. They’ve been bought by the company.

The allegations come on top of growing discontent over efforts by the Ecuadorian government to implement draconian fiscal measures to pay off Chinese debt, a bitter irony given that the "Bolivarian" regime of Rafael Correa had voided the country's national debt as "illegitimate" in 2008.