Members of the A’i Cofan community guard patrol the banks of the Aguarico River in Ecuador’s Amazon, many holding spears with faces painted.  

Indigenous groups were granted power to block mining projects by the Ecuador’s Constitutional Court. They are permitted to confiscate equipment and call in police if they find miners in the area.  

The Court ruled that indigenous communities need to give prior consent to mining, despite the investment ambitions of President Guillermo Lasso.

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