Indigenous Land Defender Killed in Ecuador
as Government Cracks Down on
Environmental and Human Rights Activists
Efraín Fueres was gunned down Sunday while marching in protest against high costs of living and government crackdowns that include freezing the bank accounts of activists and suspending a media organization.
Katie Surma / Inside Climate News
(September 29, 2025) — An Indigenous land defender was shot and killed on Sunday in Cotacachi, Ecuador, where he was marching in protest of high costs of living and government crackdowns on Indigenous and environmental activists.
Efraín Fueres, 46, a community leader, was one of thousands of Ecuadorians who have taken to the streets over the past two weeks amid a wave of authoritarian moves by the government, including freezing activists’ bank accounts and suspending a media organization. The Indigenous Kichwa federation Chijallta FICI, which Fueres belonged to, released a statement condemning his killing and attributing blame to “military bullets.”
“Chijallta FICI denounces with deep pain and indignation the murder of our brother and respected community leader,” the statement said, calling the killing “the most painful proof that the Government has opted for war and blood instead of listening to the just demands of the people.”
Videos posted to social media show Fueres marching around 6:30 a.m. when he is gunned down. A military vehicle then approaches Fueres, who was lying in the street with a companion kneeling over his body. Armed officers then surrounded the men and began repeatedly kicking the companion.
The Ecuadorian Consulate in Washington, D.C., did not respond to requests for comment. But the Ecuadorian public prosecutor’s office said in a social media post that it was launching an investigation.
Separately, the Ecuadorian army posted on Sunday that 12 soldiers were injured in Cotacachi while guarding a food-aid convoy.
The people marching in recent weeks, led by Indigenous groups, condemned a Sept. 12 government decree that removed fuel subsidies, raising gasoline prices by more than 50 percent. Advocates say the policy harms millions of poor Ecuadorians who live on less than $100 a month.
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, instituted a state of emergency on Sept. 16 in provinces across the country, empowering the government to limit public travel, impose curfews and restrict other freedoms. He also moved to rewrite the Constitution, which currently includes strong protections for the environment and for Indigenous peoples.
Noboa has alleged, without presenting evidence, that transnational criminal organizations, including the Tren de Aragua, were financing the Indigenous-led protests.
The country’s largest Indigenous organization, Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), denied that accusation and said the protests are driven by a broad set of demands: the repeal of the gasoline price increase, government compliance with a nationwide referendum to end oil production in a part of the Amazon rainforest and an end to the criminalization of Indigenous and environmental activists.
The organization is also calling for a halt to Ecuador’s extractive economic model, demanding the government revoke licenses for three mining projects across the country.
Sisa Inés Cotacachi, vice president of Chijallta FICI, said on Sunday that communities throughout Imbabura province where Fueres was killed were also protesting against a series of national government decrees that have rolled back environmental and human rights protections.
In August, the Ecuadorian government moved the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition, transferring its responsibilities—including environmental licensing and enforcement—to the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
The government also passed a law in August to “promote transparency and accountability in non-profit social organizations,” though critics argue it is aimed at curtailing civil society’s ability to monitor rights violations and seek accountability at a time of expanding oil and mining extraction.
A coalition of Ecuadorian lawyers, scientists and human rights activists said they are releasing this week a call for organizations to sign onto an open letter to United Nations human rights experts condemning the two laws and accusing the government of “Deploying military forces around extractive sites and criminalizing environmental protest.”
Inés Cotacachi said Fueres was shot three times.
“We condemn this brutal attack on organized resistance,” she said. “If the government represses the people, they will only be forced to rise up to demand their rights.”
The death of Fueres, a father of two, comes after the government has targeted dozens of prominent environmental defenders and Indigenous leaders and organizations in recent weeks. The Noboa administration has arrested or detained some, and frozen the bank accounts of others, while reporting them to the federal prosecutor for the alleged crime of “unjustified private enrichment.”
Among those impacted are leaders of a large anti-mining movement in the Andean city of Cuenca. On Sept. 16, around 100,000 people poured into the streets there to demand an end to a Canadian mine, chanting: “Water is worth more than anything!”
Read the full story at Inside Climate News.
