By Entorno | 2025-06-17

QUITO/LIMA -- "How can it be that in your own village, where you were born, just for being a woman, you have no right to the land? It's unjust," said Matilde, a community leader from southern Peru, her voice filled with restrained anger.

She has received threats for speaking out against Las Bambas, one of the world's largest copper mines, run by the Chinese company MMG. Her story is not an isolated one.

In Ecuador, Mónica, a key leader in the movement that in 2018 halted the Rio Blanco mining project through the courts, recalls how women led the charge.

"We were half men, half women, but it was us, the women, who stood on the front lines. We resisted more. We don't let ourselves be conquered, be fooled by these companies."

Matilde and Mónica's names have been changed for security reasons, and their testimonies are part of a new investigation by Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), a Global South feminist network. Their study highlights how Indigenous, peasant and low-income urban women in Latin America are leading the opposition to Chinese-backed mining projects, particularly in Peru and Ecuador, often at great personal risk.

Titled The Gendered Impact of China's Engagement in the Global South, the research spans eight case studies across Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Latin America. The Rio Blanco and Las Bambas cases offer stark illustrations of women's central role in territorial defense.

Challenging a Giant

Diana Castro, a researcher at Ecuador's NGO Latinoamérica Sustentable (LAS) and one of the authors of the report, tracked both conflicts.

"In both cases, environmental and social tensions remain unresolved, and women have played an active role in resistance efforts," she said.

Las Bambas, situated more than 4,000 meters above sea level in the Apurímac region, Peru, became the largest Chinese mining acquisition abroad when MMG, a subsidiary of China Minmetals, bought it from Glencore in 2014 for $5.85 billion.

Shortly after the takeover, MMG unilaterally altered the mineral transportation plan, replacing a pipeline with a truck route that cuts through more than 150 rural communities. The change stirred immediate backlash. The constant flow of trucks brought dust, noise and road damage, disrupting daily life.

In Rio Blanco, Ecuador, women also led from the front. "The most valuable part of our organization are the women," two male residents admit. "We just follow behind."

In 2018, dozens of women physically occupied the Chinese mining camp and later testified in court during a successful legal battle against the project.

A legal victory, a new struggle

The Ecuadorian court ruled in favor of the community, ordering demilitarization of the area and suspension of mining due to violations of the constitutional right to prior consultation. But when Junefield Gold Investments pulled out, it left behind abandoned sites with no remediation or closure, fueling illegal mining and rising violence.

"The company left, but the problem stayed," said Castro Salgado.

In response, local women formed Sinchi Warmi in 2022, an organization of Indigenous, rural and urban women resisting the incursions of extractive industries. Rio Blanco, situated at 3,900 meters above sea level, sits within the buffer zone of Ecuador's Cajas National Park, a UNESCO biosphere reserve and Ramsar wetland.

Criminalizing defenders

In Peru, resistance to Las Bambas has come at a cost too. The DAWN report documents how defenders, especially women, face legal harassment and intimidation. Of the four Peruvian women interviewed, three had received threats. Two were criminally charged.

Juana, one of the accused, said: "They charged me for defending our rights, to a healthy environment, to be consulted." Verónica was indicted for "aggravated robbery" merely for taking part in a protest.

These tactics are part of a broader strategy, said Matilde. "The mine buys everyone, and there's no one to report it to. The authorities are bought too. If you speak up, you're either threatened or bribed."

Willful blindness of the Chinese model

Chinese firms have shown little to no engagement with local women's organizations and fail to incorporate gender perspectives into their operation, DAWN concludes.

This neglect reflects what researchers call a "patriarchal-neocolonial model of extractivism (resource exploitation)."

While extractivism affects entire communities, the report underscores how women experience the damage more acutely, environmentally, economically, socially and culturally, because of their roles as caretakers of land, water and community cohesion.

"They feel the impacts more directly and resist more tenaciously," the report said.

From the Andes of Ecuador to the highlands of Peru, women continue to organize, protest and defend their territories. With their voices, their bodies and their collective strength, they challenge not only foreign corporations but also entrenched systems that extract not just minerals but dignity, sovereignty and life itself.