McLarens, Mar-a-Lago and machine guns: Introducing Gina Rinehart’s controversial new frontier point man

Ricardo Lopez Tugendhat believed he was going to die and wanted the world to know who he thought was going to kill him.

The former manager at a mining company linked to Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart spelled out his fears in a chilling letter to an Ecuadorian news outlet.

“Being familiar with the character and temperament of Mr Carlos de Miguel III, I am deeply concerned that the threats I have received from him … are carried out,” read the letter, published by the outlet.

“I hereby publicly hold the aforementioned Carlos de Miguel III responsible for any attack against the life or physical integrity of my family or myself.”

Carlos de Miguel is Rinehart’s man on the ground in Ecuador – the chief executive of Hanrine Ecuadorian Exploration and Mining, a subsidiary of Hancock Prospecting.

He is a former US serviceman who instilled fear in some workers. Some former workers claim de Miguel would saunter around Hanrine’s sites in northern Ecuador with an assault rifle and flanked by menacing-looking dogs.

He loomed as a central character when this masthead spent a month in Ecuador tracking Hanrine’s controversial activities in the Latin American country.

The investigation examined hundreds of pages of government documents, company records, court files and research papers, and spoke to dozens of villagers, environmental activists and experts, who detailed allegations of human rights breaches, irregularities in the concessioning process and a pattern of violence and harassment towards local villagers.

Former Hanrine workers detailed allegations of exploitation and abuses at the company’s site in La Merced de Buenos Aires, including hiding workers without contracts from authorities conducting compliance checks, serving raw meat to labourers, forcing employees to work while sick and a culture of threats and intimidation.

Most workers this masthead spoke to were too scared to be quoted on the record, fearing retaliation from Hanrine, which categorically denies any wrongdoing and maintains it complies with “relevant laws and regulations”.

The claims raise serious questions about the company’s operations, which have been a subject of sustained controversy, and which critics say highlight the lack of accountability and oversight for Australian subsidiaries operating overseas.

Julien Vincent, an experienced climate change governance campaigner and former winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize, which recognises grassroots activists, says there should be an expectation that Australian companies and their subsidiaries operate to a higher standard overseas than they would at home.

“That’s because they’re not just doing business, they are representing Australia in another part of the world,” Vincent says.

Local media have chronicled de Miguel’s career from working as a security contractor for former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa to handling security for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012.

The mining executive said in interviews with local media outlets that he has had a decade-long association with Hancock Prospecting, beginning in 2015 when the company became interested in diversifying its portfolio into Latin America.

De Miguel shares Rinehart’s conservative political views and her support for US President Donald Trump. He made a US$250,000 donation to the Trump-Vance inaugural committee and attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where Rinehart is a regular attendee.

De Miguel was among several Hancock Prospecting executives who toured the US with Rinehart in early 2025. He later attended the Starlight Ball in Washington to mark Trump’s inauguration, where Rinehart was photographed talking to Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and his wife, Lavinia Valbonesi.

De Miguel posed on a red carpet while wearing a velvet suit and aviator sunglasses at the Hispanic Prosperity Gala in Florida, where the mining executive owns a $US1.4 million home. The event, held at Mar-a-Lago in February, was sponsored by Hanrine, Trump Vodka and the Gina Rinehart Foundation.

De Miguel is also a car aficionado and the owner of a silver McLaren GT that he occasionally races. The car is nicknamed Maverick in a reference to the Top Gun movies.

Luis Fausto de la Cruz remembers when he fell out of love with working for Hanrine. It was 2022 and the farmer turned labourer was at the company’s camp on the edge of La Merced de Buenos Aires when, he says, a ute pulled up.

De Miguel, surrounded by security guards and flanked by two menacing-looking dogs, had walked out of the vehicle armed with a sophisticated assault-style rifle, de la Cruz says.

“He spoke about having been to war; I don’t know how many wars,” de la Cruz says. “It hurt my soul.”

De la Cruz, a father of six, believes this was an attempt to intimidate staff. It made him furious but he felt helpless.

“There was nothing one could do; if you spoke up, you were treated like a criminal,” he says. “So much for the claim that they are trained, educated people … you don’t come to [deal with] humble folk with weapons.”

De Miguel did not address questions about this alleged conduct directly but “categorically rejects” any allegation workers were mistreated.

De la Cruz says he worked carrying building materials and doing manual labour for Hanrine for about eight months, before staff were fired en masse and the company withdrew from the area. He claims the working conditions were brutal.

Workers would be sent to the mountains around La Merced de Buenos Aires for 20 days at a time, and left incommunicado from their family, he says. No phones were allowed on site, which also meant workers could not take photographs of their living conditions.

Staff slept in bunk beds in large tents, and the food served, he claims, often arrived cold, spoiled or raw. De la Cruz remembers one occasion when staff were given a special Christmas meal of roast pork that made several people sick.

“We aren’t dogs that eat raw meat,” he says.

He says staff who became ill were denied leave and made to work.

Lucia Chicaiza, the president of La Merced de Buenos Aires parish, says many workers were too scared to report their working conditions to authorities.

As previously reported by this masthead, several villagers in the parish claim, including in a judicial council report, to have been assaulted, stabbed and harassed by Hanrine staff for their anti-mining views. The company is also accused of hiring illegal miners as security guards, who were often armed.

Another former Hanrine employee, who spoke anonymously because of safety concerns, claims de Miguel was permanently armed and kept weapons inside company premises.

“He told us he had a permit to carry a weapon and that the police couldn’t even touch this gun,” the former employee alleges.

Local anti-mining protesters who had blocked the company from accessing its concessions in the parish would often be referred to by Hanrine staff as “chunchos” – a derogatory term that roughly translates to “savages”. Chicaiza was often called Lucifer.

Chicaiza says reports about Hanrine’s camps were so concerning she asked authorities to carry out a compliance visit.

“That’s when they hid us,” de la Cruz claims. “I was there.”

One morning, de la Cruz says, casual workers were told to leave the camp and head “for a walk” in the mountains. Staff were made to “hide” away from the camp while officials from the department of employment inspected the site.

Another Hanrine employee also claimed staff were told to leave the company’s facilities whenever authorities conducted compliance checks.

Manuel de la Cruz, a potato farmer who also worked as a manual labourer for Hanrine, says staff would be hidden from officials “because they weren’t paying the daily wages legally as they should”.

Former Ecuadorian employment minister Patricio Donoso told a human rights committee of non-government MPs in Ecuador’s national assembly in 2023 that the company was twice sanctioned for blocking department officials conducting compliance checks, and failing to present employment contracts for its workers.

It is unclear how many locals were employed by Hanrine. De Miguel has previously claimed in the media to have hired up to 200 people, many from the local community. Donoso placed the figure close to 300, although 169 contracts had been terminated at the time he spoke to the committee in 2023.

Hancock Prospecting has publicly acknowledged in its annual reporting on its modern slavery obligations that its operations in Ecuador are its highest risk jurisdiction.

This masthead is not accusing the company of breaching those obligations, only noting that it has stated repeatedly its awareness of potential labour issues in the country.

In a statement, de Miguel denied all claims workers were treated poorly. He said he had received “numerous messages from staff expressing their appreciation for Hanrine, its workplace culture and the opportunities the company has provided” and shared two undated messages from unnamed employees praising the company.

“In countries like Australia it can be easy to underestimate just how significant the opportunity of employment can be for people living in poor areas,” de Miguel said.

The average annual GDP per person in Ecuador is estimated at $10,000, according to anti-modern-slavery organisation Walk Free.

The letter Ricardo Lopez Tugendhat penned to news outfit La Fuente: Periodismo de Investigacion in 2020 highlights just how feared de Miguel was by some who had crossed paths with him.

Lopez Tugendhat had previously worked closely with de Miguel as assistant manager, handling security for Hanrine, until their relationship soured early that year.

Hanrine and Lopez Tugendhat were caught in a messy dispute that led to both parties taking each other to court, and Lopez Tugendhat reporting de Miguel to authorities for alleged intimidation.

Part of the dispute involved claims by Hanrine that Lopez Tugendhat had used a fake disability card to claim benefits he was not entitled to. Lopez Tugendhat claimed he had been unfairly dismissed by the company.

Hanrine later dropped the disability card case after signing an agreement with Lopez Tugendhat, and the court found him not guilty this year. The unfair dismissal claim was settled and Hanrine paid $US20,000 to Lopez Tugendhat in 2022, according to court documents.

At the time he sent the letter, Lopez Tugendhat was worried an article published by the news outlet would draw the ire of his former boss.

The article suggested Lopez Tugendhat, a three-time shooting world champion, could have tipped off the police to a stash of firearms and ammunition hidden in de Miguel’s home gym.

Police had raided de Miguel’s property and arrested the businessman the previous month on the basis he did not hold valid permits for three of four firearms found, which included a high-powered rifle used by elite police and military officers. Investigators also found 9500 rounds of ammunition, several magazines, an air rifle and a training gun, according to court documents and local media reports.

In the letter, Lopez Tugendhat claimed de Miguel had threatened to kill him and his family, and he provided a case number to track his report of the alleged threat through the prosecutor’s office.

This masthead was able to find a record of the original report Lopez Tugendhat filed against de Miguel for alleged intimidation in January 2020, but it did not contain any findings.

“The only report I’ve made against Mr Carlos de Miguel III is for intimidation and death threats, of which me and my family were the victims of,” Lopez Tugendhat pleaded in his letter.

“I expressly request that your prestigious media outlet clarify and correct the record.”

The weapons case against de Miguel was dropped 10 months after the raid, after it was determined the businessman was in the process of renewing the expired permits.

The decision was partly informed by Lopez Tugendhat’s evidence that de Miguel was a member of his recreational shooting club and the ammunition found in his home had been bought through the club.

De Miguel later said the raid was part of a plot to discredit him as a mining executive and derail Hanrine’s bid to obtain a lucrative copper project near its concessions in La Merced de Buenos Aires called Llurimagua that the company was offering to acquire for US$400 million.

When contacted by this masthead, de Miguel said it was not uncommon in Ecuador for allegations to arise in the context of employment disputes.

“The unfounded workplace allegations against myself that you reference were categorically dismissed and did not result in any charges or adverse findings against me,” de Miguel said.

Lopez Tugendhat declined to comment when contacted by this masthead.

On a clear morning, you can see the Colombian border from the top of Luis Fausto de la Cruz’s land.

Motilon trees – a high-altitude Andean species that produces a deep purple berry used to make “colada morada”, a thick smoothie-style drink used to commemorate the Day of the Dead festivities – grow in the small valleys that form between the hills undulating through his land.

Bears and guans, a large chicken-like bird native to the Andes, are regular visitors to the property, which is also home to a waterfall and walking trails.

De la Cruz, yellow shin-high rubber boots on his feet, walks through the overgrown paths with a machete in his hand. He wants to turn part of his land into an ecotourism venture with huts, bird lookouts, a zipline and horseriding routes.

“There’s a lot of birds here,” he says. “I am going to fight little by little to do something.”

De la Cruz says he doesn’t regret working for Hanrine. It was an eye-opening experience. But he feels locals were taken advantage of and promises of new homes, roads and services that lured locals like himself to work with the company were never fulfilled.

He says he isn’t afraid that speaking out will make him a target.

“The only thing I fear is God, no one else.”