On december 5th and 6th several actions and demonstrations against oil exploitation in the territories of the indigenous community of Sarayaku and other regions took place in the city of Puyo in the western part of the ecuadorian Amazon.
The situation was getting worse as inhabitans of Sarayaku attempted to travel with boats to Puyo despite river blockades and were wounded and captured by members of a hostile community which supports the blockade.

The protests were peaceful, also owing to the fact that indigenous participants didn´t want to directly confront the local authorities, and the police didn´t make any attemps to troble the demonstrators.
Speakers from various indigenous communities made clear that they would resist any attempt to exploit resources on their territory and thereby destroying it.


Background information

For detailed background information on the community of Sarayacu, see:
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/12/282483.html

After the declaration of the Interamerican Court for Human Rights to extend a temporary moratorium to mining activities in the territories of Sarayacu for another 6 months, the community obviously felt relieved.
A military invasion, which was quite probable just two weeks ago, now seems more unlikely to happen (at least for the next few months) because the ecuadorian president Lucio Gutierres is under pressure for a corruption affair and the economic situation is further worsening since the dollarization two years ago.

Yet, the danger isn´t over. Oil exploration remains an issue of “national interest”.
Crude Oil and derivates remain by far the biggest source of export incomes, so that a reduction or even a moratorium to oil and gas explorations that is demanded by several environmental groups (see e.g. .  http://www.oilwatch.org.ec/) seems highly improbable.

Blocks and concessions

Like several other countries with oil deposits, Ecuador divided its areas which are though to contain oil and gas into so-called “blocks”.
On the international market, each block is given to the highest bidding enterprise or consortium of enterprises.

The community of Sarayacu and its territories are located within what is now called block 23, currently hold by the argentinan petroleum enterprise CGC-Burlington. Sarayacu is struggling hard to avoid oil exploration because they are quite aware of the likely outcomes.

But even if CGC-Burlington would cancel its activities, the situation wouln´t change much.
History shows us that –as in the case of Sarayacu – for each defeated company, there is yet another that just takes over the concession, and the whole struggle has to start again.

This struggle makes people tired, and there are a handful of examples where communities gave up their resitance only to see thereafter that most of the promises (jobs, health and environmental care and cleaning of contaminated areas, money for communal projects…) were exaggerated or just simple lies. For an illustration of this, see the chapter below.


Related issues - the case of Texaco

The ecological and social damage cused by the ChevronTexaco corporation (as well as other corporations) drastically shows the possible outcome of oil exploration:
Widespread deforestation, contamination of soils, water and air and thereby also health and social impacts on the local population whereas the promised “development” of the affected areas is nowhere to be seen. The contrary is the case. Ecuador is despite of (or better, because of) the presence of many oil companies highly indebted, while the profits flow out of the country or into the pockets of corrupt politicians and bribed local functionaries.

In this moment there a trial against Texaco is being held in the United States. The company is accused of widespread contamination in their former operational areas.
This cases is looked upon by many as a highly important trial because it will state as an example for other trials and struggles in other countries.

Nevertheless oil exploitation continues in other areas, with the same potential for catastrophic spills as in the case of Texaco (who spilled more oil than in the well-known accidents of the Exxon Valdez on the coast of Alaska and the recent Prestige spill on the coast of .nothwestern Spain). But it´s not only accidents which cause contamination: the very process of oil exploration and refining is based on deforestation and creates a whole lot of pollution of air, soils and water. And it leads to further suffering as local habitants are affected by contamination and indigenous people face the disintegration of their culture and ways of life.


Outlook

The inhabitants of Sarayacu are prepared to defend their territory, even if this should ultimately mean their extermination.

But, oil exploration will continue, and this creates further problems as former workers settle down instaed of going back and colonists are drawn by the newly created roads and corridors that allow better access to still unexplored forests.
If “progress” in the Amazon is marching on with the same speed, the destruction of the last remainders of tropical rainforests is only a matter of time.


For more information, see:
 http://www.oilwatch.org.ec/
www.sarayacu.com
www.accionecologica.org
www.amazonwatch.org

More information about a worldwide campaign against ChevronTexaco can be found here:
 http://www.chevrontoxico.com