Burlington Resources, a Houston-based oil company, has plans to explore for oil in three highly controversial oil concessions in remote Amazon regions of Ecuador. These concessions were carved out of the traditional territories of four indigenous nations--the Shuar, Achuar, Kichwa, and Zapara--without their consultation or consent.
Burlington has caused concern among the inhabitants of nearby Block 23 located in Pastaza province in the central Ecuadorian Amazon. This 200,000 hectares of rainforest encompasses the territories of Kichwa, Achuar, and Zapara peoples. Burlington Resources bought part of the concession from ChevronTexaco in March 2003. ChevronTexaco had become involved in Block 23 in 1999 when it bought a partner company of Compa–’a General de Combustibles (CGC) of Argentina, the original holder of Block 23 since 1996. Burlington now holds a 25% interest in the block along with CGC and Perenco. The Kichwa community of Sarayacu, the largest community in Block 23 and a member of the legally recognized Kichwa federation OPIP, has been opposed to the project from the beginning.
Company efforts to move forward with seismic testing--the first stage of oil explorationׁthrough the use of military force has created a climate of tension and violence in the region. On the eve of a historic march in December 2003 to protest the planned oil project and to denounce the series of human rights violations their community suffered over the previous year, Sarayacu community members were violently attacked and detained on December 12 by pro-oil forces while traveling from their community to the march. Traveling up the R’o Bobonaza by canoe, some 120 Sarayacu men, women, and children were stopped by members of the upriver Canelos Kichwa community, employed by Burlington's business partner CGC. Warning shots were fired at members of Sarayacu and dozens were detained by force. Several were able to escape into the forest, where they hid and then spent three days lost until finding their way to the closest town. Others were not as fortunate. While detained, men and women leaders of Sarayacu, including the former president of the community, were attacked during the night with wooden clubs, stones and machetes. Several suffered serious wounds. These leaders were eventually released and transported to the local hospital. View photos at www.sarayacu.com
Despite the repressive measures to keep Sarayacu and their allies from marching, the next day some 1,000 leaders and community members from throughout the Ecuadorian Amazon joined them in the "March for Peace and in Defense of the Collective Rights of all Nationalities of the Amazon" in Puyo, the provincial capitol. "Nobody can impede us from defending our Mother Earth," said one community representative.
The government of Ecuador has announced plans to deploy military personnel to open the way for seismic testing to begin in Sarayacu by the beginning of February 2004, despite a decision handed down by the Organization of American States' Inter-American Commission on Human Rights calling for the government to take precautionary measures to protect Sarayacu community members. In mid-January 2004, Sarayacu declared a state of emergency and is actively preparing to mobilize their communities to peacefully resist the incursion of the company onto their lands through the use of military force.
Against the backdrop of the landmark trial against ChevronTexaco currently in the Ecuadorian courts for environmental crimes in the country's northern rainforest, the opposition of Sarayacu has become a flashpoint for the oil industry in Ecuador. The sustained and adamant opposition of Sarayacu, combined with a new alliance of all five indigenous nationalities on the front lines of the country's expanding oil frontier reflects a powerful, growing movement of indigenous resistance to unsustainable resource extraction and towards indigenous rights, environmental sustainability and greater accountability for the action of foreign oil companies.
These unsustainable oil projects are the product of an economic strategy that principally benefits foreign oil companies and international banks. The Ecuadorian government, obliged by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), plans to open the remaining pristine rainforests of the Southern Ecuadorian Amazon to oil companies. (Similarly, creditors have repeatedly denied Ecuador debt forgiveness, citing the county's potential oil reserves under the Amazon rainforest as resources to be liquidated.) Some 80% government revenues from these planned projects are slated to go directly to international banks to service the interest on the countries' growing $14 billion foreign debt, leaving little for the benefit of the Ecuadorian people. During three decades of oil development in Ecuador, the external debt has only spiraled upwards, despite successive arguments by the Ecuadorian government and creditors that expanding oil production will allow the country to repay the debt. Regardless of persistent results to the contrary, the IMF continues to wed the country's future credit agreements to hikes in oil production. Amazon communities and the environment bear the burden of the IMF's economic recipes while companies like Burlington seek to reap the benefit.
Company efforts to move forward with seismic testing--the first stage of oil explorationׁthrough the use of military force has created a climate of tension and violence in the region. On the eve of a historic march in December 2003 to protest the planned oil project and to denounce the series of human rights violations their community suffered over the previous year, Sarayacu community members were violently attacked and detained on December 12 by pro-oil forces while traveling from their community to the march. Traveling up the R’o Bobonaza by canoe, some 120 Sarayacu men, women, and children were stopped by members of the upriver Canelos Kichwa community, employed by Burlington's business partner CGC. Warning shots were fired at members of Sarayacu and dozens were detained by force. Several were able to escape into the forest, where they hid and then spent three days lost until finding their way to the closest town. Others were not as fortunate. While detained, men and women leaders of Sarayacu, including the former president of the community, were attacked during the night with wooden clubs, stones and machetes. Several suffered serious wounds. These leaders were eventually released and transported to the local hospital. View photos at www.sarayacu.com
Despite the repressive measures to keep Sarayacu and their allies from marching, the next day some 1,000 leaders and community members from throughout the Ecuadorian Amazon joined them in the "March for Peace and in Defense of the Collective Rights of all Nationalities of the Amazon" in Puyo, the provincial capitol. "Nobody can impede us from defending our Mother Earth," said one community representative.
The government of Ecuador has announced plans to deploy military personnel to open the way for seismic testing to begin in Sarayacu by the beginning of February 2004, despite a decision handed down by the Organization of American States' Inter-American Commission on Human Rights calling for the government to take precautionary measures to protect Sarayacu community members. In mid-January 2004, Sarayacu declared a state of emergency and is actively preparing to mobilize their communities to peacefully resist the incursion of the company onto their lands through the use of military force.
Against the backdrop of the landmark trial against ChevronTexaco currently in the Ecuadorian courts for environmental crimes in the country's northern rainforest, the opposition of Sarayacu has become a flashpoint for the oil industry in Ecuador. The sustained and adamant opposition of Sarayacu, combined with a new alliance of all five indigenous nationalities on the front lines of the country's expanding oil frontier reflects a powerful, growing movement of indigenous resistance to unsustainable resource extraction and towards indigenous rights, environmental sustainability and greater accountability for the action of foreign oil companies.
These unsustainable oil projects are the product of an economic strategy that principally benefits foreign oil companies and international banks. The Ecuadorian government, obliged by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), plans to open the remaining pristine rainforests of the Southern Ecuadorian Amazon to oil companies. (Similarly, creditors have repeatedly denied Ecuador debt forgiveness, citing the county's potential oil reserves under the Amazon rainforest as resources to be liquidated.) Some 80% government revenues from these planned projects are slated to go directly to international banks to service the interest on the countries' growing $14 billion foreign debt, leaving little for the benefit of the Ecuadorian people. During three decades of oil development in Ecuador, the external debt has only spiraled upwards, despite successive arguments by the Ecuadorian government and creditors that expanding oil production will allow the country to repay the debt. Regardless of persistent results to the contrary, the IMF continues to wed the country's future credit agreements to hikes in oil production. Amazon communities and the environment bear the burden of the IMF's economic recipes while companies like Burlington seek to reap the benefit.
