Ecuador’s Tribes Fight Big Oil
May 2007
By Marianne Betterly
"It is no accident that most of the remaining natural resources are on indigenous land. First the white world destroys their own environment, then they come asking for the last pieces of land they have put us on, the earth we have protected." -Luis Macas, former president of CONAIE (Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador)
Ecuadorian ‘Motherland’ scarred with oil pits
The oil situation
The Huaorani, Tagaeri and Taromenaneare some of the fiercest people on earth. Even today, their warriors use handmade spears to huntpeccaries, turkey and squirrel. Lately they have been using more powerful weapons to protect their land from oil developers and loggers. Realizing that they needed more than spears, they have joined other Ecuadorian indigenous people, the Cofan, Secoya, Siona, Achuar, Shuar, Kichwa, tofightoil companies who drillfor oil in their sacred lands.ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhilips and Petrobras, ARCO, Petroecuador, OXY,and other multinational oil companies have been plundering the Ecuadorian Amazon known as ‘the Oriente’ over the past 35 years. TheAmazon tribes are in a struggle ‘until death’ with the oil companies, demanding that they cleanup the damage caused by oil exploration, pipelines and drilling. Some of these groups are calling for a moratorium on all oil development.
The Ecuadorian Amazon, formerly a pristine ecosystem known for its incredible biodiversity, is slowly being destroyed. Home to over 10 percent of the world’s species with more than 150,000 plant species, 300 species of birds, and numerous mammals like jaguars, ocelots, monkeys, hoatzin, this area is deserving of its Huaorani name, ‘Center of the World.’ Over the past few decades oil pollutionand wastewater toxins from the oil industryhas been harming these plants, insects and animals, as well as the 500,000 people who inhabit the Oriente.
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“Oil extraction in the Amazon has already caused the extinction of the Tetete and Zaparo nationalities and continues to threaten indigenous peoples.” [i]
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ChevronTexaco lawsuit
A six billion dollar class action suit, originally filed in 1993 by 30,000 indigenous people and settlers, demands that ChevronTexaco clean up tons of toxins dumped into Ecuador’s rainforest between 1964 and 1992. While the initial lawsuit was directed at Texaco, the recent suit is against ChevronTexaco, later renamed Chevron, who purchased Texaco in 2001.
“We are fighting for life … The CEO (of Chevron) said that the problem is the Ecuadorian government’s – that it is ‘not our problem’… David O’Reilly is not taking responsibility for all of this damage they have done to humanity.” Humberto Piaguaje, Secoya, April 25, 2007 in front of Chevron’s Corporate Headquarters.
According to Chevron’s president, Texacocleaned up the oil pits in 1995 and any further damages are PetroEcuador’s responsibility since they resumed oil operations when Texaco left the country. Others see it differently.
EcuadorPresident Correa stated, “There was no cleanup here." He stressed that the damage was “covered up” by merely dumping dirt over the contaminated soil and wastewater ponds.
For almost 20 yearsTexaco drilled 350 wells and extracted 1.4 billion barrels of crude without abiding by the typical practice of reinjecting the wastewater deep into the ground. Texaco decided to save money and apparently ignore the inevitable environmental impacts. Instead, they poured 18 million gallons of toxic wastewater into more than 700 open, unlined oil pits. The toxins that were left in those pits were a combination of brine, crude, polycycle aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs -a known carcinogen), and volatile organic compounds such as benzene, toluene, xylene, mercury, lead. Due to the wet, rainforest climate, these toxins have seeped into the groundwater and traveled to nearby villages, streams, rivers and forests poisoning the environment and people – all for barrels of oil destined to the United States.
But the damage didn’t end there. Texaco periodically burned the oil, causing ‘black rain’ that released toxins into the atmosphere. Pipelines required to transport the oil to the coast were built. In 1972 Texaco completed construction of a 310 mile pipeline with numerous subsidiary pipes. This maze of pipe work had repeated leaks, ruptures and unexpected discharges. Roads were built to access the oil production, requiring massive deforestation. Crude oil was poured onto dusty roads in the dry season. It is no surprise that the local people have witnessedan abnormally high increase in cancer, hepatitis, skin infections, birth defects, spontaneous abortions and deaths in the surrounding areas since the oil development began.
Like the Spartan 300, a few small tribes have rallied together to fight a seemingly unbeatable battle against that 200 billion dollar company headquartered inSan Ramon, California. The current lawsuit filed in 2003 is finally coming to a head and will hopefully be finalized in 2008.
Newly elected EcuadorPresident Rafael Correa visited the oil ravaged areas in Sucumbois on April 26, 2007. Hestated it was thirty times worse than the Exxon Valdez oil disaster that spilled millions of barrels of oil into Alaskan waters. His administration is of the opinion that ChevronTexaco has not done its part to clean up the toxins left behind despite the 40 million dollar effort made a decade ago.[ii]
Marianne Betterly-Kohn
Humberto Piaguaje addressed a crowd protesting at Chevron’s Headquarters in California. Guillermo Grefa on the left. April 2007
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Humberto Piaguaje, representing the Secoya Indigenous People (Block 13), and Guillermo Grefa, of the Kichwa tribe, both attended Chevron’s Annual Stockholders meeting on April 25, 2007, to inform Chevron investors and upper management ofthe devastatinghealth and environmental impactsthat continue to ravage the land and people, due to ChevronTexaco’s oil operations in the Ecuadorian Amazon region.
“The forest is contaminated. The people are dying. Chevron thinks that they have cleaned up the mess but they are wrong,”Humberto Piaguaje announced to the crowd assembled in front of Chevron’s Corporate Headquarters.
Politics of Oil
Ecuador has been steeped in oil politics since the first Texaco oil well gushed in 1972. In order to manage their land and reap profits, over the years the Ecuadorian government has made deals with various oil companies by granting prospecting and drilling rights using a ‘Block’ system whereby the government auctions 1.2 million acre areas, the size of New Jersey, to the highest bidder, who then has drilling rights for a specified period of time. As of 2006 there were 17 oil concessions in the Oriente. In order to transport the oil, the oil companies with Ecuador government support have built two primary pipelines to carry oil to the coast: SOTE, a 310 mile 400,000 barrels/day built in 1970s and a new pipeline, OCP, 300 mile 450,000 barrels/day recently completed in 2003.It is estimated that Ecuador has 4.6 billion barrels in oil reserves (2005). [iii]
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Oil concessions Map,
According to former Minister of Energy Rene Ortiz, Ecuador has become dependent on oil money, since it generates one fourth of the gross domestic product (2005). Crude oil is Ecuador’s biggest export with 560,000 barrels of oil extracted from Ecuador every day.[iv]
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Initially, oil exploration was promoted to bring prosperity to the impoverished country, butoil has not solved Ecuador’s economic woes. The majority of the population lives in poverty. Ecuador’s national debt has risen from $200 million in 1960s to 16.8 billion in 2007,[v]and is pressured by the International Monetary Fund to continue oil exploration.The tide may be turning, at least temporarily, since Ecuador’s president,Rafael Correa, wants to renegotiate the debt payment in order to increase spending on internal social programs and reduce dependence on oil companies[vi]
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New oil struggles
While the ChevronTexaco lawsuit deals with health and pollution issues created over the past few decades,there are ongoing struggles by the Indigenous Peoplesto combat current and future oil exploration, pipelines and construction of roads throughout the Amazon.
One battle is to preserve YasuniNational Forest from further destruction. The Yasuni National Forest is considered to be the most biodiverse forest in the world and covers 2.4 million acres, while providing a habitat to 90 species of frogs and 500 kinds of
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birds.[vii]
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The Northern part of the YasuniForest continues to be open to oil exploration. This is opposed by the Huaorani Indians (ONHAE) who want the entire 5 million acre region to be closed to oil companies and loggers. Currently Petrobras and Andes Petroleum are exploring and extracting oil in Northern Yasuni and territories north of the park.
The ‘Intangible Zone,’ an area declared by the Ecuadorian government to be off-limits to logging and oil development, was created in 1999 and extends for 2 million acres from the center of the Ecuadorian Amazon and includes the southern part of Yasuni National Park. Since its inception, oil development has continued there, since the zone’s boundaries were in dispute. Finally, due to a Presidential Decreein January this year, the borders have been defined and oil exploration and extraction is prohibited, protecting animals, plants and indigenous groups who live in isolation. A10 km surrounding buffer zone continues to allow oil extraction, but restricts new oil access road construction.
Other oil efforts in the spotlight include oil extraction in Block 18, Achuar territory, producing 32,000 barrels a day and exploration in Block 31,otherwise known as ITT or Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini oil fields. In April 2007 the government of Ecuador granted Petrobras and Petroecuador permission to extract oil in ITT, a 470,000 acre area in the Northern portion of the YasuniNational Forest containingalmost a billion barrels of oil.[viii]
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The Shuar and Achuar and Kichwa have been in an ongoing struggleover their ancestral land called Blocks 23 and 24 with Burlington Resources, who recently sold their rights to ConocoPhilips and CGC.It has not been an easy fight. In 2003 they filed suit over beatings and torture.But they are not ready to give up and continue to protest in Ecuador and in the United States.
“The Shuar is fierce. We are rejecting the oil companies here.”[ix]
Conclusion
In a bittersweet twist to the oil frenzy, some estimate the oil reserves will run out in the next decade or two when the oil companies will finally pack up and leave -- after the land and people have been destroyed. Sadly, most of the profits will be sent out of Ecuador to oil companies in other countries, leaving Ecuador a wasteland - decimated forest, oil pits, leaking pipes, toxins in the ground water and streams, exterminated and extinct species of fish, plants, and wildlife and, most tragic of all, poisoned people. The forest continues to be destroyed by clear cutting, due to road construction, logging and immigration, all of which severely impacts the biodiversity of the rainforest and the sanctity of the land.
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The oil struggle is going to become more intense as the world oil market dries up, and countries like China and India compete with the U.S. and Europe for an ever-shrinking pot of oil. The health of a small group of indigenous people in Ecuador and the pristine jungles of the Amazon will be overlooked by the demands of the oil-dependent nations to keep their motors running. I hope that Ecuador’s indigenous peoples can convince ChevronTexaco of its corporate responsibility to the world toclean up the mess that it left behind. Perhaps if they are forced to spend some of thebillion dollars of profits made in Ecuador on the health of thepeople and the environment they have nearly destroyed, it will awaken similar ethics in other oil companies who are vying for a piece of the oil-soaked jungle. Maybe it will even challenge a few of usto question our dependence on oil – from vehicles, boats and jets -- to its use in agriculture and clothing. We need to honor mother earth, not hasten her destruction. We need to wake up to the mess that we are leaving our children, not focus on next quarter’s bottom-line or the latest SUV. It may not be too late if we start today.
“The land is like our mother….we respect her, live from her, we are born from her, we grow in her and eventually we return to her” [x] Marlin Santi, Kichwa.
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Indigenous People of Ecuador
Protected Areas of Ecuador
What are some of the things that each of us can do to help save the Ecuadorian Amazon?
1. Boycott Chevron, ConocoPhilips and other oil companies that are destroying Ecuador and other oil rich countries. Ask where your oil comes from.
2. Reduce your oil consumption. The United States uses 25 percent of the world’s oil for 5 percent of the world population.
3. Stop driving gas-guzzling cars, SUVs, trucks. If you must drive, get a fuel efficient car – or take public transportation.
4. Car pool
5. Ask your public transit companies to purchase vehicles that are more gas/diesel efficient. Most buses get 2 to 3 miles per gallon.
6. Stop using leaf blowers – a gas-guzzling waste of energy to move debris from one spot to another.
7. Buy locally grown food and products thereby reducing the need to ship and truck goods around the world
8. Teach your children about the world – how other people live, think, communicate and how they honor their environment.
9. Honor your own environment – local parks, sea shores, lakes, streams – even your own backyard. Keep them clean. Avoid using pesticides, herbicides and gas-powered machinery.
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[i]“The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador”
[ii] “Chevron caused environmental ‘barbarity’ in Ecuador: Correa”, April 26, 2007,
[iii] “Ecuador”, Ecuador Country Analysis Briefs,
[iv] “Ecuador’s ‘DividedState’ is pulled towards the Left”,
[v] “Ecuador Economy Minister says country will try to make payment on bond debt in February”,
[vi] “Ecuador tribes vow to fight oil threat”, .
[vii] “Ecuador Indians vow to fight Petrobras Oil Development”,
[viii] ‘Petrobras and Petroecuador sign memo of understanding’
[ix] ‘Burlington Resources in Ecuador’ video Amazonwatch.org
[x] ‘Burlington Resources in Ecuador” video