Justice Minister Ledy Zuniga to Offer Apology in Ceremony Wednesday

Justice Minister Ledy Zuniga will offer a public apology to a community from the Sarayaku indigenous group on Wednesday over the development of an oil project in their ancestral lands almost two decades ago, which an international court said was a violation of their rights.

"This is a great step forward for the indigenous peoples' battle to defend their rights and their ancestral lands," Felix Santi, the head of the Sarayaku people, said in an interview. " This day will be recorded in the memory and the history of the Kwichua people." The Kwichua community of Sarayaku is located in the Ecuadorean Amazon in Pastaza province.

The apology will be offered by Ms. Zuniga in the Kwichua language and Spanish in a public ceremony at the Sarayaku's central plaza. Three other ministers, including Environmental Minister Lorena Tapia, are expected to attend.

But observers say the apology won't do much to defuse potential conflicts between indigenous peoples and companies that want to explore for oil in the Amazon.


"New conflicts can still arise with new oil projects, especially in the southeast as under the current law the government is obliged to carry out prior consultation, but results are not binding," said Fernando Santos, a lawyer who works in the oil sector. "That means that although there may be community opposition, the government can develop projects."

In July 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that Ecuador must apologize, consult, and compensate the Sarayaku community for violating their rights with the development of the Block 23 concession in Pastaza. It also said the government must accelerate the safe removal of 1.4 tons of explosives that an oil company left in their land.

In 1996, during the government of conservative President Sixto Duran Ballen, Argentina's Compania General de Combustibles obtained a license to develop Block 23. About 60% of the land belongs to the Sarayaku community and the remaining to other indigenous groups.

The court said that Ecuador didn't seek consent from the Sarayaku community in accordance with international standards.

The court said this was a violation of the Sarayaku's rights, including its cultural identity and indigenous communal property.

The community sued Ecuador's government in 2003. Last year, the Sarayaku people received compensation of $1.4 million, but the government still needed to remove the explosives left in the land.

The Sarayaku population totals about 1,200. Since the 1980s, it has publicly fought against oil activity in its territory.

"This is the first time that a Latin American state has gone to an indigenous community to offer apologies for something it did poorly," said Mario Melo, a lawyer for the Sarayaku community. "This could be an example for other communities not only in Ecuador, but the entire region."
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Canadian Gemini award–winning Cree actress and self-proclaimed “artist in solidarity with Idle No More” Michelle Thrush is wielding her celebrity clout in defense of Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador.

On April 17 she put her acting skills and environmental passion to use in Calgary, Alberta along with activist organizations including Idle No More, the Sierra Club and Amazon Watch, when she delivered a strong message to a group of oil executives and Ecuadorian government representatives in an oil bidding meeting at the Telus Convention Centre. Speaking on behalf of the Indigenous Peoples of south Ecuador called the Seven Nationalities, Thrush and the groups told the parties that the four million hectares of Amazon region land they were discussing was not for sale.

“It was all very clandestine, which I loved—very top secret,” said Thrush, who was asked to crash the meeting only a couple of days beforehand.

The actress is no stranger to activism. Known for her roles in Blackstone, Arctic Air and other television and film works, Thrush has been involved with social justice issues since high school.

“I’ve been super involved in politics since way before Idle No More,” she told Indian Country Today Media Network. “As I’ve built my name over the years I’ve always tried to use my profile to be a part of creating change.”

In preparing for the protest, Thrush kept tradition at the forefront, making sure to smudge and ensure that she was grounded and protected for what was to come. The actress was given a character to play and a loose script. She disguised herself as a senior associate lawyer complete with a bogus business card to get in the doors of the high-profile meeting. The experience was nerve-wracking but empowering for Thrush.


After finding a seat she waited for a time that felt appropriate to stand up and speak. Thrush made her move following a talk by Ecuador’s Minister of Hydrocarbons and a short film that she felt dishonestly portrayed the Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador as showing support for oil development.

“I could feel my heart starting to pump, and honest to God this could only be understood by a Native person, I just started to call the grandmothers in,” she said later. “I just prayed, ‘I need you to be with me right now because I’m feeling intimidated, I’m in a room full of oil executives, senior associates and non-Native people, and I’m the only person here of color, and I’m really nervous.’ Then I felt this empowering feeling come through me. I walked up and I did what I needed to do, and I ended it.”


Thrush delivered an official Letter of Opposition to the meeting attendees and declared that the indigenous communities to be affected by oil exploration had not been consulted. Her speech lasted less than five minutes, but the interruption was felt by many soon after, not only in the room but also on an international level via several media outlets, including many in Ecuador.

Thrush said there was a moment when she felt like breaking down to cry, so strongly was the spirit of her southern brothers and sisters with her.

“The connection has always been there for me,” the actress said. “I can remember hearing from elders back in the ’90s, hearing the prophecies about when the condor meets the eagle, that’s going to be a really powerful time for us, and I think this is what’s going on right now with Idle No More. We need to really start reaching out to our southern relations and finding our commonalities—we are all indigenous people, from the top of the Inuit people right down to the tip of South America.”


Amazon Watch Environmental and Human Rights Campaigner Adam Zuckerman said he was impressed with Thrush’s actions.

“Having an indigenous person in Canada to be able to carry this out and speak to the struggle of the communities in the Amazon draws parallels from things her own community has gone through in regards to the environment oil exploration,” he said.


Talisman Energy has officially pulled its bid, citing the contract was “too controversial” to enter into.

Overall, Zuckerman said, the protest had enough of an effect to make buyers think twice. Final bids will be made and submitted to the Ecuador government at the end of May, with contracts to commence in the fall. Amazon Watch and other organizations will continue to protest.
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Quito, Ecuador – Hundreds of indigenous people gathered outside the Marriott Hotel in Quito today at the VII Annual Meeting of Oil and Energy where the Ecuadorian government announced the opening of the XI Round, an oil auction in which 13 oil blocks went on sale covering nearly eight million acres of rainforest in the Amazonian provinces of Pastaza and Morona Santiago near the border with Peru.

Led by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and the Confederation of Amazonian Indigenous Nationalities (CONFENIAE) and representing seven indigenous nationalities, the group overtook the entrance to the hotel and were meet by military, police, private security forces and pepper spray. Several indigenous leaders entered the meeting and publicly confronted Minister of Non-Renewable Energy Wilson Pastor.

"CONFENIAE was never consulted about this," said Franco Viteri, President of CONFENIAE. "Our position on oil extraction is clear: We are absolutely opposed."

The indigenous groups have long resisted oil drilling on their ancestral lands, fearing that the arrival of extractive industries would damage their water supply and threaten their traditional way of life. Indigenous representatives criticized the government's consultation process, a right guaranteed by the Ecuadorian Constitution, international treaties and rulings by international courts including the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. According to Achuar leader Domingo Peas, the so-called "consultation" process by the Ecuadorian government did not include indigenous participation and was not in accordance with traditional decision-making practices nor carried out in native languages.

"We say to the transnational corporations, there is no guarantee for your investments," said Humberto Cholango, President of CONAIE. "Those who go forward will face indigenous resistance in our territories."

For Ecuador – an OPEC-member whose oil output has hovered around 500,000 barrels per day in the past few years – the oil industry represents an important source of revenue. The country hopes to attract investments worth around $1 billion in oil exploration projects from state-run and private companies. Additionally, state-run oil company Petroecuador plans to negotiate with foreign state companies to develop three other blocks in the area.


David Martin, CEO of Gente Energy – formally of Ivanhoe Energy who has run into major trouble in Ecuador – proclaimed the small Andean country would be "the next Kuwait."

"This is simply a bad investment," said Kevin Koenig, Ecuador Program Coordinator at Amazon Watch. "Ecuador is selling off its last remaining rainforests and indigenous lands to the highest bidder. These are some of the most controversial blocks in the Amazon, companies must realize they are purchasing a problem that will only get worse. If there is this much resistance at the outset of the round here today, imagine what will happen if a company shows up in a community with an oilrig."


The contested oil blocks have a long legacy of controversy. Under former President Lucio Gutierrez, Ecuador attempted to offer up many of these same blocks only to find no bidders. Two blocks were previously held by ARCO, Burlington Resources, CGC and ConocoPhillips, but indigenous resistance kept company works out, forcing the government to declare force majeure and paralyzing the projects for nearly a decade. Ultimately, Ecuador had to compensate the companies for lost revenue and the companies endured major damage to their brands.

While exploration rights for 13 blocks were put up for auction today, the government may decide to put five more blocks in the area – including those within Sarayaku and Achuar ancestral territories – up for auction in the future. Companies will have six months to present their bids, and contracts should be signed before the end of September 2013.(SOURCE)

Quito, Ecuador — Over 25,000 people flooded Quito, Ecuador’s capital, on March 22 in the culmination of a two week march that began in the country’s Southern Amazon region and spanned roughly 700 kilometres.

The march, translated from Spanish to mean the “Plurinational March for Water, Life, and Dignity of the People,” was led by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) in collaboration with other indigenous, environmental, student, worker, and women’s groups.

The movement was born out of a rejection of the constitutional violations and extractive environmental policies of President Rafael Correa’s national government, which is lead by the Alianza Pais party (“Proud and Sovereign Fatherland Alliance”).

Thousands left Ecuador’s Southern Amazonian province of Zamora-Chinchipe on March 8 – International Women’s Day – to begin their journey to Quito. They arrived on March 22, World Water Day.

The starting point was symbolically chosen to denounce the large-scale, open pit copper mining project initiated in Zamora’s Condor Cordillera following a contract signed at the beginning of the month with the Chinese transnational mining corporation, Ecuacorriente (ECSA).

ECSA is an international subsidiary of the Canadian natural mineral resource company, Corriente Resources Inc., based in Vancouver, BC.


The project is the largest scale mining development in the Ecuador’s history, and is contracted to last 25 years, with a $1.4-billion investment in the Southern Amazonian region by ECSA within the first five years.

Provincial coordinating committees sent roughly 5,000 to 6,000 people from each province to participate in the march, joining the movement as it moved northward from Zamora toward the capital. Together these bodies made 19 demands on issues including labour, environmental justice, and reproductive rights.

They declared three of these demands to be nonnegotiable: the elimination of large scale mining, decriminalization of social protest, and the reinstatement of employment of 5,600 public workers who had been laid off in Fall 2011 by a constitutional decree which instituted “mandatory resignation.”

On March 22, 20,000 demonstrators travelled the final stretch through Quito, arriving from the south to gather downtown at Parque del Arbolito. Another 5,000 arrived from the north. They carried with them large banners, flags, graffiti, and drums, chanting as they made their way through the city.


Though the protesters marched in unity, they represented a wide variety of issues.

“I am here because I believe in protest. I believe it is one of the greatest achievements of the people, and I join this struggle for two reasons; because water is a right for all, and because I am against the large scale mining project in Zamora,” said Pablo Torres, a demonstrator from Quito.

Another demonstrator, Marco Montagua from Pastaza in the South Eastern Amazon stated, “I am here in the spirit of solidarity between indigenous peoples and nationalities. Each people, each sector, has their own reason for being here. We, the Sapara Nation, are here to resist oil extraction on our land.”

Riot cops and military lined the march and police helicopters flew overhead. While the protest remained mostly peaceful, altercations broke out between riot police, police on horseback, and the demonstrators around 6:00 p.m.

The government had banned the contracting of interprovincial buses throughout March, which constrained the number of protesters present in the demonstration.


Despite this, Soledad Vogliano, Natural Resource and Legal worker for CONAIE, explained that the march has already yielded some positive results.

“The government has announced that they will begin a process of dialogue to evaluate how the nonnegotiable demands can be implemented,” said Vogliano. “This period will last six months, by the end of which, if there is no action, the organizations involved in the march have announced that there will be uprising.” (SOURCE)