Kichwas y Shuar en contra de la actividad petrolera

KICHWAS AND SHUAR AGAINST THE OIL INDUSTRY

CAMPAÑA ARAJUNO SIN PETROLEO
Efrén Calapucha (tankarana@yahoo.com)

English version after the Spanish article . Versión en inglés después del artículo en español

Acción recomendada: Escribe al presidente de la república del Euador, Economista Rafael Correa demandando el fin de la expansión de la frontera petrolera en la provincia de Pastaza y de la militarización de territorios indígenas con el proposito de facilitar la explotación petrolera. (sugerencias@presidencia.gov.ec, info@rafaelcorrea.com)

De una manera inconsulta, arbitraria llegaron el día sábado 19 de julio del presente año en tres vehículos blindados y un Helicóptero los altos funcionarios de Petroproducción y escoltados por la inteligencia militar; pretendiendo engañar a la población y autorizando explotar petróleo, yéndose por encima de un conglomerado de ACIA que plantea NO A LA EXPLOTACION PETROLERA EN EL TERRITORIO DE BOSQUE DEL OGLAN ALTO- SHUAR WASHENTS que son Territorios de la Asociación de Comunidades Indígenas de Arajuno “ACIA”, la decisión histórica que ha tomado el pueblo kichwa y Shuar de Arajuno ha sido y será RECHAZAR Y VIGILAR CUALQUIER INTENTO DE INTROMISIÓN DE ELEMENTOS (PERSONAS, HERRAMIENTAS Y MAQUINARIAS) a ese lugar. Es el momento de parar el abuso y la prepotencia en las que incluso ha minimizado a los Pueblos y Nacionalidades como si fuéramos actores reducidos de la sociedad Ecuatoriana.

¡Amigos de la Tierra!
En este espacio de la selva amazónica con grandes recursos biodiversos se quiere cercenar LA VIDA lo que NO PERMITEREMOS se establezca tan execrable hecho que afectará al Calentamiento Global extinguiéndose los pueblos, la flora y la fauna hasta hoy fortalecidas y guardadas celosamente y alertamos al Gobierno Nacional y al opinión pública que este Territorio Comunitario que se quiere afectar mediante intervención inconsulta ordenada por el Ing. Juan Chiriboga Pinos Sub Gerente de operaciones de PETROPRODUCCIÓN; este Territorio es declarado como Área de Bosque y vegetación Protectores con el acuerdo Nº 136 del ministerio del Ambiente, mediante Registro oficial Nº 24 del 24 de mayo del 2005.

Hacemos un llamado a la Prensa, local, Nacional y Mundial así como a las demás Nacionalidades, Pueblos y sectores sociales del Ecuador y del Mundo a demostrar la UNIDAD POR LA VIDA y alzar, vuestra VOZ DE PROTESTA y a la participación activa en los procesos de gestiones y demandas que se han dado inicio a partir del día de hoy en la provincia de Pastaza ¡POR QUE LA AMAZONÍA Y EL ÚLTIMO PULMÓN DEL MUNDO YA ES DE TODOS!

English Version, translated from Spanish by Martin Alle

CAMPAIGN ARAJUNO WITHOUT OIL

The Spanish Socialist party support an outrage against the environment

Version original en español más abajo después del artículo en inglés

Atentado al medio ambiente en Extremadura apoyado por el PSOE

Translated from Spanish by Martin Allen

On Friday 4th July 2008 the Plataforma Ciudadana Refinería No [PCRN, Citizens’ anti-refinery campaign] was represented by a notary at the Department of Industry, Energy and Environment of the Provincial Government of Extremadura in order to hand over the campaign’s objections to the oil refinery in Extremadura, promoted by the Group of “associates” of A. Gallardo and supported by Rodríguez Zapatero’s PSOE [Partido Socialista Obrero Español, the Spanish Socialist party]. These objections, addressed to the Ministries of Industry and of the Environment and to the Regional Government itself, consisted of some nine boxfuls of documents as well as documents on CD and seven bound volumes. And accompanying those documents, a first submission of 55,000 signatures against the project which the PCRN has collected in the district. A curious fact which can give an idea of the volume of the objections is that it took nine people to carry them through the premises of the Provincial Government.

Sources in the Provincial Government state that there is no precedent in the history of Extremadura of any project against which such voluminous and well-developed objections have been presented.

Prior Consent in Ecuador: The rules of the game

Consulta Previa en el Ecuador: Las Reglas del Juego

Versión en español al final del documento

Consultation and prior consent debated in the Constituent Assembly
By Mario Melo. Translated from Spanish by Martin Allen.

Alberto Acosta, es ministro de Energía y Minas y actual pdte. de la Asamblea Constituyente, da explicaciones a las salida del ministerio a los manifestantes en contra de las actividades mineras, Marzo 2007.

The Ecuadorian press takes note of the fierce debate under way in the National Constituent Assembly concerning rights to consultation and prior informed consent. According to the daily La Hora of 23rd April 2008 this debate, in which the Presidents of the Assembly and of the Republic would be on opposite sides, would take dramatic turns within Constituent Table 5 which deals with matters of the environment and natural resources.

That is as it should be. At these levels of the Assembly’s work, the basic matters, those affecting the interests of most concern to the pressure-groups seeking to influence national policy, are beginning to come to the surface. So after many of the discussions which have recently kept the Assembly members awake, a very active sector of the national oligarchy, allied to the extractive transnationals which have controlled policy and the national economy since the 1970s, is anxious for their privileges not to be withdrawn.

Exploitation in Ecuador of such resources as oil and timber has, for decades, been based on imposition. Imposed on the country is a vision of development based on the myth that increased exploitation of natural resources brings increased wealth. The crude reality is that oil activity, for example, has contributed only to the wealth of the oil transnationals and their allies within the nation. Ecuador as a producer of oil is poor, very poor and heavily in debt. Much poorer and much more indebted than it was before exploiting its oil. Oil activity is imposed on communities, their ancestral territories handed over to transnationals behind their backs, without informing them, without consulting them, indeed without asking for the consent of the legitimate owners. In return the oil companies have left them rubbish, contamination, cancer, violence, marginality and dependence.

British Food Giant fences Indigenous People in Venezuela

Caracas, February 25, 2008, (YVKE Radio Mundial) –

President Hugo Chávez ordered quick and decisive action Sunday in order to liberate 200 Yaruro indigenous people who have been encircled by fences built by Agroflora, an affiliate of the British Vestey Group, according to denunciations filed by Representative Cristóbal Jiménez and ratified by the Minister of Agriculture and Land, Elias Jaua. Also, 800 other indigenous people remained outside of the fences. “The farm put up a fence around them and they can’t get out without permission from the farm owners,” Jiménez explained.

“When the English company bought the Morichito farm from Vicente Pérez Soto, in the document the indigenous people were included,” Jiménez pointed out. Pérez Soto was a governor in the era of Juan Vicente Gómez, at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Jaua met with the president of Agroflora and informed her that nearly 10,000 acres will be confiscated by the state so that the indigenous peoples can move about freely.

President Orders Immediate Liberation of Indigenous Peoples

“This is a flagrant violation of indigenous rights,” the president said. He ordered that this Monday the National Guard, accompanied by a judge and a public prosecutor, shall demolish the fences, allowing the indigenous people to recuperate their right to move freely. “If they want to demand something from the State, then they shall demand it, but we cannot permit them to fence in an indigenous community,” Chávez proclaimed.

Oil, Spills and Ethnocide in the Amazon

Petroleo, Derrames, y Etnocidio en la Amazonía

Possible sanction against Repsol YPF (operating in Waorani territory) for spillage of crude still under consideration (versión en español más abajo)

Television donated to a Waorani community by Repsol YPF

Televisión donada a una comunidad Waorani por repsol YPF
The article below is another example of how the oil industry is contributing to the disappearance of the last originary people. Transnational corporations like Repsol YPF, operating in indigenous territory and in the border of natural reserves, claim their operations are cleaner than ever in this new era of high technology.

Please also check in the resistance section the speech by Ehuenguime Enkeri, leader and president of the Ecuadorian Waorani Nation, before the court of Disputes and Administration, referring to the constitutional support invoked by the Waorani Nation for lifting of the environmental licence issued to Petrobrás for beginning operations in Block 31 – Waorani territory.

Ecuador has an oil production rate of 400.000 barrels per day, each year more than 32.000 barrels are spilt into the river systems. This means that every 2 -3 years, a spill as big as the “Exxon Valdez” takes place in the Amazon. Not surprisingly, most part of these areas happen to be inhabited by indigenous people.

The lack of a previous and informed consultation regarding oil, coal, forest, environmental services, and conservation concessions in indigenous territory is one of the main complaints of indigenous organizations. According to ILO Convention 169, the State has the obligation to provide free and informed consent to indigenous people regarding any legislative or administrative measure that may affect them, this includes oil developments. But Convention 169 is not a binding document and, its text is not clear in many aspects. Therefore, signatory states create their own regulations with their own view of the process of consultation.

The State grants concessions of indigenous territories to oil trans-nationals and only informs the indigenous people once the contract with the company is signed, this is what the State calls consultation process, which in fact is just an information process where of course indigenous people have no veto control, even if they decide they do not want any oil exploration in their territory.

Having been in various of these consultation processes in Peru and Ecuador is striking to witness the level of coordination between the State and the oil-transnationals, where the State representatives almost act as a sort of advertising company for the oil transnational proclaiming the goodness of the industry and reminding the communities their responsibilities and role in the economic development of their country.

Since 2004 in some Latin America countries States have created regulations that enforce the companies to carry out pre-bidding consultations with the affected communities. Nevertheless, many communities have decided not to attend to this consultation processes as their last resource to stop oil activities in their territory. They claim there is no point in being consulted if they do not have veto control and by attending to the consultation and filling in the attendance form they help the companies and the State to fulfil the needed requisites to carry our their activities. In this case indigenous people are resisting the hegemony of the State by not using an instrument, such us the ILO Convention 169, which was created in the first place for their own interest.

Possible sanction against Repsol YPF for spillage of crude still under consideration

Ecuador inmediato, http://www.ecuadorinmediato.com/noticias/70491, 2008-02-02

Official of the Ministry of Mines and Oil states that 500 barrels of crude were spiltThe Government of Ecuador today insisted on applying possible sanctions against the Spanish-Argentine oil company Repsol YPF, for the spillage of crude which contaminated an area adjacent to an oilfield which that company administers in Ecuadorian Amazonia.

Militarization of the Oil Fields in Ecuador

Militarización de los campos petroleros en Ecuador. Versión en español más abajo

Translated from Spanish by Martin Allen 

http://www.lahora.com.ec
Saturday 22nd December 2007

Defence of the oil  industry will cost 40 million

The external security of all the installations, equipment and components of the national State hydrocarbon system will be in the hands of the Ecuadorian Army with effect from 2011.

This is because yesterday Petroecuador and the Ministry of Defence signed an agreement on inter-institutional co-operation.  The document was signed by Naval Captain Fernando Zurita, Executive President of the State Company, and Wellington Sandoval, Minister of Defence.

The agreement establishes that Petroecuador, as the beneficiary, will pay ten million dollars annually, for four years as from the date of signing.

For its part the National Ministry of Defence, through the Joint Command of the Armed Forces, undertakes to provide external physical security to the national hydrocarbon system by means of operational units of the Armed Forces formed of specialised personnel.

In addition, the operational units of the Armed Forces will be obliged to give immediate assistance in cases of emergency such as attack, sabotage, theft or extortion, and to undertake intelligence work and security studies for precautionary measures aimed at safeguarding the normal functioning of the activities of exploration, exploitation, industrialisation, transportation by oil pipeline, areas of influence and multiple pipeline installations, this without waiting for a request from the highest authorities or responsible units.

Oil Company asks Mapuches to prove their indigenous status

Compañía petrolera pide a Mapuches que prueben su estatus indígena 

Translated from Spanish by Martin Allen 

Check also this website and support the hunger strike of  the Mapuche political prisoners in Chile

Mira también esta página web y apoya la huelga de hambre de los presos políticos Mapuvhe en Chile 

Versión en español al final del comunicado en inglés

The Mapuche and the Oil Company in Neuquén.  No agreement made.
by Newen Antv from Neuquén

Wednesday 26th December 2007.
The Mapuche Community of Wenxu Xawel Leufu in Argentina returned to its territory to continue with resistance and to try to prevent the oil industry invading its territory.   The agreement claimed to have been made is today broken.   As yet, there has been no other proposal from the provincial government of Neuquén.
As continuation of the dialogue begun last Saturday between the Mapuche Community of Wenxu Xawel Leufu, the Neuquén Mapuche Confederation, representatives of the governments of Neuquén Province and Picun Leufu locality, and the oil company Piedra del Águila S.A., the parties reassembled again today.
The oil company did not attend and delivered a note, addressed to the Minister of Government through his intermediary the Governor of Neuquén, expressing doubt that the Curruhuinca family was a Mapuche community and that Mapuche rights should be considered in this matter.

To gain time
In what seems more like a ploy to gain time, the oil company says it accepts that three universities should be asked to “determine whether the Curruhuinca family are members of an originally aboriginal people which has lived as a community in the area of oil exploitation since before the creation of the National and Provincial State”.  In this way the oil company, through its appointees, is ignoring the current regulations for determining who is a member of an Original People in Argentina and in Neuquén Province.

Camisea II: the wrong path to the energy sovereignty of Peru

Camisea II: el camino erróneo hacia la soberanía energética de Peru

Translated from Spanish by Martin Allen

Version en español al final del artículo en inglés.

Press release

*Acción Ciudadana Camisea (Camisea Citizens’ Action) regrets the decision of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to approve the loan for continuation of Camisea.*

December 2007 – Despite the protests of Acción Ciudadana Camisea*, the College of Engineers of Peru and other institutions of civil society, on Wednesday 19th December the IDB approved a loan of US$400 million for the project of exporting liquefied natural gas to the Consorcio Perú LNG [made up of U.S.-based Hunt Oil, South Korea’s SK Corporation, Repsol YPF of Spain and Japan’s Marubeni Corporation].

Last week a Peruvian delegation travelled to Washington for talks with IDB executives, asking for the decision on the loan to be delayed pending adequate evaluation of possible environmental and socio-cultural damage involved in the project, emphasising the correction of the mistakes in Camisea I before the start of the second phase. The delegates were Alberto Barandiaran of Derecho, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR – Law, Environment and Natural Resources), Walter Kategari, head of the Consejo Machiguenga del Río Urubamba (Comaru), Carlos Hererra Descalzi, president of the College of Engineers of Peru and former Minister of Energy and Mines, and Congresswoman Gloria Ramos of Unión por el Peru (UPP).

In the past few days the liquefied natural gas project has also been questioned by various organisations of civil society and the media, since it puts Peru’s energy security in jeopardy. Particular attention has been paid to the report by Glenn Jenkins, a Harvard economist specialising in Economics and Development, who states that of all possible uses of the gas, exporting it would be the least profitable for Peru.

Waorani Nation against militarization of oil fields

La Nación Huaorani en contra de la Militarización de los pozos petroleros.

Versión en español al final del artículo en inglés.
Translated from Spanish by Martin Allen

Communiqué of the Ecuadorian Waorani Nation to public opinion
18 December 2007

We, the Waorani Nation, support our brothers who are being persecuted and imprisoned during the State of Emergency.

In 1990 the Maxus company entered our territory and now it is the Repsol YPF company that operates Block 16. This company has for years maintained a security agreement for its installations with the Ecuadorian Army, which constitutes a serious attack on our people’s rights.

In the past month, due to the state of emergency in Orellana Province decreed by the national government, we have been subjected to persecution and imprisonment by the soldiery at Repsol’s service.

At present the former fighter Nampay Ahua, 60 years old, illiterate and unfamiliar with the Spanish language, has been held in prison for 15 days in the town of Coca for an abuse committed by the military. Señor Ahua is a leader and lives in the Guiyero community within Repsol’s Block 16. Señor Bainca Enitahue Apa is also in prison for setting up stoppages within Block 16, completely unaware of the state of emergency and the suspension of rights resulting from this exceptional situation.

Ecuadorian President says “ecologists are terrorists”

El presidente de Ecuador dice que los ecologistas son terroristas

See also below the statement of the Mayor of the province of Orellana rejecting the state of emergency in the province.

Version en español al final de la versión en inglés . También podrás encontrar la declaración de la alcaldesa de Orellana rechazando el estado de emergencia declarado en la provincia

Translated by Martin Allen.

Heridos en el último paro petrolero en Orellana

Injured people during the last oil stopage

What happened at Dayuma, in the Amazonian province of Orellana, during the last oil stoppage?

Today, 1st December, Correa is speaking on his radio channel. Here are some extracts from his speech:

Ecologists are “extortionists”.

It is not the communities that are protesting, but a group of terrorists.
The people of the east don’t support the romantic environmentalists, and it is those childish leftists who want to destabilise the government.

Anarchy has finished, and this government will not permit popular excesses worse than Mamá Lucha [well-known creation of a campaign by a Mexican subsidiary of Wal-mart, aimed at mothers of families to publicise low-priced goods].

Don’t believe the romantic environmentalists. Everyone who opposes the development of the country is a terrorist.

There are terrorist people who make use of the inhabitants, saying that their territories have been forgotten. Don’t let yourselves be deceived.

The government is investigating who are behind all this. We even have information that sectors of the church are included. Hopefully this is untrue, because it would be terrible if church people were involved in such error.

The government will not allow exploitation of minerals and oil to be halted.

I refer to EcuaCorriente [the Ecuadorian sector of a Canadian mining company] because those millions will permit the country to be taken out of underdevelopment. We need them to build schools and health centers.

It is more immoral to avoid the cost-benefit of exploiting the ITT [oilfield] and making gaps in the jungle, because we need the money from exploitation of minerals and oil. I say it’s more immoral to let people die by defending birds and trees. (for background information on this issue click here)
The chief enemies of our project are the childish leftists and romantic ecologists, who are mistaken.

No way will we allow the exploitation of the resources needed by our country to be halted.

Everyone is opposed to destruction of nature, but if our development depends on it, and if the rest of the world won’t pay compensation for the ITT field, it will be exploited.

Zero tolerance of all those who want to halt production and generate chaos (referring to communities affected by mining, hydro-electricity, oil and timber exploitation), anarchists accustomed under other governments to paralyse development of the country when they feel like it – we shall punish them with the full force of the law.

THOSE ARE THE WORDS OF THE MAN WHO PROMISED THAT THE COUNTRY NOW BELONGS TO EVERYONE.

How far will repression go, with military man Fernando Zurita president of Petroecuador? (state oil company)

What does it mean, that against direct actions there would be “zero tolerance”?

What price will we social groups have to pay for our decision to vote in the second round against Álvaro Noboa, and to prevent him gaining power?

“When the last river dies, and when the last river is poisoned, we shall understand that petroleum cannot be eaten.”

DECREE OF EMERGENCY INTENSIFIES MILITARY REPRESSION IN DAYUMA, TARACOA AND INÉS ARANDO

Señora Anita Rivas, Mayor of the Municipal Government of Francisco de Orellana, has rejected Executive Decree No. 770 which declares a state of emergency in the Province of Orellana.

The chief municipal authority maintained that, on the pretext of the state of emergency, there has been an increase in violation of the rights of the inhabitants of the parishes of Dayuma and Inés Arango who are maintaining a campaign of action against the central government’s broken promises in the matter of roads: uniformed men of the Fourth Division of the Army, commanded by Brigadier Fabián Narváez Regalado, have raided homes, are assaulting, beating and have detained some 45 men, of whom 16 are being held in Petroproducción premises and two in police cells while the rest have disappeared.