On April 26, the Buenavista Reservation of the Siona People and the Association for Holistic Sustainable Development, Perla Amazónica, ADISPA, publicly denounced the launching of a “Strategic Alliance” between the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the oil company GeoPark, denouncing that the UNDP did not hold consultations with the campesino and indigenous communities and organizations impacted by the extractive activity carried out by this oil company, and that the UNDP did not take into account the processes of territorial defense and resistance against extractive industries that both community organizations have been enduring for years in the municipality of Puerto Asís, Putumayo, Colombia.

Responding to this complaint, Jessica Faieta, the Resident Representative of the United Nations System in Colombia wrote on April 28 and proposed a meeting with the organizations to detail the UNDP’s interest in developing the project of territorial economic reactivation in partnership with private actors – such as the oil company GeoPark – in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. In her letter, she further stated that “In accordance with the principles that characterize UNDP actions, such as impartiality, transparency, and building trust, we have decided to suspend the activities of this project in the municipality of Puerto Asís to learn more about your concerns and to share with you the scope of UNDP’s actions envisioned for the territory.”

The meeting was held virtually on April 29, with the participation of the leaders of the Buenavista Reservation and ADISPA and the accompaniment of the civil society organizations jointly subscribing to this release. The UNDP’s principal interlocutor, Jessica Faieta, tried to justify, in a regrettable way, the actions carried out to attract resources from private companies, in a clear omission of the minimum criteria for corporate ethics and due diligence.

Under the Sustainable Development agenda, UNDP signed an alliance with GeoPark that favored its corporate image and made it easier for the company to whitewash its responsibility for the historical violation of human, collective, environmental, and territorial rights in the precarious contexts in Colombia. The Chilean oil company GeoPark made a contribution of US$1.7M¹ to UNDP, the amount being the criterion that prevailed contrary to international standards and guiding principles for Business and Human Rights² and the Escazú Agreement, which define the minimum standards for the verification of compliance with the law and respect of human rights by Transnational Companies, with special emphasis on the problems and impacts on communities exposed to greater risks, vulnerabilities, and marginalization due to the specific context of victimization of the internal armed conflict.

We found it unfortunate that Jessica Faieta’s interventions attempted to justify the unjustifiable. She mentioned that the role of the United Nations was to “guarantee, promote, and facilitate” human rights compliance by companies that are already established in the region and to ensure that they, in turn, return “development” to the territories that is “sustainable” for the communities, using as an example alliances in other parts of the country with companies that have had great questions raised about massive human rights violations that have occurred in their zones of influence in the development of mining and energy projects, questions troubling enough that they are even being studied as a case before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace.³

Another controversial point during the meeting was the allusion made by the UNDP representative of her role in guaranteeing the right to prior consultation, which she asserted she could “ensure.” On the one hand, the System of Nations United cannot supplant State functions to try to impose corporate visions favorable to extractive interests in the region at the cost of the struggle and survival of an ancient and ancestral people. The Buenavista Reservation of the Siona People has had to endure the systematic and bad faith infringements of their right to prior consultation by the oil company (today “Nueva Amerisur,” a subsidiary of GeoPark.) Buenavista has publicly reiterated their firm position that they have formalized their lack of agreement with the oil company since 2015, and which clearly expresses their lack of consent for any kind of prospecting, exploration, and exploitation activities for crude oil within its ancestral territory, a position also protected by precautionary decisions of the Court of Land Restitution of Mocoa. On the other hand, several human rights organizations, including Global Witness, have documented the multiple murders of territorial and environmental rights defenders, placing Colombia as the country where the most such cases are presented and documented.⁴

This integration philosophy promoted by UNDP, through which it seeks to bring together multinational companies that, like GeoPark, do not assume their responsibilities for repairing, remediating, and financing socio-environmental conflicts; with communities in resistance such as the Buenavista Reservation, is disrespectful of the struggle and good faith with which the indigenous community received the “Sustainable Amazon” program, and is incompatible with the program’s stated purposes. One cannot fail to consider that in the Auto 004 of 2009, the Constitutional Court of Colombia identified the extractive sector and its imposition of oil projects by force in the territories to be an underlying factor in the internal armed conflict. The Court also identified the Siona People to be among 34 indigenous peoples at “high risk of cultural or physical extermination.” This is underscored by the statements of irregular armed actors who have publicly supported the same oil development in the municipality of Puerto Asís.

Through a brief statement that has not yet been made public or signed by the Representative, but that came to us from UNDP’s email to the Buenavista Reservation, on 12 May 2021 UNDP reported that it had decided to CANCEL the alliance with the GeoPark oil company, ratifying the commitment “with the indigenous peoples and sustainable development in Colombia.”

We reiterate: it is not enough for UNDP to cancel their activities with the oil company. The trust, the legitimacy, and the respect that the civil society organizations had placed in the United Nations System and particularly in the UNDP was deeply fractured. We see it as a clear sign of bad faith that, despite the fact that the leaders of the Buenavista Reservation had been emphatic both in their written statement and in the oral interventions made in the April 29 meeting that they were not going to continue with the execution of the GRANT until UNDP publicly defined its position regarding the Agreements with Geopark, UNDP disbursed two days later resources for $52,000,000.00 COP to the account of the Tribal Government (Cabildo,) pressing to give continuity and execution of activities that include access to privileged information of the territory whose content we no longer trust would not end up in the hands of the company.

We insist that it is INCOHERENT of UNDP to both seek effective environmental and territorial protection of the Amazon and at the same time reach agreements with the company that has most threatened this fragile ecosystem and that has tried to fragment the organization of communities, to the extent of legally opposing the process of restitution of territorial rights. These are not isolated cases but instead have grave international antecedents such as the pressure on communities and territories of the Wampís and Achuar indigenous peoples in Peru, whose legal actions and resistance led to the discontinuance and withdrawal of the oil company in July 2020 in that country.⁵ The UNDP must have as PUBLIC a response as the one deployed when the Alliance was launched.

We demand that UNDP speak out publicly on any final decisions it adopts; that GeoPark remove from its website the endorsement, logo, and alliance with the United Nations System in Colombia; and that Jessica Faieta in her capacity as Resident Representative of the United Nations System in Colombia publicly apologize to the Buenavista Reservation for having ignored their struggle to defend life, territory, and dignity, giving preference to interests that pollute the territories, destroy the Amazon, and put at risk the life of the communities.

RESGUARDO BUENAVISTA PUEBLO SIONA

gobernadorbuenavista@gmail.com

AMAZON FRONTLINES

Legal@amazonfrontlines.org

AMAZON WATCH

andrew@amazonwatch.org

HEALING BRIDGES

healingbridgesdc@gmail.com

1. See: https://open.undp.org/projects/00132303

2. Resolution 17/4, of 16 June 2011, Human Rights Council of the United Nations.

3. See: “La JEP establece que 2.094 personas fueron víctimas de desaparición forzada en el área de influencia de Hidroituango”, Comunicado 173 of 2020, Bogotá, 9 December 2020. Accessed at: https://www.jep.gov.co/Sala-de-Prensa/Paginas/La-JEP-establece-que-2.094-personas-fueron-v%C3%ADctimas-de-desaparici%C3%B3n-forzada-en-el-%C3%A1rea-de-influencia-de-Hidroituango.aspx

4. https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/defending-tomorrow/

5. https://earthrights.org/media/empresa-petrolera-geopark-desistio-de-operar-en-territorios-indigenas-wampis-y- achuar/

Iván Duque
President of the Republic of Colombia

Antonia Urrejola
President of the Interamerican Commision on Human Rights

Francisco Cali Tzay
Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, United Nations

Mary Lawlor
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defender

On April 20th, Sandra Liliana Peña Choqué, governor of the La Laguna Reserve in Siberia of the Caldono municipality in the department of Cauca, was cowardly murdered in her home. Sandra Liliana emphatically led the assemblies and traditional authorities determined to self govern her ancestral territory which was gravely attacked by regular and irregular armed actors that attempted to gain control through strategies of displacement and other methods.

The signers of this request for URGENT ACTION note with great concern that this is not an isolated act. Not only did the relevant institutions have sufficient information about the risks faced by Sandra Liliana, which were presented repeatedly during spaces within the Minga Nacional por la Vida and other reiterated requests, complaints, and demands, but especially because in Colombia this year alone 52 leaders and human rights defenders have been killed (18 of them Indigenous and more than 1,166 since the Peace Accords were signed according to Indepaz. Despite this, the government of President Duque had not implemented minimum measures for her protection.

Throughout this year, Indigenous and human rights organizations have denounced the significant increase in armed narco-paramilitary incidents in Indigenous territories that provoke, among other consequences, displacement, confinement, recruitment and extermination of Indigenous people. This is the reality present in a number of Indigenous territories across the country, and in a particularly acute and systematic way in the Cauca region.

We therefore echo their demands to the national government “so that it attends to this situation immediately, as the omission to do so is an act that contributes the genocide of Indigenous peoples; and that the alternative is not more militarization but rather strengthening of autonomous Indigenous Gaurds, the establishment of dialogue between state and Indigenous authorities and the implementation of the Peace Accords.”

In the face of increasing acts of violence against members of Indigenous peoples, human rights defenders, social leaders and signers of the Peace Accords it is of the utmost priority that the Colombian State adopt urgent and integral measures to reinforce systems aimed at the prevention of violence and the protection of these collectives, as well as the advancement of due diligence in the investigation of crimes committed against them. Particularly, the establishment and implementation of appropriate protection measures in coordination with Indigenous authorities in Cauca, and the carrying out of spiritual and physical protection measures to harmonize and prevent the varied violations of human rights that threaten their territories and survival, is urgent.

We therefore DEMAND that President Duque, in keeping with national and international obligations, guarantees the implementation of the Peace Accords so that conditions exist in Colombia to defend human rights and the rights of Indigenous communities and to guarantee the work of defenders and leaders like Sandra Liliana that within their authority develop legitimate actions for the protection of their territories and safety, often in the structural absence of the State, the systematic non-compliance of agreement and the militarization of their territories.

In relation to the murder of Sandra Liliana we demand that the Fiscalía General de la Nación, the Procuraduría, the Defensoría del Pueblo and other organisms tasked with the investigation of this murder determine with dilligence those responsible for the material and intellectual crimes and charge them accordingly, with the objective that this act is not added to the list of hundreds of murders of Indigenous leaders of Cauca that remain in impunity. At the same time, it is imperative that urgent and culturally appropriate measures are adopted to avoid similar crimes.

We elevate this knowledge of the current situation to the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on the situation of human rights defenders requiring their immediate intervention in compliance with their mandate. Particularly, to remind the Colombian State of its obligation to provide an environment free of hostilities and the respect of fundamental liberties of human rights defenders and social leaders within the framework of the implementation of the Peace Accords so they can freely and effectively carry out their labor, and of the international implications that the omission of this obligation carries.

To the family of Sandra Liliana, her community, the Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Norte del Cauca, the Indigenous Guard, the Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca and each and every Indigenous community of the Nasa peoples, we extend our deepest sympathies, our solidarity and our accompaniment before the serious incidents and continued threats you face.

For immediate release

(Coca, Ecuador. 24th March 2021) — Nearly one year after a disastrous oil spill dumped an estimated 15,800 barrels (664,000 gallons) of crude oil and other pollutants into Amazon rivers and tributaries, the Provincial Court of Orellana has rejected an appeal from affected Indigenous communities in a high-stakes lawsuit that demanded urgent environmental and community reparations from the Ecuadorian government and oil companies responsible. The outcome marks a grave blow to Ecuador’s pioneering Constitution, which was the first in the world to incorporate the rights of nature, and denies justice to more than 27,000 Indigenous people, who depend on the Coca and Napo rivers for drinking water in the biodiverse headwaters region of Ecuador’s Amazon.

The lawsuit, filed by Kichwa federation FCUNAE, Indigenous organizations, human rights groups and affected residents, said oil companies OCP Ecuador and Petroecuador EP and the environment and energy ministries had violated the constitutional rights of Indigenous people and the rights of nature. The verdict, issued yesterday by the appeals court judge after five months of unjustifiable delays, cites that the case was filed in the incorrect legal venue and that other administrative, civil and criminal mechanisms exist to address plaintiff’s claims for remediation and redress.

Plaintiffs and lawyers were subpoenaed last week and now face criminal charges for their work defending the Kichwa, following baseless allegations of intimidation and instigation in a lawsuit filed by the lower-court judge. Communities and human rights organizations denounce this action as dangerous persecution of human rights defenders and chilling evidence of the judicial branch’s attempts to discredit the Kichwa’s claim.

Throughout the trial, plaintiffs presented overwhelming evidence, testimony and first-hand accounts that the State and oil companies acted negligently and violated the rights of the Kichwa and of nature. OCP Ecuador, Petroecuador EP, and the Ministries of Environment and Water and of Energy and Non-Renewable Resources were unable to demonstrate that adequate measures were taken to prevent the spill, though they had been warned of regressive erosion in the area by scientists and experts since the collapse of the San Rafael waterfall on February 2, 2020.

Moreover, after the spill occurred, the entities responsible did not act to fully repair the damage to the affected population or to restore the natural environment. Community members, who received limited medical attention and food and water supplies, say the aid has been wholly insufficient  and came with strings attached. Communities also report ongoing contamination after oil pipeline operators halted clean-up operations prematurely in September 2020. Reports from the Ministry of the Environment and Water indicate that  areas on the banks of the Napo and Coca Rivers still have oil remnants less than a meter deep. Indigenous community members report a significant decrease in catch available for fishing, skin diseases from oil exposure, and impacts to their cultural and spiritual practices connected to the river.

The outcome of the case reinforces a decades-long legacy of impunity for Ecuador’s oil industry and gives a free pass to oil companies, OCP and Petroecuador, to continue to pollute the Amazon while skirting compliance with comprehensive remediation of affected ecosystems and impacted communities. Since the April 7, 2020 oil spill, at least one new major oil spill was reported in the region on November 27, 2020 in the Shiripuno river, which decimated vital resources that the Waorani and the isolated Tagaeri and Taromenane tribes rely on.

On April 7, 2021 exactly one year after the oil spill, hundreds of Indigenous peoples will mobilize in the Amazonian city of Coca to denounce impunity and call for justice. Plaintiffs will take their case to Ecuador’s Supreme Court and pursue all legal options nationally and internationally, as necessary.

About the oil spill

The SOTE and OCP pipelines ruptured earlier this year as a result of negligence in addressing forewarned headward erosion on the Coca and Napo rivers. Backed by human rights organizations, Indigenous communities immediately filed a lawsuit asking for remediation, redress, and an end to oil company impunity on behalf of 27,000 Indigenous people from 105 different communities who were affected by the oil spill. The case was then suspended for seventy-five days due to the judge citing health concerns, as ongoing erosion and massive landslides threatened a second oil spill.

On August 4, 2020, more than two months after the case was filed, Kichwa communities along the spill zone escalated their demands by filing dozens of lawsuits to trigger court-ordered injunctions that would shutdown the oil pipelines. The risk of another catastrophic event was on display in the lead-up to the lower court’s decision when part of the highway along the same section of river collapsed due to erosion and state negligence. On September 1, 2020 a lower court judge dismissed the case, citing that it was the incorrect legal venue. Plaintiffs responded by appealing to demand justice, backed by 14,000 letters of global support.

DECLARATIONS

Carlos Jipa, president of the Kichwa Indigenous federation, FCUNAE, released the following statement:

“Indigenous communities reject the ruling issued by the Orellana court. We feel outraged that the Ecuadorian judicial system has failed to recognize the violations to our rights and the damages caused to our lives, our rivers, and our territory. Our rivers are polluted, our children are sick, our food gardens are ruined, the fish have disappeared. The State and companies have not complied with their obligations. There is no justice for Indigenous people. We will fight back.”

Veronica Grefa, Kichwa leader and President of Toyuca community, released the following statement:

“As a Kichwa Indigenous woman, I will continue to fight for my people’s rights and lives. We demand justice. Our families still suffer from the disastrous impacts of this spill, and we still don’t have clean water and food. Our communities are united to defend our rivers for future generations.”

Andrés Tapia, Member of the Leadership Council of Amazonian indigenous organization, CONFENIAE, released the following statement:

“The Kichwa’s lawsuit has exposed the deficiency of Ecuador’s justice system. Cases are stalled or move forward according to national political agendas. But when it comes to serving justice to the most vulnerable, judges turn a blind eye and delay effective responses. In the case of the Kichwa people, who have suffered clear rights violations as a consequence of the oil spill in the Coca and Napo rivers, a year has passed without any response and now impunity continues.”

Maria Espinosa, Lawyer for the case from Amazon Frontlines, released the following statement:

“We deeply regret that corporate power has prevailed over the truth and the rights of the victims. We are shocked that the judges did not recognize the violations of constitutional rights and damages resulting from the oil spill and that the rights of nature are not even acknowledged in the sentence. Together with the communities, we will continue to fight and pursue all legal options nationally and internationally because the rights of 27,000 Kichwa people and the rights of nature have been clearly violated. These violations persist to date, and continue to cause very serious impacts on the physical and cultural survival of the Kichwa people and their territories ”.

###

Additional photos and spokespeople available upon request.

Contact

Sophie Pinchetti
Amazon Frontlines
sophie@amazonfrontlines.org
(+593) 98 148 4873

(Sucumbios, Ecuador. 27 January 2021) — On Tuesday, an appeals court judge ruled that the Ecuadorian oil industry’s long-permitted practice of gas flaring— dubbed “flares of death” by local residents— is unconstitutional. Flaring is a practice in which the oil industry burns the byproducts of oil extraction, producing highly polluting methane and other gases, which erupt as a giant flame from a vertical gas pipe just meters from an oil well head.

There are 447 gas flares in the Ecuadorian Amazon, the heart of Indigenous territory. This includes 79 active flares within the Yasuni World Biosphere Reserve, which is deemed the most biodiverse area on Earth. They burn at an average temperature of 400 degrees Celsius 24-hours a day, year-round, and many are located in residential areas with no protection for exposed families.

The plaintiffs in the case— nine children aged between seven and 14 who live in the contaminated lands of Sucumbios in the Ecuadorian Amazon— sued the state-owned oil company, PetroAmazonas, the Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources, and the Ministry of the Environment in February 2020 to demand the cessation of gas flares in their villages, which contaminate the air and lead to illness, and the outlawing of future permits. The case builds upon the 26-year legal battle and $9.5 billion claim against oil giant Texaco-Chevron in the same region to demand justice for the ‘Amazon Chernobyl’, one of the worst oil-related disasters in the world.

“I am very happy because, finally, justice has been served,” said Leonela Moncayo, one of the child plaintiffs. “We are going to recover nature, for all the sick children, for the parents who have struggled to stay healthy, for the families who live under the flares and have had to abandon their land.”

Gases such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, SH2, CS2, nitrogen oxides, methane, ethane, propane, among others, spew out of these flares. Of these, SO2 (sulfur oxide) stands out, which when mixed with water (H2O) can form sulfurous acid (SO3H2) which, according to researchers, has been used for decades as a rat poison.

The toxic pollution caused by flaring is known to lead to chromosomal and genetic damage. The closer one lives to the flares, the more dangerous the conditions are for cancer, malformations and miscarriages. Two studies conducted in 2016 by researchers on the impacts of the oil industry on the health of Indigenous peoples living near the oil fields found that one in four families had at least one case of cancer. In nationalities further from contamination, the frequency of cancer was three times lower.

The flares also contain sulfuric acid (which is responsible for acid rain), heavy metals, radioactive substances and hydrocarbons. This form of contamination is not only a threat to local communities but can travel for 300km or more. During torrential tropical downpours the flares can go out which means they continue spewing unburnt gas, which has greater environmental toxicity.

In an oral ruling on Tuesday 26th January 2020, the appeals court judge accepted the plaintiffs’ appeal, revoking a lower court’s sentence and recognizing a violation of constitutionally protected rights to health, a healthy environment, the rights of nature, and environmental principles, such as sustainable development and the state’s obligation to adopt policies and measures to prevent negative environmental impacts.

The decision also recognized a violation of international agreements, specifically the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and non-compliance with the obligations assumed by Ecuador in its national climate change strategy to reduce emitting gases and convert gas into energy.

“The gas flares literally contribute to climate change. Ecuador made a commitment through the Paris Agreement to reduce its emissions,” stated Pablo Farjado, the plaintiffs’ lawyer from the Union of the People Affected by Texaco (UDAPT). “Shutting down gas flaring in the Ecuadorian Amazon would fulfill at least 24% of the government’s climate commitment.”

“We are now demanding all the gas flares to be shut down in the country and for the court to order adequate compensation and reparation measures to affected communities. In addition, safe and viable energy alternatives must be developed”, affirms Maria Espinosa, a lawyer for Amazon Frontlines, one of several organizations supporting the case.

There will be a hearing on Friday, January 29 to determine the actions that must be taken by the state-run oil companies, the Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources and the Ministry of Environment regarding reparations for victims and the fate of the gas flares themselves.

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The legal case on gas flaring in Ecuador was brought through a collaboration of several civil-society organizations, including UDAPT and the Clinica Ambiental, and others forming the Ecuadorian Alliance for Human Rights, such as Acción Ecologica and Amazon Frontlines, among others.

PRONUNCIAMIENTO

NUESTRO DERECHO, NUESTRO TERRITORIO, NUESTRA DECISIÓN

Rechazamos la imposición del proyecto de Ley de Consulta Previa, Libre e Informada y Consulta Pre-Legislativa elaborada sin debida concertación con los pueblos y sin el reconocimiento del derecho al consentimiento y a la autodeterminación

19 de noviembre de 2020

Frente a la violación histórica y sistemática de nuestros derechos a la autodeterminación, a la consulta y consentimiento previa, libre e informada y a la consulta prelegislativa por el Estado ecuatoriano –

Frente a la destrucción impuesta por el extractivismo y por la imposición de normas y políticas públicas sobre nuestros territorios sagrados, que son nuestra fuente de vida, cultura y espiritualidad –

Frente al despojo sistemático  y desconocimiento de nuestros derechos a la propiedad territorial convirtiéndolos de manera inconsulta y arbitraria en áreas protegidas e imponiéndose restricciones y cargas incompatibles con nuestras formas de vida –

Frente a la concesión y entrega inconsulta de nuestros territorios a favor de empresas mineras, petroleras, e hidroeléctricas, que constituye un acto ilegal y, por ende, nulo –

Frente al interés gubernamental de imponer sus agendas políticas y prioridades institucionales –

Frente al momento histórico en que próximamente la Corte Constitucional del Ecuador se pronunciará de fondo sobre los casos sobre vulneración del derecho a la consulta previa de los Waorani de Pastaza, los A’i Kofán de Sinangoe y el Pueblo Originario Kichwa de Sarayaku –

Frente al “proyecto de ley de consulta previa” que podría ser  discutida sin nuestra participación ni consentimiento en la Asamblea Nacional y ante el interés del Ministerio de Energía y Recursos No Renovables de regular de manera inconstitucional nuestro derecho a la consulta y consentimiento previo mediante decretos ejecutivos que velan por intereses económicos privados –

LOS PUEBLOS Y NACIONALIDADES DE LA AMAZONÍA ECUATORIANA NOS PRONUNCIAMOS:

 ¡Nuestro territorio! ¡Nuestro derecho! ¡Nuestra decisión!

LES RECORDAMOS: Nosotros los pueblos y nacionalidades indígenas del Ecuador somos titulares de derechos inalienables, reconocidos en la Constitución de la República y los instrumentos internacionales. Ecuador es un Estado plurinacional, y, por tanto, el Estado tiene la obligación de incorporar nuestros intereses como pueblos indígenas en el marco de los intereses generales de la nación.

NUESTRO TERRITORIO es donde nos desarrollamos y tiene sentido nuestra existencia como pueblos originarios. El Gobierno y ahora la Asamblea Nacional no entiende y no quiere entender, que todo nuestro territorio está conectado y depende de un equilibrio frágil y una armonía sagrada. Nuestro territorio no es un pozo petrolero, ni una mina de oro, ni una plantación de palma, ni un espacio baldío para imponer proyectos de “desarrollo” como hidroeléctricos. Es nuestra casa, la casa de nuestros espíritus, nuestra farmacia, nuestro supermercado, nuestra escuela, nuestro templo. Tenemos el derecho inalienable a mantener nuestras relaciones históricas con nuestros territorios, incluyendo sus equilibrios económicos, sociales, ambientales, culturales y espirituales.

NUESTRO DERECHO es a la consulta y al consentimiento previo, libre e informado ante cualquier proyecto o actividad que puede afectar nuestros territorios y ante cualquier ley, decreto o acto administrativo que afecte nuestra vida o territorio. Pero también nuestro derecho es a la AUTODETERMINACIÓN, a decidir nuestras formas de gobernar, tomar decisiones y a buscar libremente el desarrollo económico, social y cultural. La consulta previa sin consentimiento viola nuestro derecho a la autodeterminación y representa una burla a nuestras formas de gobierno propio. La consulta sin consentimiento convertiría estos derechos constitucionales e internacionales en un mero trámite para el gobierno, que nos lleva al engaño, el atropello y la división. Para nosotros, la violación de nuestro derecho a la consulta significa la violación a nuestro derecho al agua, salud, cultura, territorio y medioambiente sano.

NUESTRA DECISIÓN es colectiva y firme. Lo entendemos porque, al interior de nuestras comunidades y nacionalidades, todas las decisiones más importantes son tomadas de esa manera. La consulta y el consentimiento significan que el pensamiento y decisión de todo un pueblo es respetado, y para llegar a esto trabajamos colectivamente en espacios propios. Es como si cada uno de nosotros/as pusiéramos ingredientes en una olla colectiva que se cocina a fuego lento.  Cada pueblo cocina su decisión de manera distinta, por eso, la necesidad del enfoque y metodología diferenciada en la consulta por parte del Estado, de manera irrestricta y en absoluto apego a los instrumentos internacionales que protegen nuestros derechos. Todos cocinamos las decisiones JUNTOS en nuestras comunidades porque -por bien o mal- TODOS vamos a comer los beneficios o consecuencias juntos. ¿Qué significa esto? Que las decisiones colectivas suponen un proceso de pensamiento, de debate al interior de nuestras comunidades, de escuchar a nuestros Ancianos y de entender que los resultados de este proceso -extracción o no- trae consecuencias para nuestros territorios y para la vida de quienes los habitamos: la Naturaleza, nosotros y nosotras mismas, pero también nuestros seres espirituales.

Los territorios son nuestros. Los derechos son nuestros. La decisión es nuestra. POR ESO EXIGIMOS:

A la Asamblea Nacional:  En base a nuestro derecho a la autodeterminación aclaramos que el desarrollo normativo  del derecho a consulta y consentimiento previa, libre e informada con los Pueblos y las Nacionalidades y la consulta prelegislativa sólo tendrá validez si se realiza en armonía y respeto de nuestras formas y tiempos para la discusión, el análisis y la toma de decisiones sobre nuestros derechos y nuestros territorios decidimos nosotros. No participaremos de un proceso de desarrollo normativo que no garantice y respete nuestros mecanismos de gobernanza. Siendo una ley sobre los derechos colectivos de los Pueblos y Nacionalidades, nosotros tenemos que ser los que la impulsemos y definamos su contenido. Sin concertación, cualquier ley no será válida y no tendrán vigencia en los territorios de los pueblos y nacionalidades.

A la Defensoría del Pueblo:  La elaboración de cualquier propuesta de proyecto de consulta previa y consulta ambiental desde la Defensoría del Pueblo no puede responder a intereses políticos o a necesidades institucionales, no se puede pretender que la comunicación con algunos sectores dirigenciales y la realización de socializaciones con algunas organizaciones sea un mecanismo válido y respetuoso, es indispensable contar con la participación colectiva,  adecuarse a los  tiempos, criterios y a las formas de organización, análisis y toma de decisión que tenemos los diversos Pueblos y Nacionalidades. Rechazamos de manera categórica el actual proyecto de ley que impulsa la Defensoría del Pueblo ya que carece de legitimidad y desconoce la postura de Pueblos y Nacionalidades.

A la Corte Constitucional: Que de manera prioritaria por la gravedad y urgencia que reviste este derecho y por estar sistemáticamente vulnerado, cumpla con su obligación de llamar a audiencia pública a los casos ya seleccionados de las 16 comunidades Waorani de Pastaza, los A’i Kofán de Sinangoe para el desarrollo jurisprudencial y se dé continuidad a la acción interpuesta por el Pueblo Originario Kichwa de Sarayaku. Ustedes han dispuesto a la Asamblea Nacional que promueva el desarrollo de de una ley de consulta previa por dictamen de la Corte, pero es imposible pretender que en un plazo tan corto hagan una ley  que incluya de manera adecuada criterios de Pueblos y Nacionalidades que tienen visiones, situaciones, alcances y prioridades diversos de desarrollo y de manera fundamental formas diversas de gobernanza y acuerdos culturales. No es posible que la Corte desplace a la Asamblea a legislar este derecho fundamental sin que la misma Corte haya escuchado, precisamente, a los Pueblos y Nacionalidades y pronunciado sobre los estándares obligatorios de la consulta y el consentimiento previo, libre e informado.

Al Estado ecuatoriano: Que no promueva ningún supuesto y viciado proceso de consulta previa o las denominadas socializaciones en ninguno de nuestros territorios hasta que se garantice el consentimiento libre, previo e informado que respete nuestros mecanismos de gobernanza y nuestras prioridades de vida,  que reconozca que las decisiones que tomamos son de carácter vinculante y obligatorio para el Estado.

Negamos y rechazamos los procesos de consulta previa regulados por normas, reglamentos y decretos inconstitucionales e  infraconstitucionales escritos que responden a intereses extractivos violan nuestros derechos y ponen en riesgo nuestras vidas y territorios; todos las concesiones, contratos, bloques petroleros otorgados de manera inconsulta resultan ilegales y nulos.

Es obligación de todos los poderes del Estado que previo a la adopción de cualquier acto, por parte de cualquier autoridad administrativa que pudiese afectar los derechos colectivos reconocidos en la Constitución y en los instrumentos internacionales aplicables sea consultado en respeto de nuestra autodeterminación.

A la sociedad ecuatoriana y del mundo: Únanse a  nosotros. Hemos demostrado que los Pueblos y Nacionalidades Indígenas somos quienes protegemos de manera más efectiva la biodiversidad, los bosques y las fuentes de agua; es decir, la vida. Al no proteger nuestros derechos, nos ponen en riesgo de exterminio físico y cultural, pero también ponen en peligro a la naturaleza y, con ello, a que la humanidad sea más vulnerable a los efectos del cambio climático.

Contacto de prensa:

Andrés Tapia, dirigente de Comunicación de la CONFENIAE: +593 98 446 5175