By Mario Melo*
In 1996, the Ecuadorian State granted Block 23, which affects 60% of the territory of the Kichwa Indigenous People of Sarayaku, to the Compañía General de Combustibles (CGC) of Argentina. This concession was made without any process of information, consultation or request for consent from the People of Sarayaku.
During the last quarter of 2002 and the first quarter of 2003, the CGC repeatedly entered Sarayaku territory without authorization and against the will of the legitimate owner, to carry out highly destructive seismic surveys. In an attempt to stop them, Sarayaku declared a state of emergency for 7 months and mobilized its inhabitants, men, women, youth and even children, to protect their territory in the so-called Peace and Life Camps established in the middle of the jungle, where the armed invasion by the CGC and the army was taking place. This decision entailed serious risks to the life, integrity, health, food, education, culture and spirituality of the members of Sarayaku.
According to official information from the Ministry of Energy, there are 476 points within the territory of Sarayaku and the Achuar territory where the CGC company placed, without the knowledge of those affected, without having consulted them beforehand and against their will, charges of between 3 and 5 kg of pentolite, a highly destructive explosive. In total there are 1,433 kg (almost a ton and a half) of explosives planted at a depth of 12 meters and an undetermined quantity abandoned on the surface of the sacred forest of Sarayaku, in their hunting grounds, in places where children and young people go in search of sustenance. The information given by the Ministry of Energy is that this explosive is very dangerous and that the charges can be accidentally detonated very easily.
In early 2003, Sarayaku went to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights requesting urgent intervention to safeguard their rights violated during the seismic campaign of the CGC company. In May of that year, the Commission issued precautionary measures in favor of the life and integrity of the members of the community and their special relationship with their territory. The Ecuadorian State systematically ignored these measures.
In response to the failure to comply with the Precautionary Measures, the Inter-American Commission requested that the Inter-American Court issue Provisional Measures in favor of Sarayaku, which were granted in July 2004. These measures seek to protect the lives and integrity of the members of Sarayaku, the investigation of the acts of violence committed against them, and the effective guarantee of the right to free movement violated by the arbitrary blockade of the Bobonaza River by allies of the oil company, as a measure of pressure so that Sarayaku desists from the legal actions undertaken and enters into negotiations.
In response to the new failure of the Ecuadorian State, the Court in June 2005 ratified the measures and expanded them to include the provision that the explosives left by the CGC in Sarayaku territory be urgently removed. It was not until the first half of 2007, in the first months of President Rafael Correa's government, that the Ecuadorian State, through the Ministry of Energy and Mines, accepted the Inter-American Court's ruling. Since then, the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has taken steps to remove the explosives; a project that would begin to materialize at the end of the same year. By December 2009, with the assistance of the Intervention and Rescue Group of the National Police, only fourteen kilograms of explosives had been removed and the process has been suspended until now.
All of the government's efforts to comply with the Court's rulings, aimed at protecting Human Rights and the Rights of Nature, were wasted... On May 8, 2009, the Minister of Mines and Petroleum surprisingly authorized the resumption of oil operations in Blocks 23 and 24, which the Sarayaku People and the Shuar and Achuar Nationalities have opposed since the late 1990s. This authorization also openly goes against other decisions by international human rights organizations that protect indigenous people. Even though the resumption of activities ordered was not complied with by the CGC company, this fact demonstrates the fragile situation in which the Sarayaku case finds itself.
Worse still, in the renegotiation of the Block 10 contract between the government of President Rafael Correa and the AGIP company, held in November 2010, the authorities gave the oil company a portion of Block 23 that affects the territory of several Amazonian indigenous peoples. The territory of Sarayaku is also affected by Block 10. This redefinition of the Block was done, once again, behind the backs of the affected nationalities and peoples, without having consulted them or asked for their consent despite the seriousness of the effects that this decision will have on their lives and territories.
On January 26, 2010, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued its resolution on the case.
The case was referred to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. On July 6 and 7, 2011, in San José, Costa Rica, the hearing of the Sarayaku case was held before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. This hearing is crucial because in it the Kichwa people of Sarayaku, from the Ecuadorian Amazon, presented to the judges of the Court their oral arguments as well as testimonial and expert evidence with which they will demonstrate the human rights violations they suffered during the oil activity in Block 23. A delegation of leaders, traditional elders, men and women of the community traveled from Sarayaku to Costa Rica.
The Inter-American Court will issue a ruling that is eagerly awaited by indigenous peoples and experts from around the world, and especially from the American continent, as it will set new precedents regarding the right to prior consultation and consent of communities affected by oil projects. For Ecuador, this ruling, which must be complied with by the State, will have great repercussions as it will settle a debate that has been very intense in recent years regarding the scope of the right to consultation and the territorial rights of indigenous peoples who are affected by natural resource exploitation projects promoted by the State.
Fountain: Another America, from South to North
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