{"id":658,"date":"2013-08-22T16:53:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T16:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pachamamitaecu-org-720647.hostingersite.com\/2013\/08\/22\/los-enredos-detras-de-la-decision-de-explotar-el-itt-yasuni\/"},"modified":"2023-03-02T06:22:07","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T06:22:07","slug":"los-enredos-detras-de-la-decision-de-explotar-el-itt-yasuni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pachamamitaecu.org\/en\/2013\/08\/22\/the-intricacies-behind-the-decision-to-exploit-the-itt-yasuni\/","title":{"rendered":"The intricacies behind the decision to exploit the ITT Yasun\u00ed."},"content":{"rendered":"
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"If you can't convince, confuse." This maxim of Ecuadorian politics over the years was repeated days ago when, in a tangled presidential speech in which half-truths were mixed with "involuntary errors," with misleading figures and even with the omission of very important information, the official decision was made known to Ecuador and the world to move from Plan A to Plan B in the ITT Yasun\u00ed block, which will irremediably affect one of the most biodiverse and sensitive areas of the planet.<\/p>\n

Carlos Andres Vera<\/a>, (film director and blogger) presents us with an approach that aims to clarify some of the aspects of these entanglements behind the decision to exploit the ITT Yasun\u00ed.<\/span>

<\/span>1. The government has deceived you several times.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The first lie was to make you think that the ITT initiative was to save Yasun\u00ed. False. The Yasun\u00ed National Park (PNY) has 5 oil blocks: 14, 16, 17, 31 and ITT. In January 2012, the government gave the green light for Petroamazonas to exploit block 31<\/a> and days ago to do it with its sister field, the ITT. These are the blocks in the national park:<\/span>

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\"Yasun\u00ed<\/a><\/p>\n
Yasun\u00ed National Park, oil blocks and Taromenani presence<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Blocks 14, 16 and 17 have been exploited for years. The entire campaign that was mounted was not focused on preserving the crude oil underground in the PNY but in the ITT block, which occupies a relatively small area of the park. This is something that surely compromised the initiative from the start: how were other countries going to finance an environmental project in a national park with serious problems of genocide, logging, spills and full oil exploitation?<\/span>

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2. The second lie was telling you that the initiative had made interesting progress.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

On December 22, 2012, the Telegraph headlined:\u201cYasun\u00ed-ITT Initiative manages to raise $ 116 million\u201d<\/a>. After the presidential broadcast where the announcement was made, the following information was published: \u201cThere are only $ 13.3 million in funds available in the Yasun\u00ed ITT Trusts. That is, barely 0.37% of what was expected. There are commitments not directly linked to the initiative, for another $ 116 million.\u201d And he headlines a new lie: \u201cLess than 1 per thousand of the Yasun\u00ed will be affected\u201d<\/a> (As if the entire northern part of the park wasn't already committed or in full operation.) It turns out that the 116 million that Correa and Baki told us they had raised was not directly linked to the initiative. They knew this last December but waited until days ago to tell you that the actual fundraising had been a failure.<\/span>

<\/span> The proposal never clarified the most essential doubts for the country or potential investors:<\/span>

<\/span>Did you expect the 3.6 billion contribution all at once or in installments?<\/span>

<\/span>If 300 million were contributed over twelve years (3.6 billion), what would guarantee that the block would not be exploited in year 13?<\/span><\/p>\n

How could it be guaranteed that the donated money would not be spent on current expenses such as paying bureaucratic salaries?<\/p>\n

That's why countries like Germany did not trust the trust. Still,Germany decided to contribute $46 million directly to the NPP.<\/a> And that reveals another lie in the official discourse: that the world turned its back on Yasun\u00ed. No sir, it turned its back on a poorly planned initiative, which is another thing. Those who turned their backs on it were those who, knowing the poor economic success of the initiative, (as evidenced by this 2011 draft report from the negotiating group led by Baki)<\/a> They lied to you, assuring you that they had raised 116 million (among which they surely \u201cadded\u201d, to deceive you, the contribution from Germany).<\/p>\n

Turning one's back on the Yasun\u00ed is like setting up a ruse, waiting only for the politically appropriate moment to exploit it.<\/b><\/p>\n

Three serious lies. And there are more to come: now they will tell you that the money raised will be used to fight poverty, to carry out works, etc., as if the development of the country now depended on the ITT. They tell you that 18 billion will be raised. What they don't tell you is that it will be between 25 and 30 years, at an average of 600 million per year. If you don't know, 600 million is no more than 2% of the current budget. In other words, they are not capable of optimizing or generating 2% of their current budget and in exchange they are willing to compromise one of the last corners of virgin forest in the country. They could also have the brilliant idea of compromising the crude oil from that field in a giant advance sale of oil, as they have done with China on previous occasions. With a model that needs around 10 billion euros a year just to pay bureaucratic salaries, how are they going to guarantee that the money from a possible advance sale is not used for anything other than maintaining the capacity of all this bureaucratic mass to consume?<\/p>\n

All these lies or half-truths should be reason enough to demand that the government not touch the ITT, since there is no way to know that everything they tell you is true (1% will be exploited, the best technology will be used, etc.). However, the fact that they are liars is not the main reason not to exploit it.<\/span>

<\/span>3.- We have practically devoured the jungle.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

We stopped being an Amazonian country a long time ago and became a country of Amazonian reserves. Right? This is the map of eastern Ecuador divided into oil fields:<\/span>

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\"Oil<\/a><\/p>\n
Oil fields in Ecuador. Some tenders in the graph are not updated<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The blocks south of the PNY have not yet been exploited, but they are part of the tenth oil round that began and will be tendered to the Chinese.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"In<\/a><\/p>\n
In orange, south of Yasun\u00ed, the blocks of the tenth oil round<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

That leaves us with only two Amazonian reserves: Cuyabeno and half of Yasun\u00ed (the only part of which has not been affected by oil is the intangible zone in the south). Doesn't it seem logical to you to preserve the very few Amazonian reserves that remain? Unless money is your only interest, preserving what little remains of Yasun\u00ed and Cuyabeno is a matter of common sense, not a novelty of childish environmentalists, as the powers that be call those who are interested and outraged by this issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

4.- Stop the genocide in the Yasun\u00ed National Park. <\/b><\/span>

<\/b><\/span>As if the wealth of flora and fauna were not enough, here we are talking about saving human lives. Period. Saving human lives. With the exploitation of the ITT and the tenth oil round underway, these are the new limits of the Taromenani: to the West, Armadillo and 14 blocks. To the North, blocks 17 and 31 (Andes and Petroamazonas). To the North-East, ITT (Petroamazonas), to the East, Peruvian oil blocks and to the South, China.<\/span><\/p>\n

This pressure on Taromenani territory is the main cause of all the violence that has occurred to date and which directly threatens their survival. Increasing the pressure in the area only makes the circumstances that lead to their extermination more dramatic.<\/span>Correa has already said that the last massacre that occurred last April has nothing to do with oil. What he doesn't tell you is that it happened on the Maxus road, in block 16, a few meters from a group of oil workers. In that area, everything has a direct or indirect relationship with oil. Several experts such as <\/span>Miguel Angel Cabodevilla<\/a> either <\/span>Miracles Aguirre<\/a>They have tired of explaining it. Here is a documentary I filmed in 2006 that sums up this problem:<\/span><\/p>\n


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