The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, ruling in Sarayaku v. Ecuador, found in favor of a Kichwa community’s right to consultation prior to industrial projects on their land.
The Andean Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations (CAOI), meeting in Cundinamarca, Colombia, called for construction of a "new paradigm" for a "sustainable civilization."
Ecuador will use the pipeline that links Peru’s northern Amazon oil zone to the Pacific coast to transport crude under a deal the comes despite renewed border tensions.
The US appeals court in Manhattan lifted an injunction won by Chevon Corporation to block enforcement of what the US oil company claims is a fraudulent, multibillion-dollar judgment in Ecuador for polluting the Amazon rainforest.
The Constitutional Court of Ecuador issued a long-awaited ruling in favor of those affected by the transnational oil company Chevron, which operated through its subsidiary Texaco in Ecuador between 1964 and 1990. Chevron will now have to pay $9.5 billion for the repair and remediation of social and environmental damage that, according to audits and expert reports, were a result of oil company operations in the Amazonian provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana. The court found that Chevron deliberately dumped billions of gallons of toxic oil waste on indigenous lands in the Amazon rainforest. (Photo via Mongabay)
Human Rights Watch released a report charging that Ecuador's former president Rafael Correa abused the criminal justice system to target indigenous leaders and environmentalists who protested mining and oil exploitation in the Amazon. The report details use of criminal prosecution to silence ecological opposition, and the closure of one environmental organization by presidential order. The report credits new President Lenin Moreno with making positive change, opening a dialogue with environmentalists and indigenous leaders. But abusive prosecutions initiated by his predecessor remain in motion. (Photo: HRW)
