Texaco merged to become the colossal ChevronTexaco, and today it keeps pushing its oil operations deeper into the Ecuadorian rainforest. Keenly aware of the company’s history of devastation, the Kichwa Sarayacu community is drawing a line at its borders. Numbering about 2,000, the Sarayacu live in Ecuador’s southwestern Amazon, downstream from ChevronTexaco’s devastating path.
“We still maintain our rivers, our forest, our biodiversity and our natural resources free from contamination and take care of this land,” read a Sarayacu community declaration. “Sarayacu has title to our lands, and the company cannot ignore this.”
The company is, however, ignoring it in order to carry out explorations in Block 23, which covers the entire Sarayacu territory. In partnership with the Argentine oil company CGC, Chevron Texaco started conducting seismic tests in Sarayacu last fall, detonating explosive charges day and night. Sarayacu elders, men, women and children formed a human chain along their borders to keep the oil workers out. In November an indigenous delegation of 600 filed a complaint with the federal Ombudsman or Protector of Constitutional Rights (Defensoria del Pueblo). They won a temporary injunction that prohibits the company from entering Sarayacu territory until Ecuador’s newly elected president resolves the conflict. This legal protection was immediately violated by CGC/Chevron-Texaco; the company continues seismic activities and is contracting private armed security guards to enter Sarayacu territory, causing chaos and terror among the communities.
“We still maintain our rivers, our forest, our biodiversity and our natural resources free from contamination and take care of this land,” read a Sarayacu community declaration. “Sarayacu has title to our lands, and the company cannot ignore this.”
The company is, however, ignoring it in order to carry out explorations in Block 23, which covers the entire Sarayacu territory. In partnership with the Argentine oil company CGC, Chevron Texaco started conducting seismic tests in Sarayacu last fall, detonating explosive charges day and night. Sarayacu elders, men, women and children formed a human chain along their borders to keep the oil workers out. In November an indigenous delegation of 600 filed a complaint with the federal Ombudsman or Protector of Constitutional Rights (Defensoria del Pueblo). They won a temporary injunction that prohibits the company from entering Sarayacu territory until Ecuador’s newly elected president resolves the conflict. This legal protection was immediately violated by CGC/Chevron-Texaco; the company continues seismic activities and is contracting private armed security guards to enter Sarayacu territory, causing chaos and terror among the communities.