Alicia Cawiya or Cahuiya [1] is the vice-president of the Huaorani Nation of Ecuador and one of the leaders of the movement against oil exploitation in her region. In 2013, she made a speech in Ecuador's parliament to protect the Amazon basin from oil companies.
Cawiya was born in the Ñoneno community, in the Yasuní reservation in Ecuador. Her grandmother, Iteca, was known to be a feared Huaorani warrior. [2]
When Cawiya was a child, she was sent to be raised by missionaries, who had the task of "civilising the barbarians" so the oil companies could move in to indigenous territory without resistance, although Iteca brought her back to the forest. [2]
In an interview with New Internationalist, Cawiya said that she became politically active at the age of 13. At 18 she was a leader, following the footsteps of her grandmother in a traditionally male-dominated community. [2]
Women at the time were not allowed to make decisions. But my grandmother said that as men and women were engaged in the same struggle to keep their territory [from incursions by oil companies], why could they not do it together?
— Alicia Cawiya, Newint.org
She became vice-president of the National Waorani Federation (NAWE) and in 2005 she and other communities leaders founded the Asociación de Mujeres Waorani del Ecuador (Ecuador Waorani Women Association), which now comprises around 300 women. The aim of the association is to protect the organic lifestyle of their people and to fight against oil companies. [3]
In 2013, she made headlines when she defended her people and made a speech in Ecuador's parliament asking to stop the Yasuní-ITT plan and the incursion of oil companies in the Amazon.
Since 1972, Ecuador has been an important oil exporter in South America - the third after Venezuela and Mexico. The infrastructure put in place to extract the oil affected the Ecuadorian Amazon region both socially and ecologically. [4]
One of the most known examples is the Texaco-Chevron case. This American oil company operated in the Ecuadorian Amazon region between 1964 and 1992. During this period, Texaco drilled 339 wells in 15 petroleum fields and abandoned 627 toxic wastewater pits, as well as other elements of the oil infrastructure. It is now known that these highly polluting and now obsolete technologies were used as a way to reduce expenses. [5]
After the company left the country, the government initiated legal actions to obtain compensation, as the company had tried to avoid paying a fee of 19 million dollars. This conflict lasted for more than twenty years until in June 2017, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Texaco-Chevron. Ecuadorian activists have said that they will continue to try to bring these companies to justice. [6]
In September 2013, the Ecuadorian government announced the exploitation of the Yasuní area and the 43 block, better known as ITT (Ishpingo, Tiputini and Tambococha), which was supposed to have a big economical impact. [7]
On 3 October 2013, the Constituent Assembly in Quito gathered to discuss the Yasuní-ITT plan. Cawiya was invited to participate as vice-president of the Huaorani Nation of Ecuador, and she was expected to read the script given to her by her president, Chief Moi Enomenga. The speech acceded to oil drilling in her homeland in the headwaters of the Amazon River. [8]
When Cawiya stood up to talk, she defied her president and the government and made her own speech, [9] first in her native Huaorani language, then in Spanish, denouncing the oil companies and speaking up in defence of her people.
Seven companies have been working in Huaorani territory and we have become poorer... How have we benefited? Not at all.
— Alicia Cawiya, Newit.org
She talked about the negative impact of oil drilling in the Amazon and accused many of being complicit in deforestation and the subsequent death of some indigenous people.
Cawiya's speech wasn't enough to change the decision of the Constituent Assembly however, and the Yasuní-TT exploitation was accepted by 108 to 133 votes. The construction of the infrastructures started in 2016. [10]
After her speech, Cawiya received death threats.[ citation needed ], although this did not impede her activism. She continues to advocate for her community as leader of the AMWAE. [11]
In November 2023, Cawiya was named to the BBC's 100 Women list. [12]
The Huaorani, Waorani, or Waodani, also known as the Waos, are an Indigenous people from the Amazonian Region of Ecuador who have marked differences from other ethnic groups from Ecuador. The alternate name Auca is a pejorative exonym used by the neighboring Quechua natives, and commonly adopted by Spanish-speakers as well. Auca means 'savage'.
The Sápara, also known as Zápara or Záparo, are an indigenous people native to the Amazon rainforest along the border of Ecuador and Peru. They once occupied some 12,000 mi² between the Napo River and the Pastaza. Early in the 20th century, there were some 200,000 Zapara. From the year 2009 on the Ecuadorian Zápara call themselves Sápara. The official name is Nación Sápara del Ecuador (NASE). It means Sápara Nation of Ecuador. The president of this nation is Klever Ruiz. The Sápara Nation was officially registered by CONDENPE – the Council of Development of the nationalities and peoples of Ecuador – on September 16, 2009. The current name of the organisation is the result of a unification process of upriver and downriver communities. There was a conflict between these different groups about their authentic ethnic identity in the last years of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. With this unification this conflict seems to be solved. CONDENPE confirms as well officially the legal status of autonomy or self-government of the Sápara Nation of Ecuador N.A.S.E. and confirms their territory between the rivers Pindoyacu, Conambo and Alto Corrientes in the province of Pastaza. It is confirmed as well that the head office of NASE is the city of Shell, Pastaza.
Yasuní National Park is a protected area comprising roughly 10,000 km2 between the Napo and Curaray Rivers in Pastaza and Orellana Provinces within Amazonian Ecuador. The national park lies within the Napo moist forests ecoregion and is primarily rain forest. The park is about 250 km from Quito and was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve along with the adjacent Waorani Ethnic Reserve in 1989. It is within the ancestral territory of the Huaorani indigenous people. Yasuní is also home to two uncontacted indigenous tribes, the Tagaeri and the Taromenane. Many indigenous people use the riverways within the park as a main mode of travel. Several waterways in the area are tributaries that lead into the Amazon River, including blackwater rivers high in tannins boasting vastly different floral composition than the main riverways. The spine-covered palm, Bactrisriparia, and aquatic plant Montrichardia linifera typically line the edges of these slow moving rivers, often referred to as Igapós.
The Tagaeri are an eastern Huaorani people living in Yasuni National Park, in the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin, named after one of their members, Tagae. Nearby Kichwa communities sometimes refer to them as Awashiri, or "high-ground people". They live a hunting and foraging lifestyle and have resisted outside contact, making them one of the so-called uncontacted peoples of the world. In addition to Tagaeri, the area is home to their kin, the Taromenane, another eastern Huaorani group.
The Cofan people are an indigenous people native to Sucumbíos Province northeast Ecuador and to southern Colombia, between the Guamués River and the Aguarico River. Their total population is now only about 1,500 to 2,100 people, down from approximately 15,000 in the mid-16th century, when the Spanish crushed their ancient civilization, of which there are still some archeological remains. They speak the Cofán language or A'ingae. The ancestral land, community health and social cohesion of Cofan communities in Ecuador has been severely damaged by several decades of oil drilling. However, reorganization, campaigning for land rights, and direct action against encroaching oil installations have provided a modicum of stability. Major settlements include Sinangué, Dovuno, Dureno and Zábalo, the latter of which has retained a much more extensive land base.
The Waorani (Huaorani) language, commonly known as Sabela is a vulnerable language isolate spoken by the Huaorani people, an indigenous group living in the Amazon rainforest between the Napo and Curaray Rivers in Ecuador. A small number of speakers with so-called uncontacted groups may live in Peru. It is an Arawakan language.
EP Petroecuador is the national oil company of Ecuador. Ecuador who is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and, although it is the smallest member, the country produced 531,000 barrels of crude oil per day in 2019. The oil corporation is a significant part of the Ecuadorian economy. The petroleum industry has expanded to the production of refined commodities such as gasoline, liquefied petroleum, and jet fuel. The government of Ecuador is highly dependent on the revenues from the energy sector to support its budget and finance state projects.
María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés is an Ecuadorian politician and diplomat. She was the President of the United Nations General Assembly for the 73rd session from 2018 to 2019. She served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Lenín Moreno from May 2017 to June 2018. She also held several other Ministerial posts before, including as Minister of National Defense of from 28 November 2012 to 23 September 2014. She served as the Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations in Geneva from 2008 to 2009 and again from October 2014 to May 2017. Besides her political career she is also a poet and essayist.
The Lago Agrio oil field is an oil-rich area near the city of Nueva Loja in the province of Sucumbíos, Ecuador. It is located in the Western Oriente Basin. The site's hydrocarbon-bearing formations are the Cretaceous Napo and Hollin formations. Oil was discovered in the area in 1960s. The Lago Agrio field is known internationally for the serious ecological problems that oil development has created there, including water pollution, soil contamination, deforestation and cultural upheaval. Located in Cofan territory near the Colombian border, it is one of twelve production areas that developed when Ecuador began to export petroleum.
Amazon Watch is a nonprofit organization founded in 1996, and based in Oakland, California, it works to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. It partners with indigenous and environmental organizations in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Brazil in campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability and the preservation of the Amazon's ecological systems.
The Yasuní-ITT Initiative was a project that attempted to keep over a billion barrels of oil in the ground under the Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The initiative was launched in 2007 by Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa and offered a perpetual suspension of oil extraction from the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini oil field (ITT) in return for $3.6 billion from the international community.
Although China's economic influence is growing rapidly throughout Latin America, it is perhaps most evident in Ecuador where it enjoys a near-monopoly of crude exports. Critics of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa say that the Chinese influence has gone too far and threatens national sovereignty while indigenous peoples' rights and biodiversity could be severely harmed because of Ecuador's oil commitments to China.
Pete Oxford is a British-born conservation photographer based in Quito, Ecuador. Originally trained as a marine biologist, he and his wife, South African-born Reneé Bish, now work as a professional photographic team focusing primarily on wildlife and indigenous cultures.
Ivonne Juez Abuchacra de Baki is an Ecuadorian politician and diplomat. She is most known for her time as the Ecuadorian Minister of Industries and Productivity and as the President of the Andean Parliament. She is Ecuador's former Ambassador to Qatar and current Ambassador to the United States.
Sumak Helena Sirén Gualinga is an Ecuadorian environmental and human rights activist from the Kichwa Sarayaku community in Pastaza, Ecuador.
Nemonte Nenquimo is an Indigenous activist and member of the Waorani Nation from the Amazonian Region of Ecuador. She is the first female president of the Waorani of Pastaza (CONCONAWEP) and co-founder of the Indigenous-led nonprofit organization Ceibo Alliance. In 2020, she was named in the Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world, the only Indigenous woman on the list and the second Ecuadorian to ever be named in its history. In recognition of her work, in 2020 the United Nations Environment Programme gave her the "Champions of the Earth" award in the category Inspiration and Action.
Aguinda v. Texaco, Inc. is a class-action lawsuit against Texaco Petroleum. it was filed in 1993 by Steven Donziger for indigenous collectives in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The lawsuit sought compensation for "alleged environmental and personal injuries arising out of Texaco's oil exploration and extraction operations in the Oriente region between 1964 and 1992." Legal proceedings followed in courts in Ecuador and the United States for about a decade. The case was dismissed on May 30, 2001, on grounds of Forum non conveniens.
María Blanca Chancoso Sánchez is an Ecuadorian educator and indigenous leader of the Otavalo people.
Anita Carolina Rivas Párraga is an Ecuadorian lawyer and politician. She was the mayor of Puerto Francisco de Orellana from 2005 to 2019. In 2009 she visited the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Spain to propose that oil in her area could remain unexploited if compensation could be found and Yasuni National Park's habitat would be preserved. The eventual support delivered was less than 0.5 per cent of the money requested. The oil revenue that was delivered was spent on items including the supply of toilets and drinking water.
A referendum on banning oil exploitation in the Yasuní National Park was held in Ecuador on 20 August 2023 alongside general elections. If the proposal was accepted, a progressive withdrawal of all activities related to oil extraction would occur within one year from the announcement of the official results, and the state would not be able to take action intending to initiate new contracts to continue oil exploration in the block. The referendum was a popular initiative demanded by indigenous communities for more than ten years before being finally validated by the Constitutional Court in May 2023.
