The war against the poor

Arturo Yumbay Iligama

Contents

Ulla Lehtinen: "Indigenous peoples and oil" events in Finland 1999 

Olli Tammilehto: A civilised world or a bloodsucker of the earth? 

Background information on oil 

Russia's oil production 

Florian Stammler: Where does our oil come from? 

Yeremei Aipin: Russia's oil industry and the development of rights of indigenous people 

Agrafena Sopochina: "We Live on what the earth carries on itself" 

Yuri Vella: Kogalym-Lor - the lake where a man died 

Bruce Forbes: Industrial development in the Yamal-Nenets Area 

Lidia Okotetto: I no longer understand the tundra that has loved me 

Grigorii Anagurichi: A clash of civilisations at the ends of the world 

Charity Nenebari Ebeh: The Ogoni experience 

Magda Lanuza: Oil production in Central America 

Ecuador and oil 

Arturo Yumbai Iligama: The war against the poor 

Colombia, the U'wa and oil 

Roberto Afanador Cobaria: Oil is blood of the earth 

Workshop 1: The strategies of oil industry and the responses of indigenous peoples' movements 

Workshop 2: Networking of indigenous peoples threatened by oil and gas exploration 

Workshop 3: Northern Dimension

Communique of the participants in the seminar "Indigenous Peoples and Oil" 

Internet links

Speech in the seminar on February 5 

We are living a third world war. It is an economic war, waged by transnational corporations on poor people. We have plenty of problems, in fact development problems. There are 200,000 people in our country who do not get adequate food. There is a great deal of people living below the poverty line. People are desperately seeking jobs.

Big financial houses are the ones that own us. They bar development possibilities for us, and peoples are becoming extinct. In this way super powers define our fate, our way of living and our culture. Since the beginning of the 1970's we have suffered from many global problems. An economic recession occurred at the time and the state changed its way of intervention in public affairs. The economy became ever more imperialistic. We have already gone through 20 years of neoliberalism where transnational corporations gain the most in everything. They are growing still and invest productively but not in such a manner that would provide employment to people or so that they would think of the world's best interest in general. They are in search of big profits for themselves and do not care about oppressed poor indigenous peoples.

Two hundred most important corporations on our planet control the most of production. The multi-millionaires earn the biggest share of the dollars. It happens at the expense of the poor. Almost half of humanity lives in poverty. Ecuador is therefore under the control of transnational corporations. There are altogether 17 oil deposits in our country. Eighty per cent of the production goes to private business.

In 1918 Hommovil Corporation began its operations in Santa Elena. In 1921 a new legislation was passed on petroleum issues. In 1938 many oil companies acquired permission to operate. Esso began its operations in 1948. An Ecuadorian company obtained in 1961 the most of the Amazon region. In 1964 an agreement was reached with Texaco and it acquired many areas. In 1966 an Ecuadorian company acquired grounds in Pastaza. A new law on oil exploitation came into force in 1971. Texaco left the country in 1992 without leaving behind any benefits to the country. Instead it caused a lot of damages.

Millions of hectares in our region have been given out to oil companies. The presence of these companies has promoted the destruction of our culture, animals, plants and biodiversity. That has been capitalist development. Transnational corporations do not think about the fate of our people. To them we do not exist.

Our lands are considered free. Whoever wishes can come there. The government shapes the policy on this. Our lands have been occupied: new migrants have been settled on our lands. Thus, our government is racist towards our people. A thousand million hectares have been handed over to petroleum and cotton companies, and our people have been forced to become victims in this situation. Migrants and migrant communities of different religions are continuously flooding onto our lands. These are all in the pay of companies. Economic power has the biggest force. Our country has a constitution that is supposed to guarantee our rights but in spite of that the present Christian Democratic government still pursues an old policy. Twelve million Ecuadorians are suffering from this policy.

I would like us to discuss the problems of indigenous peoples. We hope that all peoples, also Finnish people and your government would understand our problem and help. We hope that everyone would become aware of the extensive nature of the problems of indigenous peoples.

A question to Arturo Yumbay by Yeremei Aipin:

Are there any laws in your country concerning indigenous peoples or oil companies?

Answer:

In 1972 a nationalist military government came into power in our country. It attempted to follow a policy that would be on the side of the people. But after that all have been operating in such a way that laws and decrees would benefit only transnational corporations, and foreign capital would flow into the country. There have been laws protecting indigenous peoples and the environment but they are inadequate. That is why we have launched a legal battle against Texaco. We do not have good environment laws or laws protecting us. Last year (in 1998) Ecuador ratified the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention of the ILO (number 169) which from our point of view contains a lot of important matters. A new constitution came into force in the previous year, which expresses the will of our people and our struggle for collective needs, but we do not yet know the outcome.

A response to Yuri Vella's comment

We would like first of all to live in peace in our own living environment without a single petroleum or cotton company disturbing our lives on our own land. But we cannot shut our eyes to reality and the world's situation in general. Perhaps we would not oppose the exploitation of our natural resources, but it has to be discussed among the indigenous peoples. The decision about our happiness or unhappiness should not be taken on the top floors of the capital city's high buildings. We do not want to be oppressed. Yes we want to use high technology but we do not use technology brought from outside with which we could acquire money. We want to determine our aims and decide for ourselves what is the reasonable way to exploit natural resources.

Speech in the seminar on February 6

In February there erupted a stir becausse the government raised the price of gas from one to five dollars. Electricity price was also increased 300 per cent. The government works on the behalf of corporations because we are an oil-producing country and have plenty of gas deposits.

I will say what Texaco has done in Ecuador in its 28 years of pumping oil on our land. Texaco came into Ecuador in 1964 at a time when oil production was on the rise, and after 28 years it left. During the time 191 million tonnes of oil were pumped out of Ecuador. Sixty-five billion litres of petroleum and 72 million litres of waste water flowed into rivers. Fire burns continuously in oil wells where 6,670 million cubic metres of gas were flared. Six hundred basins that contain toxic waste have been left in the grounds. Domestic and international researches have been done on this so the figures are not exaggerated.

After the destruction we have been left with the reality where our living conditions and living places have been changed. Particularly affected are the Siona, Secoya, Cofan, Huaorani and Quichua peoples and workers who moved there and who were in the service of the oil companies. The very small Tetete people has already been destroyed and the culture of the Zapara people is closed to disappearing. It has to do largely with the impact of oil companies.

We have already seen how many plants and animal species have gone extinct. Such deadly diseases have come with the oil companies which previously we did not have. School children are in difficulties because they cannot cope with. That is to say, children are lacking behind. This stems from the activities of the oil companies in their region. Billions of hectares of forests have been destroyed, and because they use bulldozers and other heavy equipment the destruction is extensive. The situation is impossible to restore to its origin.

There is also evidence that Petroecuador and Texaco have earned seven billion dollars in Ecuador during the period of their operations. This is bigger that the foreign debt of Ecuador at the time Texaco left the country in 1992. Texaco has benefited but our government, and our people have actually not had anything. We filed a lawsuit against Texaco in 1993. We want three things.

• First a modernization of the technology that companies employ. Petroecuador inherited equipment used by Texaco. The companies have used very outdated technology that is no longer accepted in other countries.

• Secondly we demand that they repair the damages done to the environment. Oil leakage should be patched, waters cleaned and poisonous basins should be shut down.

• Thirdly we want compensation paid to all the inhabitants.

The opinions of the rulers have not made it possible to hold the trial in Ecuador, but in New York there is now a public court case going on. We shall see what happens there.

Our case has global significance. It may mean that companies and states will take seriouly these issues before embarking on drilling oil in any part of the world. We hope that organisations are in solidarity with us and that at the close of the seminar all organisations interested in our cause would sign a petition that will give support to our case in New York. Seventy-five representatives of ours are defending the case of 30,000 people. Our country's legislation does not recognise class action lawsuits. If we had taken our case in an Ecuadorian court, we would have to file 30,000 separate suits. In any case we hope that the people would express solidarity with us and that we could continue our process and benefit from it. Thank you.

Speech during a meeting with Pekka Haavisto on February 2

These have been caused in particular by companies seeking to benefit from oil and mineral resources. Rivers have been polluted, forests have disappeared and along with them cultures. I would like to ask for three things: 

• The first is concerned with a court case which we have brought against Texaco and which is now going on in New York. Perhaps the case is not known here. We would like to ask for support from administrative organs in Finland, and on that basis open up a dialogue with the Ecuadorian government so that the court case of the indigenous peoples would receive support.

• The second problem is that the government intends to start exploiting oil resources in areas that are declared natural parks. Natural parks and areas that provide protection to animals are earmarked for destruction. Along with them the cultural communities that live there would be destroyed.

• The third issue is that the Finnish government should directly establish contacts with representatives of indigenous peoples, and that it should have a direct co-operation with us and not with the government. One never knows whether anything good comes out of a direct co-operation with the government. I hope that Finland's ministry of the environment and environmental organisations would work equally active as they have done till now so that we could also keep nature clean.

Arturo Yumbay Iligama has been the vice-president of the indigenous peoples' organisation CONAIE. It was formed in 1986 to fight for the rights of indigenous peoples. Arturo is quichua and has worked actively as defender of his own people and the other indigenous.