This past Sunday, at about four in the morning, the first of four buses filled with Huaorani men, women and children arrived in Quito, Ecuador. They had come from deep in the Amazon. To reach the buses they traveled for days by canoe and on foot. 150 Huaorani men, women and children made their way through the forest and took buses into the mountains because they wanted to speak with the government of Ecuador.
One by one they filed off of the bus into the chilly Andean morning. Representatives of 29 communities, coming to tell the government that they are fed up with the oil companies that work in their territory. They came to call for a ten year moratorium on all new petroleum activity on indigenous lands in Ecuador, and they came to the city to tell Lula, the President of Brazil, to get his state’s oil company, Petrobras, off of their land.
Continued…
The Huaorani number more or less 2,300. Their reputation as warriors is well founded. They successfully defended their land for thousands of years, keeping out the Incas, the Conquistadors and even the Peruvian military in 1942. In the mid 1950’s, an American Missionary named Rachel Saint went to live with the Huaorani, who had speared her brother to death when he tried to contact them in 1953. After staying with them for some years she began working closely with Chevron-Texaco, who funded the gathering up of Huaorani villages and moving them to live at Ms. Saint’s Christian village. Moving them to one area allowed the construction of the first oil road into Huaorani territory, the Via Auca, which was finished in the mid 1980’s and now resembles a scene from the movie Mad Max. Huge flames shoot into the air day and night at the oil processing facilities, rusty pipelines run alongside the roads. The Shiripuno river runs black from the road downstream. For miles in each direction the air will choke the life out of you. Along the road makeshift huts serve as whorehouses and children walk to school in their uniforms breathing the poison that envelopes the place and choking on the dust and pollution of the trucks that rumble past them. I love the smell of development in the morning
Since then, large, multinational oil companies have shamelessly taken advantage of the Huaorani. When community members put their thumbprints on an agreement with Maxxus oil in the 1990’s, most thought they were signing to recieve a t-shirt, or a ride in an airplane. Maxxus, fingerprints in hand, constructed a second oil road into Huaorani territory.
Today, Repsol-YPF, Encana, AGIP, Perenco, Petroecuador and Petrobell all operate in Huaorani territory. The “community relations” people, oil company executives and consultants in charge of screwing the Huaorani are a miserable bunch. You’ll know them by their nervous shit-eating grins and ambitious, empty eyes. The oil companies have made the water and the land toxic (see Judith Kimerling’s book “AMAZON CRUDE” for more info). Where they operate people are getting cancer and other diseases, children have skin problems that we can’t even name. The fish are contaminated, and other food animals have either died or gone deeper into the forest. Those who live along the oil roads are completely dependent on the oil companies; for food, health, education, etc… Where the roads go so does Hepatitis B (and probably Hepatitis C), which is brought in by the oil workers. Colonists and illegal loggers use the roads to destroy huge tracts of primary rainforest. It’s not a pretty sight.
Now, Brazil’s state owned oil company, Petrobras, is building a third road into Huaorani land. Last I heard about ten kilometers were built. Every day they’re getting closer to the park border. They got permission from the government through questionable means. They also got Armando Boya, the ex-President of the Huaorani organization ONHAE, to sign an agreement. All indicatiors point to gross corruption on the part of the oil companies and their consultants, pure and simple. After he signed the agreement 31 Huaorani communities met, threw him out and elected a new president who vowed to fight against the continuing assault of the oil companies. The agreement was signed without the free, prior and informed consent of the communities. This is not only against the by-laws of ONHAE, it is illegal and a violation of the rights of the Huaorani people. Petrobras also has some kind of agreement with the community that will be most affected by their presence, Kawimeno. This agreement is also illegal, as the consitution of Ecuador recognizes the collective rights of indigenous peoples, and a decision this big has to be made in a collective manner.
The Petrobras road will enter the heart of Yasuni National Park, the most biodiverse forest on the planet, where they plan to construct a pipeline, two drilling platforms, wells and a processing facility. It will also put at risk two uncontacted peoples, the Tagaeri and Taromenani. The project should be stopped.
U.S. Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Jim Leach (R-IA), in a commendable show of bipartisanship expressed their concern in a July 8th they sent a letter to Treasury Secretary John Snow urging dialogue with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to review whether this project violates their own social and environmental policies. They wrote:
“We are concerned, as we think the Treasury Department will be, that such unrestricted development could lead to severe and irreversible damages to both Yasuni rainforest, the most biodiverse forest known on earth, and to the health, welfare and sovereign rights of the Huaorani, the indigenous hunter-gatherers of this region.”
So anyways, back to Quito, they’re getting off of the buses; barefoot, shivering, laughing….. The nuns at the Iglesia del Tejar had breakfast ready at 5am. The Huaorani entered the courtyard of the monastery chanting. The men danced around with 12-foot long spears in their hands. Then they all crammed onto benches around the long tables in the monastery’s ancient kitchen and warmed up as they ate. The rest of Sunday they finalized their plans for the next two days.
On Monday the Huaorani again boarded the buses and headed to the offices of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) to hold a press conference. All of Ecuador’s major media were there, as were several international outlets. The room was packed. Huaorani men and women stood at the front, bodies painted with red and black designs, and wearing headdresses, beads and feathers. The men wore penis strings and held spears. The women wore skirts made from the bark of a tree. In the middle stood Moi Enomenga, the amazing ball of energy and heart that was briefly made famous in Joe Kane’s book “Savages” about a decade ago. On one side of him sat Enkeri, the vice-president of ONHAE, on the other side sat the great Kichwa leader Luis Macas.
They explained to the press the social and environmental problems that the oil companies cause. They told how the companies actively and maliciously work to divide the them. They spoke of sickness and of rivers flowing black with oil. They showed the press the 12 demands that they hoped to deliver to the government the following day. Then they spent hours giving interviews, dancing and singing – about their past; about the blood that their grandparents spilled protecting their lands; about their suffering; and about how they traveled to the city to give a message to the government.
On Tuesday morning, after breakfast at the monastery, the buses took the Huaorani downtown to El Parque Arbolito. Zapara and Kichwa people arrived. The crowd grew… Human rights lawyers and volunteers paired up and got into their positions as monitors. Then the crowd, led by Moi and Luis Macas, headed out of the park, onto the street and towards the Congress building.
Traffic stopped and people came out of buildings to stare as the huge crowd moved through the narrow streets. The Huaorani, spears in the air, chanted the entire time. They chanted for strength, and so that the government would open it’s ears and hear them, and, as always, they chanted about their ancestors and about their journey.
The sun was overhead, it was hot, the pavement burned. The elders, some over ninety years old, received the strength that they were chanting for and miraculously kept up with the fast pace of the march. Many were barefoot…
The march arrived at a treeless, cement plaza across the street from the Congress building. They looked across the street where the military stood, in their riot gear, spread out in front of the building. Each side sent out negotiators – two military, two indigenous. The military leaders going into the congress, coming back out, negotiating more, going back in to the congress, coming back out, etc……….
Finally, the word was that they would let twenty people in to speak before Congress and present their demands. Eighteen Huaorani, Luis Macas and yours truly walked across the street, past the riot squad and entered the Congress building. The big hallway where we entered was filled with human rights activists. It just so happened that the Congress was having hearings on human rights that day. The activists were being held back by a line of soldiers. They chanted “Viva los Huaorani!” in unison and at an incredible volume. The military made a small passage through the crowd where the Huaorani, spears high and chanting, squeezed through single file and entered the main building. It was an historic moment, a beautiful thing.
Once in the main building we were put into a room with a big television set that had live feed from the Congress chambers where angry victims and activists pleaded and demanded that the government take human rights seriously. While the Huaorani waited, reporters with bright lights and television cameras, microphones and tape recorders, interviewed every one of them. The women stood in a corner and kept up the chanting.
As the doors to the Congress opened and the Huaorani filed in, the press was all over it. A couple dozen cameramen and photographers jostled to get the best shots. The Huaorani sat in twenty chairs that had been set up for them. The President of the Congress invited them to send up a speaker, and Gilberto Nanquino, a young, chubby, Huaorani man with glasses and a kind face went to the speakers podium and read the document that the Huaorani had prepared a month ago at an emergency meeting in one of their forest communities. The letter began:
“The communities of Huaorani people reject the agreement that was signed by the ex-president of ONHAE, Armando Boya, with the company Petrobras, because it was done without consulting the communities and does not represent what we want for our future.”
It went on:
“We don’t want more oil companies in our territory or in Yasuni Park. We don’t want more money from the oil companies.”
As Gilberto read their letter and list of demands the majority of congressmen and women made a conscious effort to show they didn’t give a shit about the Huaorani. They chatted loudly and talked on their cell phones. Many had their backs turned toward the young Huaorani man. A more shameless bunch of useless gluttons I cannot imagine. If not todos, que se vayan casi todos.
The demands that the Huaorani presented to the Congress called for a ten year moratorium on new oil activity on indigenous lands. They asked the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Government of Ecuador to sit together with the countries indigenous peoples to discuss cancellation of a portion of Ecuador’s international debt. They asked the government to work with them to carry out a comprehensive and transparent study on social and environmental impacts of oil extraction in their homeland. They told Lula da Silva, the President of Brazil, to pack up Petrobras and bring it home (Brazil does not allow extraction in it’s national parks, why would they not have the same respect for Ecuador’s?). They asked the government to invite the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples to visit Ecuador to see and report on the situation of the country’s indigenous communities.
A demand that could prove to be very interesting is that they asked for a review of the actions and accounting of the community relations companies that “manage” oil company funds that are supposed to go for Huaorani education, health, capacity building, etc…. (any Kos’s ever heard of the texas based company Entrix? They manage the $700,000 or so per year that is provided by Repsol-YPF as part of a twenty year agreement that they inherited from Maxxus (remember the fingerprints?) Is Entrix related to Enron? Is Enron complicit in the destruction (some would call it genocide) of the Huaorani?). The Huaorani letter say that companies like Entrix use money that is doled out in their name to –
“…make themselves rich. They are using the funds to divide us and maintain a system of dependence that puts in danger the life of the Huaorani.”
When Gilberto finished reading the letter he went and handed it to the President of the Congress and told him that they had five days to analyze their demands and respond, or the people would take further protest actions. Then Luis Macas, as President of the national indigenous organization CONAIE, went to the podium and spoke. He told the congress that they should pay attention and take these demands seriously. He told of the effects of oil extraction on local communities, and he said it’s not only the Huaorani that are calling for a moratorium, that Kichwa, Zapara, Shuar and other indigenous groups are joining the call and that the moratorium campaign was going to grow.
When Luis finished speaking, one Huaorani let out a yell and they all got up and filed out of the building and back into the street, where the rest of them were still chanting, the reporters were still doing interviews and the sun was still very hot. The march then headed towards the Palacio de Gobierno. When I saw the eldest of the elders, somehow still on their feet, climbing the last, steep, cobblestone street that led up to the Palacio, it brought tears to my eyes.
They crowd walked through the park and up to the front of the Palacio de Gobierno, where the hard core riot squad was lined up: black armor, black helmets, black truncheons, black guns and black shields. A group of them broke off and marched across the park to set up behind the Huaorani. Leaders told the military that the Huaorani wanted to speak with the President. Negotiations went back and forth for over an hour. Finally word was received that they could meet with Ministro de Gobierno (equivalent to the US Secretary of State), Mauricio Gándara.
Mr. Gándara, by all accounts a good man, agreed to set up a commission composed of government officials, indigenous leaders, scientists and environmentalists to visit Huaorani territory, see what Petrobras is doing and examine the impact of the oil companies that operate in their territory. He also said that journalists could tag along, and that he would start the process in ten days or less. I think this is a pretty good start.
As the leaders finished the meeting with Mr. Gándara the rest of the Huaorani lined up in the park to eat lunch, which just arrived and was being handed to the Huaorani by their one time enemies the Kichwa, who brought it in the back of a pickup truck. Rice, yucca, chicken soup, plantains… The huge crowds that had gathered to look at them and ask questions all afternoon now stood around and watched them eat. Some of the women, tired of being stared at, threw food at the gawkers.
After lunch the buses pulled up. Before boarding, the Huaorani women gathered in a group and chanted for another hour. They got on the buses and the crowds watched them leave, took photos, asked last minute questions and waved goodbye. The buses took everyone back to the monastery for one last meal and to get their belongings, before their long trip back to their forest home.
The reality of the situation is that as Ecuador goes further and further down the road of oil development – external debt climbs, poverty rates increase, corruption spreads and damage that you can’t imagine is being done to the environment and the people (any oil people want to dispute that I invite you to put your considerable money where your mouths are and spend a month living in an affected community. Bring your families, drink the contaminated water, bathe in the rivers, eat the fish….). If the current administration continues on the road of unrestricted oil development the results will be disastrous. As the singing prophet Bob Marley said – “Only a fool leans upon his own misunderstanding”.
The current President of Ecuador, Alfredo Palacio is under a lot of pressure right now. The last President, Lucio Guiterrez, was thrown out of office a few months back for being a hack for the oil companies and international financial institutions. In April 2000 the government of Ecuador was granted a $300 million dollar loan by the International Monetary Fund, directly followed by an additional $425 million from the World Bank. As a precondition of these loans, the Government was required to pass legislation that allowed international oil companies to build and operate pipelines. Imagine, the oil companies, World Bank, IMF and private creditors, repeating in chorus – “cut social spending”, “open up the oil sector”, “use the oil revenue to pay the interest on your ever increasing debt” – the pressure must be unbearable.
I would encourage Mr. Palacio to embrace the Huaorani. They are offering to help him stand up to the World Bank, the IMF and the oil companies, and to negotiate cancellation of part of Ecuador’s external debt. They are offering to work with the government to find a new road towards sustainable development. A ten-year moratorium is just what the country needs right now. It would give the indigenous peoples some breathing room. Many are being assaulted by big oil non-stop, and need time to evaluate what is happening and what their options are. A moratorium would also give the government the time that it needs to examine the true impact that oil development has had on Ecuador and to clean up the corrupt, divisive and toxic way that it is being carried out right now.
This is a crucial time for the Huaorani. They need support. I’m quite sure that the oil companies are offering all kinds of things to divide them and get some to say they favor oil development. Divide and conquer has been the game for over five hundred years now. I am also a little worried about the Huaorani leaders who coordinated the trip to Quito because, around the world, bad things tend to happen to indigenous people who try to protect their rights against oil extraction.
If you want to help contact Save America’s Forests at (saveforests at saveforests dot org, or www dot saveamericasforests dot org). They have been very helpful and will make sure that one hundred percent of funds go to the Huaorani in their efforts to non-violently reclaim their rights.
Before boarding their buses to start their long journey home the Huaorani gathered in one of the convent courtyards to plan their next steps. Kichwa and Zapara leaders were also there, as were local environmentalists and human rights lawyers who had helped to make their trip to Quito a success. Speeches were given, plans were made, gifts were exchanged. Just before leaving, the Huaorani men gathered in front of the Kichwa and Zapara and, led by an old warrior with big holes in his long earlobes, rocked back and forth and began to chant. The women stood off to the side looking straight ahead and began a chant of their own. The two chants rose and fell and mixed together to form an ancient symphony. They sang:
“We used to kill each other. We used to suffer and bleed. We were destroying our own family. But now we are here, together. The killing will happen no longer. Now we are friends.”
Something very good had happened.
The next morning I woke at 3am to catch an early flight. Moi got up with me and we walked outside to find a cab. He said, in imperfect Spanish, “Mucho Bueno”. He told me that the Huaorani were not going to disappear, that they would live for a long, long time. Then he said he would leave Quito that evening to go back to the forest to hunt and fish and laugh for a few days.
