Dear Native Prophecy Cuncil Group & Sophia as List
Moderator,
Please find enclosed the recent update of Sarayacu, a
native Kichwa Community in Ecuador. My name is Karen
Marrero. I have been part of the list receiving posts
for some short time and have thought to introduce
myself and also send to you the latest update of what
is happenning in the community especially since it
contains a message from the Elders. If you feel what I
send is appropriate for your list, please post. I
would like to connect with people that perhaps might
help us in the struggle to maintain our lands and
share these words with those of like-heart.
All best & wishing you all well,
Karen
______________________________________________
October 30, 2002
Dear International Organizations, NGO's, Friends,
Activists, and Solidary Individuals,
Sarayaku Indigenous Kichwa Community, located in the
Amazon Rainforest of Ecuador, continues in its
struggle against the illegal maneuvers and entrance of
CGC-Chevron Texaco in its indigenous territories.
Please find below the Denouncement of Sarayacu
Community and a Message from the Elder Medicine
People. Please forward this to as many organizations,
contact lists and institutions that you are aware of.
Please help us embark on a Campaign. Those that might
have knowledge & connections of how to work with these
issues are especially welcome & needed. We especially
need the help of an international lawyer familiar with
IL0169 & international mechanisms. Included at the
bottom are addresses where in the least you may send
letters to. Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Juan Gualinga & Karen Marrero
Sarayaku International Representatives
Sarayacuinfo2@y...
_____________________________________________________________
October 29, 2002
With Our Consideration To All:
FROM THE COMMUNITY OF SARAYAKU - AMAZON RAINFOREST,
PROVINCE OF PASTAZA, ECUADOR
WE DENOUNCE:
The CGC, CompañiaGeneral de Combustibles, of Argentina
is the most productive and most profitable of a
HOLDING named "Sociedad Comercial de La Plata"
(Commercial Society of the Silver). It's owns an
enormous amusement park close to Buenos Aires city,
close to the Atlantic coast. The owner, Santiago
Soldati, comes from a wealthy family that immigrated
from Switzerland.
The CGC, after 4 years of a series of sly maneuvers,
corruption, and open violations to the recognized
rights of the indigenous peoples within the Ecuadorian
constitution, have installed an Operation Base in
Chontoa (via Puyo-Canelos). Selected men and a
miniscule group of uniformed men in yellow have
invaded the indigenous territories in Pastaza
Province. These strange and foreign men in our
territories and communal property have manipulated
some of our brothers that can be found at this base.
They have involucrated indigenous peoples who live in
the city and have no say in collective decisions. The
encampment is constructed of plastic and in a
rudimentary form. There is a line of men that run and
fall to make a line to receive plates of food to eat.
Some pseudo-leaders are appearing in the local
television and radio are (falsely) saying all the
communities are in agreement with the entrance of the
petroleum company. The CGC is lying and dividing the
people, there are threats, intimidation, calumniation,
as well as division in the communities that have
accepted the petroleum project. Computers have been
bought for some of the communities, and outboard
motors are being offered as a way to convince them.
Today, 30 men and women from Sarayaku are mobilizing
through the Bobonaza River with canoes from the jungle
to the city of Puyo, the capital of Pastaza Province.
The majority are Elders that want to speak with the
President of the Republic of Ecuador, with the Office
of Human Rights and other Institutions of the country
regarding the presence of the CGC and its withdrawal
from the territory.
More than 350 families of Sarayaku are possibly
threatened with violent intervention for opposing the
petroleum project in their territory, many other
families within "CGC Block 23" and the OPIP
(Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Pastaza) are at
the spectative and worried.
We need the intervention of international authorities
and institutions, the press and defenders of human
rights. We are running the risk of a violent
confrontation with CGC company personnel and with some
members of the communities that have accepted or are
paid by the company.
The CGC is a manipulator and responsible for all , it
only wants to explore and exploit the petroleum with
blood and crime. We make a call for you to insist to
the Government of Ecuador to take measures and respect
the Ecuadorian Constitution, and ratified Convention
ILO169.
We still maintain the rivers, the forest, the
biodiversity, and the natural resources free from
contamination and take care of this. We are men,
women and children part of families, just as all human
beings in the world. The CGC has no right to violate,
intervene, destroy our life and our future. It has to
leave immediately, so we may re-establish harmony.
We ask for SUPPORT, SOLIDARITY AND JUSTICE. We
request CONSERVATION AND PROTECTION of our ancestral
territory.
FOR THE RESPECT FOR OUR LIFE
Sarayaku Runa Tantanakuy, TAYJASARUTA
(The People of Sarayacu United)
P.S. Please forward this letter to your friends,
contacts, and to one of the most important
institutions in your country, the Ecuadorian
Consulate.
MESSAGE OF THE YACHAKS (MEDICINE PEOPLE) OF SARAYAKU
LET US LOVE LIFE, NATURE IS LIFE
In the course of our existence, we are responsible to
use what nature has offered us in a rational manner so
we may be able to exist harmoniously. It is of our
absolute responsibility to live in a healthy
environment which implies then to live enjoying good
physical and mental health.
Everything that exists in the humanity (world) has a
reason for existing, the natural resources are no
exception, the petroleum is no exception. For many
individuals what I am about to say perhaps may sound
poetic or unreal, but it is not that way, what I say
is as real as life itself.
Nature has its own life, the rivers, lakes, mountains,
trees and all that exists in nature has its own life.
To threaten against that life means to imprudently
cause an irreversible disequilibrium and change the
normal passage of existence, and then the natural
disasters start that are unexplainable for many, but
are explainable to us. It is the manner how MOTHER
NATURE protests, asking upon deaf ears to be heard.
In my 80 years of life, I have seen many
transformations, what we defend now is not what
existed before. In those times of Shell Company
entrance (for oil exploration), part of our nature
already perished. With much pain, we observed the
extinction of many species which today are not found.
In the lakes, we would find dead the immense
anacondas, dolphins, the freshwater seals, crocodiles;
little by little the beings of the rivers and
mountains would seek refuge, recently these beings are
found in recuperation because the wise Mother Nature
returns to recovers herself but this takes many years
and perhaps many of the species that existed before
will not be found again.
The petroleum, so greeded & coveted over for its
economic monetary value is nothing more and nothing
less that the blood of life of the Mother Earth and
its nature. Now there are attempts to remove the
blood from the body and live in the death, but it is
not logically possible to bleed the Mother Earth and
ask nature not to react. Bu this logic will possibly
not function with those that at the expense of
everything want to exploit the petroleum,,,,what use
will all the money in the world be if they are on the
path to their own disgrace and death? Will it be that
the great, big buildings, the big mansions are immune
to the reactions of nature, is it that the
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, the floods and the
hurricanes don't affect them? I imagine that when it
is too late we will realize that humanity has been
mistaken and has self-destroyed itself, but by then it
will be too late.
Many young people, who still have not lived enough to
love what they are, think that to decide about life is
easy or because they have gone outside to the cities
can decide over the internal life of the communities
without asking the opinion of the elders. They do not
see that they are working their own paths to their own
disgrace, that to live with dignity is important and
that implies the need to have consciousness and solid
principles. With much lament, we have observed in
many young people that are asking for the entrance of
the oil companies and take the name of the
communities, saying that they are going to contribute
to the development of the communities, but do not have
the minimal idea of what kind of development they
want, what they pretend is to copy something losing
the identity and dignity.
The loss of identity has many forms, but the worst is
to threaten against the principles of who one is and
why we are here. A person can be in any part of the
world, interrelating with respect with other peoples
and even so can maintain their identity when they are
conscious of who they are.
I earnestly request you to help us take care of
humanity, respecting the earth and the mother nature,
if each individual puts a grain from their part it
will be enough and life will continue.
Sabino Atanacio Gualinga Cuji
Yachak Representative of the Kichwa Community of
Sarayaku
Please kindly send us copies of letters sent to
sarayacuinfo2@y... if possible, more importantly
any communications you receive back from these
institutions for our records.
Ecuadorian Embassy- NEW YORK
800 2nd Avenue, Suite 600
New York, NY 10017
Attn: Hernan Olgin
(Fax 1-212-808-0188)
Ecuadorian Embassy- WASHINGTON D.C
2535 15th Street N.W.
Washington D.C. 20009
(Fax 1-202-265-9325)
President of Ecuador
Presidente de Ecuador
Palacio Presidencial
Quito-Ecuador
Ecuadorian Minister of Energy & Mines
Ing. Pablo Terán R.
Ministro de Energía y Minas
Juan León Mera y Orellana
Edificio MOP piso 5
Quito - Ecuador
CGC OIL COMPANY
Compañia General de Combustibles (CGC)
Attn: Santiago Tomas Soldati - Presidente
Juan Bautista de Lasalle 653
Piso 2
1642 - San Isidro
Buenos Aires
Argentina
webmaster@c...
Mr. David J. O'Reilly
Executive Director
ChevronTexaco Corporation
575 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
USA
comment@c...
