{"article":{"id":22543,"heading":" Kichwa Community in Ecuador","author":"Sofia Mubarak","created":"2002-11-22 10:27:13","modified":"2013-11-10 23:47:01","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 06:47:01","article":"

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

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