We Indigenous people are fighting to save the Amazon, but the whole planet is in trouble because you do not respect it by Nemonte Nenquimo / Originally published in The Guardian, Oct. 12 2020 Featured image: Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo shows evidence of crude oil contamination in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest. Photograph: Mitch Anderson … Continue reading My Message to the Western World: Your Civilization is Killing Life on Earth→
Featured image: The community of Sinangoe gathered in front of the courtroom in Lumbaqui (Succumbíos) on July 27th 2018. by Nicolas Mainville, Amazon Frontlines / Intercontinental Cry In a lawsuit that will inspire and galvanize many other indigenous communities across the Amazon for years to come, the Kofan of Sinangoe have won a trial … Continue reading Historic Indigenous Legal Victory Against Gold Mining in the Amazon→
Featured image: Molleturo communities visit the site of the Rio Blanco mine to make sure the activities are suspended as required by a court order. by Manuela Picq / Intercontinental Cry Last June, an Ecuadorean court ordered the suspension of all mining activities by a Chinese corporation in the highlands of Rio Blanco, in … Continue reading Can the Law Prevail Over Chinese Investments in Ecuador?→
Featured image: Indigenous women gathered at the Independence Plaza to hand down their demands to the president. Credit: Yasunidos by Pablo Orellana Matute / Intercontinental Cry PUYO, ECUADOR – As in many spots around the globe, Women’s Day in Ecuador was marked by manifestations vindicating their role within society. For Indigenous women in the country, … Continue reading Ecuador’s Indigenous Women’s Restless Defense of the Amazon “Living Forest”→
Featured image: Sápara leader Gloria Ushigua. Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown by Sarah Belle Lin / Intercontinental Cry For the Sápara Peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon, “Sinchi”, or “sacred” is the term that best describes their ancestral language and forests. Though abundant with meaning, the Sápara never had a word for “sacred”. There was … Continue reading The Sápara Nation vs. The Slimy Oil Mungia→
To my Shuar brothers and sisters, to the indigenous peoples of the Amazon and Andes, to the men and women of Ecuador and the World.
As many of you know,recent days have been very dangerous for our people. These days have not yet ended and are, indeed, probably only the beginning of a great territorial dispute initiated by the National Government against the Shuar Arutam People. ... Continue reading →
Before dawn on Dec. 21, 2016, dozens of police raided the headquarters of the Shuar Federation (FISCH) in the Ecuadorian Amazon and arbitrarily detained its president, Agustin Wachapá. The indigenous leader was thrown to the ground and repeatedly stamped on and ridiculed beneath the boots of police in front of his wife. The police then razed the Shuar Federation’s office—turning over furniture and carrying away computers. According to the indigenous leader's wife, her husband was taken away without any kind of explanation. An arrest warrant for Wachapá was never presented. ... Continue reading →
Indigenous battles to defend nature have taken to the streets, leading to powerful mobilizations like the gathering at Standing Rock. They have also taken to the courts, through the development of innovative legal ways of protecting nature. In Ecuador, Bolivia and New Zealand, indigenous activism has helped spur the creation of a novel legal phenomenon—the idea that nature itself can have rights. ... Continue reading →
Featured image: Domingo Ankuash of the Shuar speaking at the Inter-American Commission in Washington DC. By Daniel Cima. by Cultural Survival Cultural Survival condemns the action of the Ecuadorian government in the raiding of the Shuar federation, FICSH (Federación Interprovincial de Centros Shuar), and the arbitrary detention of its president, Agustin Wachapa, on December 20, 2016. … Continue reading #SOSPuebloShuar: Respect the Right to Free, Prior, Informed Consent in Ecuador→
