The ICHR’s ruling, made public on July 25, “is the result of almost a decade of international litigation and it sets a historical precedent in the lives of native peoples worldwide”, says a press release by the Sarayaku people. These peoples and nationalities are “under constant threat by the extractivist policies on behalf of the so called development, which has nothing to do with their cosmovision, who are self-proclaimed defenders of the rainforest”, reads the text issued on the day of the ruling. The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) welcomed the decision.

The Kichwa Sarayaku people live in the north of the Ecuadorian Amazon, in Pastaza province. Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio reported that in 1996 the Ecuadorian state granted an oil license to Compañía General de Combustibles de Argentina affecting 60% of the native people’s land. In the last quarter of 2002 and in the first quarter of 2003 (under Gustavo Noboa and Lucio Gutierrez administrations respectively) the company entered in indigenous territory without authorization and against the people’s will.

According to official information of the Ministry of Energy, there are 476 sites in Sarayaku and Achuar territory where Compañía General de Combustibles placed 1,433 kilos of explosives 12 meters underground.

In early 2003 the Sarayaku people went before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and requested its urgent intervention.
Given the infringement of its precautionary measures, the Commission asked the Inter-American Court to issue provisionary measures for the people, which were issued in 2004. The measures sought to protect the life and integrity of the indigenous, and the investigation of violence incidents committed against them and the guarantee of their free transit.

In December of 2007 the Ecuadorian Ministry of Mining and Oil began operations to withdraw the explosives. Two years later only 14 kilos of explosives had been removed and the process was suspended. On Januay 26, 2010 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued a ruling for the case that was sent to the Court. On July 6 and 7, 2011 the hearing for the Sarayaku was held in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital, before the ICHR. On that year Compañía General de Combustibles left Ecuador.

The ICHR ruling of July 25 established that the Ecuadorian state should have consulted the Sarayaku people about the oil project in indigenous territory under international rules. The ruling deemed there was a violation of native people’s rights to indigenous communal property and cultural identity.

The Court also said that the life and integrity of indigenous peoples was endangered as a result of the explosives in their territory and it ordered the Ecuadorian state to withdraw all explosives buried there and to ask the Sarayaku people properly of any project of extraction of natural resources in their lands.

This was a historical ruling for the native people. The indigenous wanted to win the case so that there was a legal precedent in favor of native peoples who suffer evictions. In their newsletter entitled “Landmark ruling for indigenous in struggle”, the Kichwas highlighted that then ruling was emphatic in claiming that the Ecuadorian state had the obligation to guarantee the indigenous’ rights to prior consultation, to communal property and cultural identity.

Meanwhile, CONAIE held a press conference in Ecuador’s capital, Quito, to give its public opinion about the ICHR’s decision. The main indigenous leaders of Ecuador were there, according to information of the National Confederation of Kichwa Nationalities (ECUARUNARI), a member organization of CONAIE.

“This ruling encourages all Ecuadorians and all the people who fight for our territories, for human rights and for nature”, said CONAIE’s chair, Humberto Cholango. “Now President Correa and the Ecuadorian state have to comply with the ruling because it is mandatory and it will be useful to defend other cases involving mining and oil”.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Sarayaku people, José Gualinga, recalled that in late 2002 the Kichwa nationalities decided to stop the harassment of transnational corporations and of the Ecuadorian state.

“We had to firmly say ’enough!’, no more pillaging and we expelled the oil corporations and the military despite their persecution, torture and lies”, he said. “With this ruling we are saying that Sarayaku never gave up and that we will continue the process until the end”.

Photo: http://sarayaku.org