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Ecuador Political News

Two Pandemics in the Ecuadorian Amazon: COVID-19 and Oil- Sierra Club

Thousands of Indigenous families in northeastern Ecuador are living a nightmare within a nightmare.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Indigenous people severed connections between their forest communities and the outside world to prevent contagion in their territories. Local sources of food and water became more crucial than ever. Hunting, fishing, and subsistence agriculture are especially important in the northern part of the Ecuadorian Amazon as hunting grounds have been heavily degraded by the oil industry.

Then, on the evening of April 7, two major pipelines running along the banks of the Coca River in the Andean foothills collapsed, releasing an enormous quantity of crude oil into the rushing rapids.

Try to imagine: A deadly airborne virus is sweeping across your country. The government declares a national emergency and tells you to shelter in place. Your home is the forest, and your isolation is your only protection. There are no supermarkets, clinics, or hospitals; for many communities, the nearest ventilator is several days’ journey by canoe and foot. Then, at the worst possible moment, a massive manmade disaster devastates your home and eliminates your only source of food and water. 

To read the full article on Sierra Club, click here.

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#Factsmatter: An international arbitration panel found ‘no cogent evidence’ supporting #Ecuador’s claim that #Texaco failed to comply with terms of remediation in #Amazon. https://t.co/7TqQ6sJhik
The @WSJ sums this case up nicely, “[Steven Donziger] and his team fabricated evidence, promised $500,000 to an #Ecuadorean judge to rule in their favor, ghostwrote much of the final verdict and took other actions that ‘perverted’ the course of #justice. Mr. Donziger disputes the… https://t.co/soQ1qreULA
Shameless. Disbarred and convicted of criminal contempt of court for bribing an Ecuadorian judge in an attempted extortion scheme, @SDonziger is nonetheless accepting invitations to speak at #climate rallies. Read more about this adjudicated racketeer: https://t.co/5eac0lRmN7
Sworn testimony: While Texaco met its environmental obligations in the Amazon, #Ecuador’s national oil company did “absolutely nothing” to address its own remediation in the area. #FactsMatter:
https://t.co/7TqQ6sJhik
DENIED: @SCOTUS rejects hearing case of Steven Donziger, who bribed Ecuadorian judge in failed effort to bilk Chevron for billions of dollars. https://t.co/zT0dlozk5R

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