This year I went to visit a dear friend in Ecuador. She’s been living there for 35 years. She doesn’t consider herself an ex-pat; she is an Ecuadorian through and through. It is her heart home. Among the things I wanted to do while visiting her was visit the rainforest and also learn more about indigenous communities here. While planning a trip to the jungle (which she has done several times), Ann added on another tour. It was a “toxitour” showing the impact the petroleum industry has had on the people of this small country. It was not a tour I would have asked to have taken, and yet I knew it was very important that I go.
The tour was led by a remarkable man who has dedicated more than 30 years of his life to the fight to preserve the health and wellbeing of Ecuador and its rivers and people in the face of horrifying toxic waste and contamination from the petroleum industry, both in the past and ongoing. His name is Donald Moncayo, and he is one of the bravest and most dedicated environmental activists I know. He founded and runs an organization called UDAPT. La Unión de Afectados y Afectadas por las Operaciones Petroleras de Texaco. (The Union of People Affected by Texaco’s Oil Operations) To learn more, click HERE. (You can click on Google translate at the upper right part of the screen, as it is in Spanish.)
As background, please know that Texaco was the original petroleum company that built hundreds of oil wells throughout Ecuador, but then it was bought out by Chevron. Many of you may know that there had been an enormous $9.5 billion settlement against Chevron and its devastating environmental practices. Unfortunately, that ruling was overturned, and so all the contamination still persists. (Please note: This was one of 10 huge settlements against Chevron, from $5 million to $74.4 billion! For more information, click HERE.)
Here is some of what I learned:
- Oil (and other mineral fuels) is Ecuador’s largest export. When one travels through Ecuador, especially in the area known as Lago Agrio (“Bitter Lake”), oil pipes (above ground) are omnipresent. They lead to the coast. In 2021, Ecuador had 8.3 billion barrels of crude oil reserves.
- Lago Agrio is a town in the province of Sucumbíos, which was, as recently as 50 years ago, inhabited by indigenous people of the Andes Mountains and the Amazon Rainforest. When Big Oil moved in, everything changed.
- How does Chevron/Texaco manage their waste? They dump it on, or inject it into, the earth. There are no liners or tanks of any kind. It just sits there and seeps into the land and the creeks and rivers and aquifers. Donald took us to see many of these dump sites. To the average bystander, it will look like forest. It is green. Plants still grow there. But dig down one foot, and there is oil. Donald reached into the muck, rubber gloves on his hands, and the oil was utterly and disgustingly apparent.
- Whenever they dump their waste, they aim it downstream. In this way, if anyone complains, they take a sample from the water upstream to “prove” that there is no contamination. Sadly, the streams empty into large rivers, which eventually empty into the Amazon River and the ocean. The fish which survive are contaminated. And fish is one of the primary food sources of the indigenous people of the area.
- Donald also took us to a community clinic which he created to help those in the local communities whose health has been impacted by the rampant contamination. The cancer rates in the area are alarming. We were given pamphlets and were shocked to notice that the rate of cancer among women was three times higher than that of men. The staffers believe this is because it is the women who wash dishes, clothes, and children in the unsafe waters. They have no choice. There is no clean water available to bathe in or cook with. Most likely, the abundant food found growing on trees and in gardens is all contaminated as well.
- The most poignant moments of the tour were when Donald told us that the nurse administrator of the clinic herself had had cancer. And because of that cancer, she lost the baby she’d been carrying. Fortunately, she was able to get treatment and, unlike many others, she survived. But the toll on her physical, mental, and marital health was enormous. When we we had listened to her share about the clinic and its work, and after Donald told us about her cancer, I and the three women I was on the tour with each stood, one by one, to embrace her. I told her, with tears, “I’m so glad you’re here. I’m so glad you survived.” I think she felt grateful, but also a bit shaky, from our outpouring of love and concern. Several of us had tears.
This whole problem of the omnipresence of Big Oil is difficult to resolve. When corporations have such enormous wealth at their disposal, they can get away with almost anything and everything, up to and including murder. In fact, almost 2000 environmental activists and land protectors have been murdered between 2012 and 2022. Almost 90% were in Latin America. (To read more, click HERE.) Also, see my blog about Rosa and the murders, attempted murder, and intimidation of her and her family members as they fight to protect their sacred mountain. (HERE)
Sadly, as I was writing this blog post, I received a message from my Ecuadorian friend that the current president of Ecuador gave permission to the Chinese to start drilling for oil in northeastern Ecuador. If the Ecuadorian government and the U.S. are unwilling or unable to protect the land and the people, it is highly unlikely that the Chinese will.
I ache for the people of Ecuador, and for the rivers and the land.
Banner image shows one of the hundreds of flares from oil wells that burns 24/7, relentlessly, every single day of the year, spewing toxic, carcinogenic substances into the air, causing cancer and other maladies among rural Ecuadorians, especially the indigenous people who live(d) where it was once a magnificent, ever-giving jungle, full of life, food, animals, native trees and plants.
The image in the text is Donald Moncayo, a crusader for the people. This was one of the places he showed us where Texaco/Chevron poured/injected contaminated oil into the earth.
