Ecuadorians Vote Against Drilling Yasuni Reserve

"oil causes poverty, contamination and death..."

In a significant victory for indigenous people, Ecuadorians voted in a historic referendum to ban oil drilling in the biodiverse Yasuni National Park in the Amazon.  The Park is also home to the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples, the last tribes living in voluntary isolation from the modern world.  The vote will keep an estimated 726 million barrels of oil in the ground at a time when the climate effects of burning fossil fuels are more apparent than ever. [photo credit: S. Pinchetti]

The vote was not close with a margin of over 20% against drilling "Block 43" on the eastern edge of the Park. Ecuador's national oil company is required to halt production and  dismantle infrastructure within one year.  The result came despite warnings from industry that halting development would severely impact  the cash-strapped nation's economy.  The nation earned $991 million from oil  during the period January to July this year.  Fitch downgraded its bonds below investment grade last week.  Yasunidos is an activist group that struggled for ten years to get a vote on drilling in the reserve.  It gathered more than 750,000 signatures in support of a referendum.  

The country's rainforest has been the scene of ecological disasters caused by oil exploration and production.  The activists have been fighting Chevron for three decades in court.  A US environmental lawyer, Steven Donziger, is under house arrest for his role in championing the rights of indigenous impacted by oil spills.  He succeeded in obtaining a $9.5 billion judgement, the largest ever, against the US company in Ecuadorian courts, but Chevron has fought the case tooth and nail, not paying a cent in damages. Chevron has lobbied to remove his bar licenses and sued him for bribery and fraud.  A US federal judge who heard arguments against the judgment's validity took the extraordinary step of appointing private attorneys to prosecute Donziger for refusing to turn over his electronic devices. He is awaiting trial on criminal contempt charges levied against him by US District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan.