PETRA - OLUM ( Stone-oil )

A decade ago, a group of Amazonian villagers won a historic legal victory against one of the most powerful corporations in the world: Chevron.

In 1964, Texaco (now Chevron), arrived in Ecuador with a concession of 1.5 million hectares in the provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana. At that time, they were extracting oil from the 450,000 hectares in their ownership. When the company arrived, the only inhabitants of the region were the ancestral indigenous communities in the jungle. The settlers arrived in the 1960s with the promise of gaining land and a better life.

The oil giant admitted in court to having dumped 19 billion gallons of crude oil and harmful chemicals directly into unlined rivers and pools in a particularly biodiverse region of the Ecuadorian rainforest over decades. This operation constituted one of the largest oil- related environmental disasters the world has ever seen. The company contaminated an area of some 4,000 square kilometers, threatening the lives and livelihoods of numerous indigenous communities, small farmers and countless species of flora and fauna. According to the company, there was no human presence in the area where they worked, thus disqualifying the presence of indigenous people.

The inhabitants of the region suffered the consequences of extraction, their health and future were affected by contaminants present in the soil and groundwater, quantities exceeding permissible levels in Ecuador. To this day the inhabitants remain living in the vicinity of the concession area where hundreds of waste ponds leach toxins into the waters that travel wherever the rains go, carrying heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium, petroleum hydrocarbons, that cause serious health complications.

Génesis, who is 5-years of age, plays on an oil pipeline that crosses by her house. The pipeline is just a few meters from the entrance to where she lives in the periphery of El Coca, Orellana Province. Studies by UDAPT reveal the high percentage and increase of cases of residents with cancer who live closer to oil wells, gas flares and areas where there were spills and, as a consequence, use of water from rivers contaminated by oil wastes.

Evidence of the oil contamination around oil well Aguarico-04 (AG-04). It was abandoned several years ago and its surroundings have surface and subsoil contamination. Nueva Loja, Sucumbíos Province.

26-year-old Ligia with her daughter in Taracoa Parish, Orellana Province, in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Ligia no longer walks. She lived in the Shuar Community of San Vicente, near the Rumiyacu River where in 2000 there was a serious spill. Ten months ago (since July 2023) she started with dizziness and tingling in her legs. Since the dizziness, she became progressively unable to walk and has been permanently bedridden, with painkillers that she cannot afford. Her husband left her when the disease appeared. In February 2023, she underwent surgery in Guayaquil for cervical cancer. Since then, she has been waiting for her medical certificate which would affirm her right to receive 240 dollars a month from the State for having 70% disability due to catastrophic illness. A recent UDAPT study confirms that the rate of cancer patients in Ecuador is much higher in provinces with extractive activities.

Aerial view of the town of Shell in the Pastaza Province, Ecuador. This town was named Shell by the first oil company that arrived to Ecuador in 1937. Before the arrival of the company, the region was known by its indigenous people for the presence and hunting of saíno pigs. Now it is one of the largest parishes in Pastaza with 8,000 residents, and the Airport “Amazon River” has twelve airlines of small planes for entering the Ecuadorian Amazon.

PetroAmazonas protection helmet used as a water collector in the water tank of a house in the Kichwa community of Rumipamba, Canton Dayuma, Orellana Province.

Billboard among the few trees and bushes at the entrance to the Community of Dureno incites A’i Kofán community members to ‘accept’ extractivism and oil companies with the slogan ‘Petroleum improves your life.” Community of Dureno, Sucumbíos Province.

Fabiola, widow of Eduardo Mendúa, leader of the A'i Cofán Dureno community, in the province of Sucumbios, who was murdered by hired assassins on the night of February 26, 2023. Twelve bullet impacts ended his life. Mendúa was the visible face of the anti-oil resistance in his community. The event worsened the fragile relationship between the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and the government of Guillermo Lasso.

View of the Aguarico oil station near the community of 28 de marzo in the province of Sucumbios.

The reverse of the medical certificate of the baby of Yajaira who is 25-years-old. Jesus suffers from Hodgkin's lymphoma (Hodgkin's disease), a cancer of the lymphatic system. He was born in cardiac arrest with a diaphragmatic hernia to the right lung and a first-degree stroke. He was found with the right-sided organs fused between them. After an urgent operation, he was stuck to machinery that kept him alive for two months. Jesus was born with the diseases that are normally found in adults over 50-years-old. His breathing is short like an old man who has smoked all his life. The cancer had affected his windpipe and lungs. El Coca, Province of Orellana.

Inhabitants of the Juan Yañez community in the parish of Santa Cecilia in the Province of Sucumbios, during the meeting with the Union of People Affected by Texaco Oil Operations - UDAPT, PetroEcuador and the Ministry of the Environment to take soil and water samples to assess the seriousness of the contamination. On May 10, 2023 on the Conejo River there was a spill in the SOTE pipeline where 1106 barrels of crude oil were spilled. The river was contaminated and the community members had no access to clean water for domestic use.

Detail of water contaminated by oil spill in the estuary behind the Aguarico oil station where a spill not reported by the oil company was detected.

View of the Maxus road in block 16, inside the Yasuní National Park, built by the namesake extractive works of the oil company.

A girl from the Kichwa community of Rumi Pamba in Dayuma Canton, plays thoughtlessly after collecting snails at the bottom of an artificial pool contaminated by oil waste. Rumi Pamba is a community divided by a road, built for the transportation of crude oil extracted a few hundred meters from the houses during the extractive activities of the Texaco Company (now Chevron) between 1964 and 1990. Previously the oil company Texaco and now by the State Company Petroecuador have devastated the area causing contamination due to the continuous spills caused by the poor condition of the old pipes, and by intentionally pouring the oil waste into the rivers. These pools were built to prevent domestic use of the toxic water present in the river. Unfortunately, like other pools in the community, it also holds contaminated water, as the same river water seeps into the muddy soils, ending up in the pools. Likewise, the water captured from the rain and stored in these pools, falls loaded with toxic particles that come from the numerous gas flares of the oil company present in the area. A recent study by the UDAPT confirms that the taxa of cancer patients in Ecuador is much higher in the provinces with extractive activities.

Sergio Andy Agenda is 67 years old, sitting on the floor of his house in the Kichwa Community of Puerto de Palos, in Limoncocha, province of Orellana. He proudly wears the uniform shirt he used to wear every day 3 years ago to work in Block 15 for Petroecuador. Before he lost part of his foot. One medical hypothesis is that Sergio has hostiomylitis from having had direct contact with crude oil during his work for Petrolera Occidental and Petroecuador, which, for only 5 months, he was in charge of cleaning up spills and chemical liabilities produced by the companies. Block 15 is the first block that affected 4 protected areas: Limoncocha Biological Reserve (46km2 ), Pañacocha Protected Forest, and the buffer zones of the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (46km2 ). Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (28km2 ) and Yasuni National Park (209km2 ).

Temy, 28, fixes her hair in the courtyard of her home in the Kichwa community of Rumipamba, in the province of Orellana, Ecuadorian Amazon. Rumipamba is a community divided by a road, built to transport crude oil extracted a few hundred meters from the houses during the extractive activities of the Texaco Company (now Chevron) between 1964 and 1990. Temy, like all the people of the Rumipampa community, lives mainly from their natural environment. Previously the Texaco oil company and now the State Company Petroecuador (which inherited the installations of the pipelines already in bad condition) have devastated the area causing contamination due to the continuous spills caused by the deterioration of the old pipelines, and by intentionally pouring oil waste into the rivers. This same water seeps into the muddy jungle terrain where the community has their homes, their animals and the farms where they produce their staple foods. During the night you can see from a small hill, the amount of gas flares from the oil installations surrounding the community. Pollution is also in the air, and their rain catchment systems also collect contaminated water. Temy like many of his community, out of economic necessity, was overcome by the nearby opportunity to improve their economic status by working at Petroecuador's Rumipamba facility. After only three and a half years as a worker, she began to lose the sight in her left eye, her right leg began to hurt to the point that today she does not walk well and her hands began to deform. Her body is contaminated from being born and living there, in Rumipamba, a place with no alternatives. A recent UDAPT study confirms that the rate of cancer patients in Ecuador is much higher in provinces with extractive activities.

(2018) Gabriela, 4 years old, eating fruit in the hammock in the front yard of her house in the periphery of El Coca. She has already had 5 operation for brain cancer. His father "was a drug addict" - they say, and he no longer lives with them. Her mother is very skinny but she does not consider the hypothesis that she also suffers from cancer and that it was the reason that Gabriela contracted cancer.

Waorani hunter on the Maxus road, built decades ago by the namesake company for its oil extraction works inside the Yasuní National Park, in the concession zone of Block 16.

On April 7, 2020, what was considered the worst oil spill in the last decade in Ecuador took place. More than 100 indigenous Kichwa communities, not counting peasant populations, were affected by the contamination of the Coca River, which consequently spread to the Napo, Aguarico and other Amazonian tributaries, where 27,000 people have been forced to consume water with oil and live with the consequent contamination of their territory. The pipelines of the Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline System (SOTE) and Ecuador's Heavy Crude Oil Pipeline (OCP) that passed next to the river broke and caused this oil disaster, where 15,800 gallons of crude oil fell into the river. The indigenous people of the communities of Pandayaku and Shiwuacucha, San Francisco, Playa del Rio Coca and Dashino lost their river, their crops, their food independence and their navigation route. Not far from there, in 2016 the Coca Codo Sinclair dam was inaugurated, defined the largest hydroelectric project in Ecuador's history. The hydroelectric power plant is located between the provinces of Napo and Sucumbíos (northern Ecuador) and harnesses the flow of the Coca River. The Coca Codo Sinclair dam, built by the Chinese company Sinohydro, was one of the flagship projects of the government of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017) that cost an estimated US$2.7 billion. According to a 2018 investigation by The New York Times, the work was carried out against all studies and warnings about the geological conditions of the area. Indeed, among the surrounding mountains is the Reventador, an active volcano that usually spits smoke. In 2018, two years after its inauguration, thousands of fissures appeared in the dam and more and more experts warned about the possibility of a disaster. The photos show the current devastation, occurred from February 2, 2020, when the collapse of the San Rafael waterfall, among the highest in Ecuador, began with the process of erosion of the river in domino effect. Although there is doubt about its responsibility for the disaster, the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant changed the balance of the river forever.

The Z. family gathers in a room in their house in the periphery of El Coca. Alexandra receives $100 per month as compensation from the government for the three sick members of the family. Of three children, two suffered from hydrocephalus and his father Pedro, cancer. Damián, of 5 years of age, suffers from hydrocephalus and brain impairment of 82% while Liliana, of 15 years of age, has a disability of 75%. Pedro, the father, is 47-years-old and he lives bedridden. El Coca, Orellana Province.

Pipelines for crude oil transportation in Rumipamba, Canton Dayuma, Orellana Province.

Ewene, a 29-year-old Waorani, aboard one of Petroecuador's buses on the Maxus highway, talks with the driver about his reason for returning to the community and stresses the importance of voting "Yes" in the upcoming Popular Consultation. Five years ago, Ewene left her home in Guiyero in order to get an education and study in the city of Quito and escape the dangers of alcoholism. Now she has returned with a mission: to inform her community about the importance of voting yes in the upcoming Consulta Popular on August 20, 2023. Since 1985, his community has been located inside the concession zone of Block 16, initially concessioned to Maxus Energy Co. then Repsol and since 2023 to the state company Petroecuador, and living under the constant threat of eviction. In their recent history, relations between the Waoranis and the companies in their ancestral territory have been marked by conflicts and assassinations. Therefore, to mitigate tensions and conflicts with the natives, the company offers free services such as transportation, power plants and gasoline as a gesture of friendship. This Popular Consultation is of great significance, as a "Yes" vote will bring a historic achievement for Ecuador and the world: the oil in Block 43 will remain in the ground, without exploitation. The community of Ewene is a living example that the promises of prosperity through extractivism have not been fulfilled. The gain resulting from this decision would be of vital importance for Yasuní, one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet. Yasuní is the last lung of the planet and this consultation offers Ecuador the opportunity to become the first country to take concrete action against climate change. Ewene, accompanied by Moisés and Kony, brings a strong speech, informative brochures, T-shirts with the slogan "Yes to Yasuní" and stickers that they distribute with enthusiasm. Gathering family and community members, they visit house to house, explaining the importance of the vote and highlighting the implications of a "Yes" or "No" vote in relation to the future of Yasuní.

Helena Baihua, a 50 year old Waorani in the Flor de Oriente neighborhood outside of El Coca in Orellana. She suffers from fainting and severe stomach pains. Seven years ago she came to El Coca from Numampare where she grew up. The company there, for years, has been polluting the Piranha River by pouring chemical waste when washing the waste tanks. Helena's farm was the last one to receive everything that was dumped into the river. She says that the doctors do not know how to diagnose her, while according to the shaman who came, "a boa snake is eating her from the stomach".

Detail of a pipeline that transports crude oil on route E10 between Lumbaqui and Chingual. to the northwest of Nueva Loja. Uncountable kilometers of pipes along most of the roads in the Province of Sucumbío

A mural in Coca, Orellana Province

Women and children sitting on the bus that Petroecuador offers as a free service to members of the Waorani community inside Block 16 in the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve, in the province of Orellana, to mitigate tensions and conflicts with the natives, and as a gesture of friendship.

Detail of vegetation. Ecuadorian Amazon.

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