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February 6, 2013

Indigenous People Travel from Ecuador to Texas to Protest Sale of Amazon Land for Oil 
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Indigenous leaders from Ecuador have traveled to Houston, Texas, to
confront the Ecuadorean government over plans that could see vast tracts
of the Amazon rainforest sold for oil drilling. Their protest comes as
government officials and oil executives are meeting in Houston for the
North American Prospect Expo, a trade fair for oil and gas deals.
Protesters say the Ecuadorean government plans to sell roughly 10
million acres of land in the Southeastern Ecuadorean Amazon without
proper consent from the local indigenous peoples. The protesters were
joined by indigenous leaders and environmentalists from across North
America. Jaime Vargas, president of the Achuar nationality, was among
those who came to Texas.

Jaime Vargas: "From Ecuador to Houston, we have come to reclaim our
rights and to say to the country and to the world that the rainforest is
not for selling, it's for protecting, because it's life, because it's
our Mother Nature. Because for us, for the indigenous peoples, the
rainforest is life, because we find everything there. But in contrast
for the big capitalists, for the materialists, it's a market of
commerce, a market of money. But for us, it's a market of life."

 

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