A monthly payment of $1,200 from Petroecuador to each of the workers of the Waorani community for right of way, food and transportation; a payment of $25,000 for the death of a member of the community, Social Security payment for all woaorani families, a semi-annual bonus of $1,000 to single mothers and $2,000 to families in the community -also semi-annual- They are part of the requests that the members of the Waorani Dicaro community have put together in nine pages, who currently have taken the access roads to block 16 and prevent oil activities from being carried out normally.
The letter, which is dated January 7 and signed by Robinson Coba, community president, and Araba Omehuai, community leader, It is addressed to both President Guillermo Lasso, Minister Fernando Santos Alvite and Petroecuador manager Hugo Aguiar. This indicates that it is a minimum proposal that the State and Petroecuador must satisfy “for oil exploitation.”
Throughout the letter, the indigenous people mention that for 38 years they have seen various oil companies, Repsol, Petrolia, and Petroecuador, and none have taken care of the well-being of the communities. And they carry out a series of additional orders to be financed by Petroecuador such as construction – expansion of a medical center; ambulance purchase, delivery of uniforms, construction of a complete educational unit from the initial level to higher. They also ask for the construction of houses, the construction of a House of Crafts, a Church, a Coliseum, a Communal House, among many other requests.
In accordance with Alberto Acosta Burneo, general editor of Análisis Semanal, the issue is worrisome, On the one hand, because from reading the document it is concluded that they want a prior consultation to be carried out to approve the continuation of oil exploitation in the area. This would not be possible because the law establishes that a prior consultation is carried out, but the result is not binding.
On the other hand, the nine-page annex has several logical requests such as sewerage and basic services, environmental protection issues, which must be addressed by the Government, but it also goes further, such as a minimum wage for community workers. , that all members of the community be affiliated to Social Security, construction of health centers, which cannot be carried out by the company. No other community has these kinds of privileges.
For Acosta, it worries that This position of the communities is similar to blackmail, since they ask for all this in exchange for allowing oil extraction. And he considers that it is a delicate issue that must be handled carefully by the Government. On the one hand, recognizing that this call for attention exists because the oil wealth has not been reflected nor has it clearly reached the communities, but on the other, establishing that there must be limits. He vowed that the inconvenience be successfully overcome as what happens will set a precedent for future conflicts. He explained that the Government must seek to maintain a good relationship with the communities so that they are allies of the industry and not its enemies.
The Minister of Energy, Fernando Santos, confirmed this January 13 in a radio interview on i99 that the Waorani inhabitants, who reside in the area of block 16, have sent a nine-page petition with requests that they considered “a little out of place.” In this sense, he recognized that at the moment there is a conflictive moment. He said that the problem that is generated in block 16 is part of the conflict that exists in the indigenous sector in general. For example, he indicated that Leonidas Iza, president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), has threatened to carry out various actions against mining. He explained that what exists at the moment is an attitude against extractivism, and that many times this is mixed with politics and elections. He said he was confident that the issues would be overcome.
The block’s oil production 16-67 was affected last January 11 by falling by 3,400 barrels (from 13,481 barrels to 9,994 barrels). For this January 12, Petroecuador reported that there was an increase in production returning to 13,600 barrels. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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