This one On Tuesday, April 11, the decision of the Criminal Guarantee Court specializing in criminal offenses of corruption and organized crime will be announced, before which the company Amazon Tech filed a protective suit in case it is about the process of extinguishing the lighters and the competition to catch the gas coming out of the said lighters.

competition would be declared abandoned at any time, according to what the oil authorities have announced, just when it is by complying with the judgment of the Court in Sucumbíos who agreed with nine Amazonian girls who demanded that the lighters be turned off because they create pollution and thus affect their rights to health and the environment.

So, On March 21, the US company Amazon Tech filed a protective suit against Petroecuador following statements by the Minister of Energy and Mining, Fernando Santos, in which he announced that Petroecuador would declare the tender invalid. for capturing accompanying gas from the Amazon blocks. Then Minister Santos explained that the reasons for this declaration must do with tender failures generated from the state company Petroecuador itself.

Amazon Tech, that, together with other private companies, he participated in a competition to capture gas from lighters in the Amazon, it already had a contract award report, as it is the only company that met all the conditions calls. After learning about Petroecuador’s decision, he then made it known that he was ready to go to the extreme consequences in the legal field.

Thus, a hearing was held on March 31, where both sides presented their arguments and evidence. Pedro Pinzón Ceballos is the legal representative of Amazon Tech, while the defendant is the manager of Petroecuador itself, María Elisa Soledispa.

Amazon Tech’s lawyers thought so Petroecuador would violate the rights to health, environment, nature and the right to petition and legal certainty by not completing the bidding process for gas collection. In addition, it considers that Petroecuador’s argument that it adheres to the extermination of lighters, without the need for a gas collection procedure, has not been proven. They said that it is not known where and how they are being excluded.

They also considered false the statements of the authorities in the sense that the shutdown procedure has nothing to do with the tender. For that presented Petroecuador’s official plan for this tender, which sets the goal of “respecting the sentence” of the Court of Sucumbíos this forces the company to turn off the lighters. Petroecuador’s documents also indicate that gas capture expected to be achieved through a bidding process help reduce the impact on communities, improve the availability of associated gas and save operational costs.

Instead, Petroecuador’s defense tried to distort the purpose of the protective action, pointing out that the company’s lawsuit was related to the fact that the contract was not awarded. In this sense, it considered that this process must deal more with the issue of public contracting, and not with the issue of violation of rights.

During the process, Amazon Tech presented a series of tests related to:

Petroecuador asked the court to declare the audacity of the said evidence, but the Court did not accept that request. The judges assessed them as relevant and reasoned that there is no unconstitutionality in relation to them, so they were included in the proceedings in order to be legally and validly analyzed.

Either way, Petroecuador delivered a list of 112 lighters that would go out until now, and on the other hand he said that they acted in accordance with legal certainty. They explained that the bidding process is still under revision.

The Court said that in a few days there will be a reading of the decision on this topic. That will happen this Tuesday, according to the convening of the court itself.

The ruling of the court in Sucumbíos indicated that lighters near populated areas should be extinguished by March 29, and that other lighters, more distant, can be eliminated by 2030. (I)