Quito, Ecuador — Four farmers were wounded and ten were arrested early Thursday morning when an estimated one hundred uniformed police and military soldiers violently burst onto a farm in the Amazonian province of Sucumbios where a group of local residents affected by the construction of the heavy crude pipeline were physically blockading machinery from operating. The police and military used violent force in the attacked on 25 men, women, and children, physically beating them and using tear gas. Arrest warrants were also issued for leaders of the Provincial Network of People Affected by the OCP, a new coalition of communities working within the Sucumbios province to defend the rights of local residents in the face of OCP construction.
The blockades by farmers began a month ago along various sections of the pipeline route outside the jungle town of Lago Agrio in response to environmental and property damages incurred during preliminary pipeline construction and the strong arm tactics used by OCP and the military to intimidate and force landowners to sign agreements with the Consortium to permit the pipeline right of way through their lands. Currently, two road blockades continue roughly 35 miles outside of Lago Agrio along the proposed OCP route.
“The brutal repression of affected communities voicing legitimate concerns about OCP’s impacts must stop immediately. The Consortium’s community relations program proves to be nothing more than relying on the Ecuadorian military to beat, tear gas, and arbitrarily arrest anyone in its way,” declared Natalia Arias of Acción Ecológica.
To date, pipeline construction between Lago Agrio and Quito has affected more than 100 small farms. Landowners have denounced grave damages to their crops, grazing lands, and water supplies. According to a recent study carried out by Acción Ecológica:
55% of these farmers stated that they have been pressured, blackmailed or threatened into signing agreements with the OCP Consortium.
23% of those surveyed have not signed any agreement with the OCP Consortium, either because they are not in agreement with compensation figures or because they are opposed to the pipeline’s passage through their properties.
80% of farmers surveyed who have signed agreements presently feel that the compensation they received was unfair and does not cover the property damages caused by construction.
73% of those surveyed stated that OCP construction work had destroyed water sources and blocked ponds and rivers.
“From the cloudforests of Mindo to the Amazon Basin, OCP’s trail of environmental and human rights abuses continues to grow, as does its impunity and cozy collusion with the military,” said Kevin Koenig of Amazon Watch.
Once pristine rainforest, Sucumbios is the largest oil-producing province in the country, yet has been eclipsed by the promised benefits of the industry and remains the country’s most impoverished. For over thirty years, state and foreign oil companies such as Texaco have pumped the region for billions of barrels of oil, while indigenous communities, local farmers, and townspeople have watched it descend into environmental, social, and economic ruin. Communities surrounding oil operations have the highest rates of cancer in the country due to chronic contamination of their rivers, ground water, soil, and air; while larger towns still lack basic health services and infrastructure such as sanitation and potable water. The province also has some of the highest rates of malnutrition, prostitution, violent crime, and inflation in the nation.
