Quito, Ecuador — Immigration police announced late last night that activist Julia Butterfly Hill will be deported to the United States early this morning. The deportation is set to occur just two hours before a scheduled Habeas Corpus hearing for Ms. Hill and the seven Ecuadorian activists with whom she was arrested Tuesday during a peaceful protest outside Occidental Petroleum (OXY)’s Quito offices.
Ms. Hill has been in Ecuador since July 9, joining the national struggle to resist Ecuador’s new OCP pipeline. Speaking after the deportation decision from Quito’s Provisional Detention Center, where she and the other seven protesters have been held since their arrest, she said:
“I remain deeply committed to support the Ecuadorian communities engaged in this struggle. I will continue to do what I can from the US to work for the release of those arrested with me, and to fight this devastating pipeline project.”
“The decision to deny due process to Julia Butterfly is clearly influenced by a desire on the part of the Ecuadorian government and OCP to avoid the spotlight being shined on the OCP pipeline,” declared Atossa Soltani, Executive Director of Amazon Watch. “Those pushing this destructive project know that it will not bear being exposed to international scrutiny.”
The OCP pipeline has been mired in controversy since its inception, with hundreds of protests over the last few months along its route, which crosses fragile ecosystems and 11 protected areas. Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum is a key member of the OCP consortium, and is planning significant expansion of its Ecuador operations in pristine Amazon ecosystems, in expectation of the pipeline’s completion. At the Tuesday protest where the arrests took place, 50 community members from Mindo, Lago Agrio, Esmeraldas and Shushufindi, who are adversely affected by the new pipeline, rallied outside the offices of Occidental and the OCP to demand an end to the escalating destruction of their lands.
Seven people were also arrested yesterday in the Amazonian province of Sucumbios in another show of resistance against the OCP pipeline. Members of two local farming families near Lago Agrio were dispersed with tear gas by police. Two children were among those detained.
On Monday Julia Butterfly, best known for her 738 day tree sit 200 feet atop a 2000-year old threatened California old-growth redwood tree, accompanied Mindo community members to re-occupy OCP’s construction site in the Mindo Nambillo Cloudforest Reserve. Construction has now illegally advanced 200 meters inside community-owned property. A judge will visit the site Friday, accompanied by local community members, to issue a ruling on the property demarcation.
Lead financer of the project, German bank WestLB, has come under intense fire for syndicating a $900 million loan to the OCP in violation of its own lending policies. The loan, which does not meet minimum World Bank environmental guidelines has sparked public outrage in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia (NWR), which holds a 43 percent stake in WestLB. US bank, Citigroup has also been highlighted as a top lender to consortium members.
The majority of Amazon crude that will flow through the pipeline is destined for US West Coast markets. The OCP Consortium includes: Alberta Energy (Canada), Occidental Petroleum (OXY- USA), AGIP (Italy), Repsol-YPF (Spain), Perez Companc (Argentina), and Techint (Argentina). JP Morgan Chase is financial advisor for the project.
