In an attempt to reverse Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa’s unilateral decision to scrap Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa’s unilateral decision to scrap the revolutionary Yasuní-ITT initiative, indigenous leaders, civil rights lawyers, and environmentalists gathered on Thursday to present the Constitutional Court with a proposed referendum question. It reads, “Do you believe that the Ecuadorean government should keep the crude in the ITT, known as block 43, underground indefinitely?”
The next step is for supporters of the initiative to gather the signatures of five percent of Ecuadorians – nearly 600,000 people – in order to bring the question to a popular vote. Recent polls show that the vast majority of Ecuadorians – between 80 and 90 percent – want to preserve Yasuní-ITT, and many of them held a vigil that evening in front of the Presidential Palace to show their support for the plan.
