Ecuadorian Community Resists CGC Oil Company

Sarayacu is a community deep in the jungles of Pastaza, Ecuador which is well-known
for its long and uncompromising resistance to the oil companies and its
strong defense of its lands and traditional way of life.

This communication came this week:

TO:
Quichua Communities
Achuara Communities
Shuar Communities
Zaparo Communities
Other indigenous communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon
Indigenous organizations at the national and international level
CGC Oil Company
Gustavo Noboa, president of Ecuador
Solidarity Organizations at the national and international level
Governments of other countries
National and international press

DECLARATION OF REJECTION AND RESISTANCE AGAINST THE CGC OIL COMPANY

We, the Community of Sarayacu, in the Ecuadorian
Amazon reject the continual harassment on the part of
the CGC Petroleum Company against us.

In the month of May 2000, we held a meeting in our
community with Mr. Ricardo Nicolas, representative of
CGC. He offered us $60,000 if we accepted the
petroleum exploration by CGC. He promised us that if
we didn't accept it,the CGC would go back to their own
country, Argentina, remaining friends with us. We
didn't accept his proposal, and afterward we
repeatedly demonstrated that we do not accept any
petroleum activity within our territory.

Nevertheless, the CGC continues to harass us. CGC
pays individual people within the same indigenous
communities to spread pro-petroleum company propaganda and also to spread injurious slander against the community leaders with the goal of creating internal conflicts and division to facilitate the entrance of
the petroleum company. On September 21-23, there was a meeting financed by CGC in the community of Canelos with the goal of making it seem as though the
communities were in agreement with petroleum
exploitation. To this meeting six people from
Sarayacu were invited, who do not have any
representative authority, and of them only three
people accepted the invitation.

We know that petroleum exploitation will give us
only pollution, hunger and misery, We live by
hunting, fishing, and gardening, and if the petroleum
companies pollute our lands and rivers, we will have
nothing to live on. The money that we would make as
workers for the oil company for a few months means
nothing compared to what we can lose.

- We reject the dirty maneuvers of the CGC Company
and we demand that they keep their promise to leave
our territory forever, since we don't accept their
presence.

- We warn our indigenous brothers and sisters, and
NGOs of the world, to be careful of Mr. David
Gualinga, an indigenous native who previously belonged
to the community of Sarayacu, who has been expelled
from the community since 1983 for being a liar,
divisive and try to convince the people with the Bible
(he was then paid by the evangelical missionaries).
Now he is paid by the oil companies and goes around to
all the communities within the CGC concession trying
to convince the people to accept the oil exploitation.
He represents to the indigenous people a threat like
the human virus Anthrax, if not worse.

- We demonstrate our will to maintain friendly
relations with all our neighboring communities, and
not to fall into the traps set by CGC to make brothers
fight brothers.

- We ask for solidarity and moral support from
organizations,
governments, and solidarity friends throughout the
world to defend our territory, at the same time
defending the Amazon rainforest and the environment of
the world.

- We declare that any entrance by the petroleum
company into our territory is for us an act of war,
and we will take corresponding measures to defend
ourselves. To defend ourselves is not only our right,
it is our obligation to our children and to future
generations.

- We want to free ourselves, once and for all, of
the constant threat of the petroleum companies, and at
last live in peace and tranquility, able to concentrate
on the struggle to improve our conditions of life.

Sarayacu 25th of September 2001

Franco Viteri, PRESIDENT; Isidro Gualinga, CURACA OF
CALICALI; Bernal Santi, CURACA OF SARAYAQUILLU; José
Machoa, CURACA OF CHONTAYACU; Alfredo Imunda, CURACA
OF PISTA; Salvador Gualinga, CURACA OF SHIGUACOCHA;
Hilda Santi, VICE PRESIDENT; Maria Machoa, DIRECTOR OF
EDUCATION; Noemi Gualinga, DIRECTOR OF HEALTH; Camilo
Gualinga, DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT; Teresa Aranda,
PRESIDENT OF WOMEN; Olger Cisneros, DIRECTOR OF YOUTH;
Saul Malaver, PRESIDENT OF STUDENTS

Contact email: sarayacuinfo [at] yahoo.com