First the fire, then the fear. On the night of August 18, an incendiary attack razed the outpost of the Wooti indigenous guardians to the ground, a brutal attack to silence their fight against the drills that advance illegally in the Yasuní forest.
There is a place in the north-east of Ecuador, on the border with Peru, where democracy seems to be worth less than the oil sleeping underground. It is the Yasuní National Park, one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet, a green lung of almost 10,000 km2 that two years ago the Ecuadorian people have chosen to protect. With a historical referendum, citizens said “no” to new drilling, preferring the forest to profit. But today the drills have not stopped and the anger of the guardians of that land, the indigenous Wootra people, exploded in a national mobilization that came from the forest to the capital, Quito.
The betrayed promise of the referendum
The story has the bitter taste of a betrayed promise. The victory in the 2023 referendum was a powerful signal against the “false economic promises of the oil companies and the government”, as the Amazon Frontines organization recalls today. It was a choice of clear field, taken despite a hammering propaganda in favor of extraction. Still, the government has decided to challenge the popular will, allowing oil operations to continue. A wound not only for the environment, but for the rule of law.
To pay the highest price of this challenge are Wootrans, or “people”, as their name means in the native language. A people of about 3000 individuals who have lived in symbiosis for centuries with the forest between the curaray and Napo rivers, chasing and fishing. For them, Yasuní is not a resource to be exploited, but a sacred house to defend. And their defense is becoming increasingly dangerous.
Intimidations and attacks: the forest under siege
The tension resulted in violence open only a few days ago. In an urgent press release, the Waorani nationality of the Ecuador (NAWE) denounced a “cowardly incendiary attack” against the territorial monitoring place in the community of obipare. It is the second time that happens. A group, which according to Nawe would be linked to illegal action, set fire to the structure.
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The five representatives of the Kengiwe people who were inside managed to save themselves, but they lost everything: their personal effects, the equipment used to monitor the forest and document the intrusions. For Nawe, this is not an isolated event, but a premeditated attack against our sovereignty “and” a clear attempt to frighten us and take away our ability to protect our jungle “.
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The answer was not long in coming. Today, the largest indigenous organization in the country, Conaie, together with the Waorani nation, is marching on the streets of the capital. Their request is simple and powerful: they demand that the government honors its word, respect the vote of its people and immediately stop the perforations in the Yasuní. It is a struggle that goes beyond the boundaries of Ecuador, because as Amazon Frontines points out, “more and more people in the world no longer believe lies that the large oil industry is passing off”. The battle for Yasuní has become the symbol of a global conflict: on the one hand the logic of fossil profit, on the other the right of a people to decide their future and to protect a heritage that belongs to the whole of humanity.
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