The Amazon stretches over six million square kilometers and crosses eight countries. One of them is Ecuador, where the Yasuní National Park is located, one of the areas with the greatest biodiversity on the planet. Millions of Ecuadorians voted in a referendum on Sunday to protect the country from oil exploration and the greed of economic and political interests. It is the first time that a consultation has been held with a citizens’ group in a country, Ecuador, which is facing an unprecedented security crisis. Achieving the commitment to keep the oil underground and to shield this space, which is a biosphere reserve, was not easy: Yasunidos, the assembly organization made up of hundreds of young people, whose spokesman is Pedro Bermeo, has been fighting for this for 10 years . It started with a group of young environmentalists in 2013, when the country’s then-president, Rafael Correa, opened the door to oil exploration in the region. During that time, says Bermeo, 32, a photographer and lawyer by trade, they faced harassment, threats and a smear campaign calling them “terrorists” for defending nature.
They also faced all sorts of obstacles, so a public consultation like Sunday’s was unsuccessful. It has been a struggle against successive governments erecting obstacles, against bureaucracy, against corporate pressure and a strong disinformation campaign. But last Sunday, in the expected presidential elections in the Andean country, 58.98% of Ecuadorians voted in favor of keeping the oil reserves underground indefinitely. Bermeo, like the whole group, sees this “yes” as a victory, but stresses that it is also due to the struggle that indigenous peoples and nationalities had already started before.
Q The referendum to protect the Yasuní is the first referendum in Ecuador based on a citizen’s proposal.
R Yes, the previous consultations started with the President. In Yasunidos we had to visit ten different instances in these 10 years to get here. We managed to conduct the referendum and to win with more than 60% of the votes with a massive campaign against it.
Pedro Bermeo joined the Yasuní Defense when he was 22 and was also involved in other environmental issues in Ecuador.Martín Avilés
Q In 2014, during Rafael Correa’s government, they canceled more than 60% of the signatures they had collected to conduct the consultation. Did you feel persecuted?
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R I think it was one of the most difficult moments, because conducting a public consultation is very difficult in itself. At that time, all Rafael Correa-controlled state agencies ran a dirty campaign in the public media to confuse the public. To say that we were violent, that we lied, that we weren’t telling the truth. They even went so far as to accuse us of being funded by Texaco and Chevron, one of the oil companies that polluted the Amazon the most. They made it difficult for us to collect the signatures. A number of requirements were made during the collection process, such as the color of the pen, the size of the paper, and the weight of the paper. And then they arbitrarily canceled more than 400,000 of the 757,623 signatures we collected. In fact, between 2013 and 2014, when the signature collection took place, we found that several police officers were infiltrating our organizations. There were also threats and an intelligence investigation investigating us as if we were terrorists, they knew our banking movements, what we did and where we worked.
Q Were you pressured before the referendum, when it was about to take place?
R It was a David versus Goliath campaign. The big business elites, the media and mainstream politics have done their best to misinform the public. But beyond that, the state-owned oil company Petroecuador, which operates with everyone’s money, has dedicated itself to the “No” campaign. During business hours, they sent more than six officials to the universities to give lectures on why one should vote “no” in the referendum. If an official is forbidden from campaigning, the registered organizations are there to do it. We’re not a political party, we don’t have a campaign structure, but we created it with ordinary people from all over Ecuador organizing to save and defend life on the planet. Right now we are the largest national consensus. While the candidates get between 20 and 30% of the votes, the saving Yasuní got 60%. Ecuador is an ecological city that believes that the life of nature and people is worth more than the supposed oil dollars that never arrived.
Q Are All Indigenous Communities Yes?
R When we talk about indigenous peoples and nationalities, like any other human group, there are positions against and for. However, there is obviously a colonial and racist relationship between the state and the territories of peoples and nationalities. And why am I saying this? Since peoples and nationalities are only offered work, health and education if they sign permission to exploit their territory, there is a systematic neglect of the state to guarantee all human rights. People in Quito are not asked if we want health or if we want our home to be free of contamination. This condition that they have to choose is a kind of blackmail to say if you want to get an education you have to give me permission to exploit your territory.
Q In October, the second round of the presidential election will take place between Correísmo candidate Luisa González and businessman Daniel Noboa. Do you think that depending on who wins, the result of the query can be compromised?
R If the President or an official does not comply with the provisions of the Constitutional Court [como es el referéndum y su resultado], we can seek his release for interfering with the Supreme Court’s decision. Not only do we have to defend the votes in the elections, we also have to ensure that the results are respected. That means the fight doesn’t end today. Although the popular consultation phase has ended, a process of compliance is now beginning that could take several years before we can finally say that the Yasuní are protected.
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