Ecuador Moves to Elect to Assembly

Quito, Feb 27 (Prensa Latina) Ecuador s Interior Minister Gustavo Larrea ratified on Tuesday that each group or organization will need one percent of signatures to present candidates for the Constituent Assembly, expected this year.

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa was to deliver a modified statute to the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) today, including proposals made by legislators, Larrea informed via TV.

He said the statute would be codified, including Decrees 02 and 054, plus some of the Congress resolutions that "do not distort the consult."

As an example, he said congressional proposals to the contrary, age will not be a factor for candidacy, and the time limit to convoke the Assembly - once the referendum wins - will be 150 days, not 125 as stated earlier.

Larrea clarified there will also be a period for the population to reject candidates or Assembly members.

Concluding with the determination of having the Constituent Assembly this year, he said the plans are for it to be installed in October.

Aid for Colombians Fleeing Into Ecuador

UN Sends in Aid for Colombians Fleeing Violence Into Ecuador

Scoop, Feb 28 2007

The United Nations refugee agency is distributing emergency items and food rations to more than 300 people who fled into Ecuador from Colombia in the latest spasm of over four decades of conflict between Government forces, leftist guerrillas, rightist paramilitaries and criminal gangs that has driven 3 million Colombians from their homes.

“So far, we have registered 315 people, more than half of them children,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis told a news briefing in Geneva today, noting that according to the new arrivals, many more could be on the way.

“Many in the group are still very visibly shocked and scared. They say they fled after an irregular armed group killed the local schoolteacher and threatened other people,” she said. “Local authorities on the Colombian side of the border report fighting in the area.”

The group, from the Colombian village of Tallambi, lived on the opposite bank of the river that forms the border, and a large number are Awa indigenous people. UNHCR deployed a team of humanitarian workers to the Ecuadorian village of Chical on Sunday to distribute aid in coordination with partner organizations.

The newcomers have been staying with local families but the housing capacity of the small community is fast reaching its limit. UNHCR and the local authorities are getting a shelter ready in case more people cross over in the coming days. The Awa live in their own territory spanning the border and have suffered greatly from increased violence in the southern Colombian region of Nariño in recent years.

In general, ethnic minorities in Colombia have been disproportionately affected by the conflict and UNHCR has warned that some indigenous communities risk disappearing altogether once the cultural ties linking them to their home areas are broken.

Last month, a group of some 40 Afro-Colombians arrived in northern Ecuador, also from Nariño. They have asked to remain in Ecuador as they feel it is unsafe to return. UNHCR is coordinating efforts with the national refugee office for a speedy answer to their asylum request.

Overall some 250,000 Colombians are in Ecuador after fleeing the conflict in Colombia, which with some 3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) contains the largest population of concern to UNHCR in any country in the world as the fighting has hit most regions of the Andean country. There are also an estimated 200,000 Colombians in need of protection in Venezuela.

Ecuador Furious At EU Tariffs, Reignites Banana Wars

Cattle Network, February 27, 2007

After months of threats and backroom talks, Ecuador, the world's biggest banana exporter, Monday informed the European Union that it has asked lawyers at the World Trade Organization to dust off its files and reopen, with new threats of fines and sanctions, more than 15 years of previous legal battles. And while Ecuador is wading into this battle alone, other disgruntled nations may join.

Ecuador accuses Europe of imposing illegally high tariffs to protect banana producers on its far-flung Canaries Islands and remaining Caribbean territories, as well as those in its former African and Caribbean colonies.

The battle pitches the world's largest producer against the world's largest consumer of fruit which, stacked high in European supermarkets, yields unrivaled profits for multinational producers and retailers. It also underlines how, despite free trade rules, Europe continues to protect its own producers and those in its former colonies.

Critics say large buyers and producers such as Chiquita Brands International (CQB), Dole Food Co. (DOLE.Xx) and Del Monte Foods Co. (DLM), are playing both sides of the dispute, bringing pressure to bear in the trade dispute to prop up their Latin American operations, while also setting up large scale production in West Africa at the expense of the livelihoods of small African and Caribbean banana farmers.

Behind the battle is a shift in banana production away from Latin America to former European African colonies such as Cameroon, Ghana and the Ivory Coast.

"With Dole and Chiquita both involved in new planting in West Africa, with their industrial sized production facilities on traditional tribal lands, Ecuador is looking at increased competition from a region which also benefits from zero tariffs under the current system," says Alistair Smith, International Coordinator at Banana Link, a not-for-profit lobby group campaigning for sustainable banana trade and funded by grants from a range of charities.

The big losers under any new system will be the Caribbean high-cost producers, he says.

Juan Holguin, Ecuador's ambassador at the WTO and trade negotiator on the issue says his country has no choice but to resort to legal action after months of talks with Brussels yielded what he considers to be empty promises to ease the farmers' plight.

"General offers were made, but nothing concrete was put on the table," he says.

European Union officialssay E.U. negotiators have variously offered money to help Ecuador diversify its economy away from the fruit and also considered the idea of setting up an account to raise environmental standards, using some of the windfall Europe has accrued from the new tariffs to do so.

Brussels officials say they were caught off guard by Ecuador's stance.

"Ecuador has not given the possibility of finding a negotiated solution enough time," says E.U. spokesman Peter Power. "This would have been the best solution for all parties concerned."

For Ecuador, the line is clear: in the year since the new tariffs came into place in January 2006, its exports to the E.U. fell 3%. Meanwhile, Ivory Coast, whose ex-colony status secures it duty-free access to Europe up to a 775,000 ton ceiling, saw sales soar 26.6% in the same period.

"Ecuador believes it's unfair to give tariff preferences to Africa, when African plantations are operating on a similar scale, and on top of that, with lower wage costs," says Smith at Banana Link.

The banana trade has enflamed passions around the globe for years, and though it's unclear whether a new panel at the WTO will solve the issue, it's likely the fight will once again be heated.

Officials are already expecting other countries to enter the fray against Europe, as they have done in the past. In 1999, Washington was awarded the right to sue Europe for $191 million in damages because the bloc refused to reform an illegal quota system on Latin American banana imports.

Under a truce brokered in 2001, the E.U. agreed to implement a tariff system for the fruit by 2006. The E.U. went ahead and imposed a new fixed-tariff system in January, 2006.

The problem this time is the new level of tariffs. Since last January, the E.U. has charged EUR176 a ton for Latin American banana imports. Ecuador says this duty is too high as it hampers its exports. They say the current E.U. duties add four euros to every box of fruit exported to Europe.

At the same time, former colonies can sell up to 775,000 tons a year of bananas to Europe duty-free.

"This loss of market share remains the central argument at the consultations," says Ecuador's Holguin. Ecuador wants the WTO to mediate a compromise tariff.

However the E.U. disputes the loss of market share and says that while Latin America's market share dropped as a whole, and someindividual countries' sales fell, the region's overall sales boomed. Stimulated by demand for bananas from the E.U.'s newly prosperous Eastern European states, producers have fed the market despite the new tariff.

"Banana imports from Latin American countries have increased 8% this year," says E.U. agriculture spokesman Michael Mann. "So the idea that their trade has been restricted by our new tariff is not true."

Ecuador is not alone in disagreeing strongly with this view. Colombia, Panama, several Caribbean Islands and the U.S. sat in on the debates between Ecuador and Europe of the past months, and may participate in a similar vein again. Officials at the Panama and Colombia embassies in Geneva could not be reached for comment.

While attempting to avoid antagonizing the U.S. and Ecuador, the E.U. is also struggling to satisfy its former African, Caribbean and Pacific colonies. For many of these countries, bananas represent a key export. They contribute a total of about 15% of GDP for the former U.K. colonies of Dominica, St. Vincent and St. Lucia islands, according to an Oxfam report on Caribbean bananas.

These small island producers have in the past struggled to compete with their Latin American neighbors. If the E.U. imposed the same tariff on these small states as it does on exporters in Latin America, Oxfam says the island growers would go out of business.

Yet while Europe struggles to find a tariff agreeable to producers on both sides of the Atlantic, its current tariffs benefit big multinationals most, say anti-poverty campaigners.

Ecuador Loses Millions in Drought

Quito, Feb 27 (Prensa Latina) Rain shortage along the Ecuadorian cost is causing losses of 35 million dollars due to lack of irrigation.

Rice and corn are the most affected in the provinces of Guayas, Los Rios and Manabi, while banana producers are also affected.

Farmers are waiting for a declaration of emergency announced by President Rafael Correa Saturday.

The National government promised to spend 100 million dollars through a trusteeship.

The Coastal Agricultural Secretary Luis Noblecilla warned rice will drop so much this year it will not allow exports to Colombia, which bought 165 thousand pounds in 2006, but he said there would be no internal damage.

To reduce rain shortage impact some crops are being converted into others, and nearly 30 thousand families have been affected by the drought.

Slight Drop for Correa, Congress Low in Ecuador

Feb 27, 2007
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Public support for Rafael Correa fell slightly in Ecuador, according to a poll by Cedatos/Gallup. 71 per cent of respondents in the South American nation approve of their president’s performance, down two points in a month.

Support is dramatically low for the country’s National Congress, at eight per cent. In January, the legislative body was approved by just 13 per cent of respondents.

Correa, a former finance minister, ran for president as an independent leftist under the Alliance Country (AP) banner. In November 2006, Correa defeated Álvaro Noboa of the Institutional Renewal Party of National Action (PRIAN) in a run-off with 56.69 per cent of the vote. He officially took over as Ecuador’s head of state on Jan. 15. Correa’s party nominated no candidates to the National Congress.

In his inauguration speech, Correa expressed his support for changing the country’s Constitution. On Feb 13, the National Congress approved to schedule a nationwide referendum for Apr. 15. In this ballot, the people will be asked if they want the country’s Constitution to be re-written. If a majority votes in favour of forming a Constituent Assembly, a second vote—where Ecuadorians will elect the members of this legislative body—will take place within eight days.

On Feb. 17, Correa said he will resign from the presidency if his supporters fail to win control of the Constituent Assembly, adding, "My heart is not in power, it’s in service. If I am not going to be able to do that and be one more of a tonne of traitors and impostors that we have had in the presidency, believe me, I would rather go home."

Polling Data

Do you approve or disapprove of Rafael Correa’s performance as president?

	Feb. 2007	Jan. 2007
Approve	71%	73%
Disapprove	25%	13%
No opinion	5%	14%

Do you approve or disapprove of the performance of Congress?

	Feb. 2007	Jan. 2007
Approve	8%	13%
Disapprove	90%	68%
No opinion	2%	19%

Source: Cedatos/Gallup
Methodology: Face-to-face interviews with 1,633 Ecuadorian adults, conducted from Feb. 12 to Feb. 15, 2007. Margin of error is 5 per cent.

Ecuadorean president hopes new regional lending institution created in 4 months

IHT, Feb 24, 2007.

QUITO, Ecuador: Ecuador's new leftist president said Saturday that he hopes a new regional lending institution will be established within four months.

The Banco del Sur, or Bank of the South, will help combat the "international bureaucracy" of high-cost loans offered by financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Rafael Correa said in a nationwide radio address.

"We hope (the bank) is created within 120 days so we can finance ourselves with the region's own funds," he said.

Correa said that even the IMF's low-interest loans are unacceptable because the institution imposes "unacceptable conditions" such as fines that make them more expensive than commercial loans.

The new bank was approved at a summit of the Southern Common Market, or Mercosur, last July.

Correa, who took office Jan. 15, said this new regional institution would "drastically lower" loan costs.

Correa has vowed to cut ties with the IMF, and has promised to renegotiate the country's US$16.4 billion (€12.5 billion) foreign debt and direct resources to programs that help the poor.

Earlier this month, the economy minister said Ecuador would not sign an agreement allowing the IMF to monitor the country's economic plan.

Venezuela already has set aside US$500 million (€382 million) in financing for Ecuador. On Thursday, Venezuelan Finance Minister Rodrigo Cabezas said it was still not decided how the financing would be extended to Ecuador, although he favors the purchase of Ecuadorean government bonds.

Ecuador, Venez Sever Oil Transnats

Esmeraldas, Ecuador, Feb 24 (Prensa Latina) With the beginning of direct exchange of crude oil for by-products, Ecuador and Venezuela did away Saturday with transnational mediators that drain Latin American economies.

"We are taking a first step by eliminating intermediation. We have learned of some mafias in our country that were capable of threatening the government of President Hugo Chavez," stated Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez.

Interviewed by press at Balao sea port in this city, northeast Ecuador, the official highlighted Caracas will to seal direct accords among state regional companies to avoid economic damages.

"We are convinced that state oil companies have lot more in common than intermediation and transnational interests," said Ramirez.

After the arrival here of the first shipment of 220,000 barrels of diesel, the Venezuelan minister noted that this operation is part of a series of projects and agreements signed with this country, including other sectors.

Accompanied by his Ecuadorian counterpart Alberto Acosta, Ramirez expressed his will of "using energy as a tool to join our peoples and build new economic and cultural opportunities."

With the arrival Friday of the ship with diesel, one of the eight agreements inked in January between these two nations was implemented.

The accord includes the delivery of 36,000 barrels of Napo crude oil daily to Venezuela and the purchase of 660,000 barrels of diesel in three shipments through Ecuador.

Ecuador Returns to OPEC

Quito, Feb 22 (Prensa Latina) Ecuadorian Energy Minister, Alberto Acosta, reported the return of his country to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

In addition to the many benefits acquired by being a member of the group, Quito will obtain an aggressive policy in foreign trade, Acosta told foreign press.

Only the approval of the president, Rafael Correa, is needed for reintegration to that organization that had been abandoned in 1992.

Details are still pending with the president, as well as negotiating payment of the debt to that organization that amounts to four million euros, he explained.

"Withdrawal from OPEC was a mistake that we intend to correct," the minister further emphasized, reiterating the support of several member nations of the group, Venezuela included.

Acosta explained that since the nation has marginal production, being part of the group offers political support and access to technical advice and possibilities of technical training.

OPEC controls almost a third of all oil sold in the world and it would be beneficial to receive support in a series of projects to develop extraction.

"The most important point for us is that we will need an aggressive foreign trade policy with the Arab countries and other member nations," he pointed out.

He concluded saying that extraction capacity only reaches 530,000 barrels a day between private and state companies combined.

Ecuador Stands Up to the US

By ROGER BURBACH.

From Counterpunch, February 19, 2007

Quito, Ecuador.

The leftist government of Rafael Correa has moved assertively in its relations with the United States during its first month in office. The Minister of Foreign Relations, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, in a meeting with the Foreign Press Association in Quito declared that Ecuador intends to close the US military base located at Manta. "Ecuador is a sovereign nation, we do not need any foreign troops in our country," she said. The treaty for the base expires in 2009 and will not be renewed.

The largest US base on South America's Pacific coast, it was ostensibly set up to help monitor narco-trafficking over the ocean and in the nearby Amazon basin. But it has become a major operations center for US intelligence gathering and for coordinating counterinsurgency efforts against the leftist guerrillas in neighboring Colombia. The base's air runway, built at a cost of eighty million dollars, is capable of accommodating the largest and most sophisticated US spy and intelligence gathering air craft. Manta is also used as a port for US naval operations in the Pacific. Upwards of 475 US military personal are continually rotated between Manta and the US Southern Command headquarters in Florida.

Popular sentiment in Ecuador overwhelmingly supports the closure of the US base at Manta. Since its establishment in 1999 the civil war in Colombia has spread to Ecuador, bringing refugees, violence and social conflict, particularly in the Amazon region. Aerial spraying of herbicides by planes originating in Colombia eradicates food crops and has deleterious health effects on Ecuadorian children and adults. The Colombian and US governments claim that the defoliants are only sprayed on the Colombian side of the border and that there are no flights over Ecuador. But President Correa vehemently disagrees: "We will not permit the continual violation of Ecuadorian air space by planes, that are not even Colombian, but from the United States. They enter our country, and then fly back to Colombia." Correa has ordered the Ecuadorian air force "to intercept any planes that violate our air space."

The Correa government is preparing a case for the World Court at the Hague against the Colombian government for the conflict and damages in northern Ecuador. Foreign Minister Espinosa is emphatic in saying that this is a "violation of human rights. It is not only a question of the health effects, but also of the psychological traumas caused by the constant over flights and the terrorization of the local population, particularly among the children who hear planes flying overhead and are subjected to war-like conditions." Special teams comprised international health and human rights representatives are being formed to investigate the conditions on the border. "We want to replace the conflictive conditions with a Plan for Peace and Development in the region," says Espinosa.

Last week the Vice-President of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, in a trip to Caracas, Venezuela, stated that the Colombian government "should act more as a friendly neighbor and not respond only to the orders of the empire." Commenting on the upcoming trip in March of President Bush to Latin America that excludes Ecuador, Moreno added: "Every time Bush comes to visit our region we worry because we don't know what proposals he comes to impart and what sorts of statements he will make." His comments caused an uproar, and in an effort to calm the diplomatic waters, Espinosa said that Moreno's remarks were not officially sanctioned. "We want cordial, normal relations with the US embassy and government in order to resolve any issues between us," she said.

The Correa government is also moving adroitly to break with the neo-liberal trade and commercial policies that have been imposed on Ecuador by Washington and international lending agencies. In line with his campaign platform, Rafael Correa has made it clear that he will never sign the Free Trade Agreement with the United States that was being discussed with previous governments. At the same time, Ecuador is negotiating special bilateral trade and economic agreements with Presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia. Venezuela has agreed to refine Ecuadorian oil and provide financial assistance for social programs in Ecuador, while the Bolivian government has concluded an agreement to import food commodities from small and medium producers in Ecuador.

For the moment Correa has not opted to join the People's Trade Treaty signed last year between Cuba, Bolivia, and Venezuela. But as Rene Baez, an economic analyst at the Catholic University of Ecuador says: "The treaty is really a series of special accords and financial agreements, and in that sense Ecuador is already an informal member of this alternative bloc."

The financial news that captured the headlines last week was the announcement of Economics Minister Ricardo Patino that Ecuador would make a scheduled debt payment of $135 million to foreign bond holders. Known for his long-held belief that paying off the foreign debt undercuts critical social spending programs and keeps Ecuador in a state of perpetual poverty, Patino's decision came just two days after he had announced that Ecuador would not make the $135 million payment.

Informed sources close to the government say that after high level discussions, Correa opted to pay the bond holders, preferring to concentrate on the upcoming negotiations with international creditors over a reduction in the schedule of debt payments and on the annulment of part of the debt that was the result of corrupt practices by prior Ecuadorian governments and foreign creditors. As Rene Baez says, "the Correa government decided to be selective in the battles it is taking on for the moment. A default now would have caused an international reaction and possibly provoked a domestic financial crisis, just as the government is trying to get its legs under it."

Roger Burbach is director of the Center for the Study of the Americas (CENSA) and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley. He is co-author with Jim Tarbell of "Imperial Overstretch: George W. Bush and the Hubris of Empire," His latest book is: "The Pinochet Affair: State Terrorism and Global Justice."

Ecuadorian Native movements turn up the heat

From Indian Country, February 19, 2007.
By Lisa Garrigues
LA PAZ, Bolivia - On Jan. 15, Native leaders handed the ceremonial ''staff of power'' to Ecuador's new president, Rafael Correa. Now indigenous movements in Ecuador are putting the pressure on the Ecuadorian government to meet their demands, which include the convocation of a Constitutional Assembly and increased territorial rights in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

During the ceremony of Tantarimuy, held in Cotopaxi province, Correa said his government would be ''a government of the indigenous.''

His leftist views align him with Bolivia's Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who attended the ceremony wearing Andean ponchos given to them by Native authorities.

''Latin America will keep changing, because what we are living is not an era of change, it is the change of an era,'' Correa said.

He has promised to build an Ecuador with ''Ecuadorians in charge,'' opposing the free market economic policies of the United States and the International Monetary Fund, and taking back the country's oil wealth from multinational corporations.

Like Morales, he has also promised to convoke a constitutional assembly that will write a new constitution, a move that has the approval of 75 percent of the population of urban centers Quito and Guayaquil, according to recent surveys.

The Constitutional Assembly would have the power ''to limit, restructure (or) dissolve'' any branch of government.

But he faces stiff opposition from Congress and the TSE Supreme Electoral Court, whose members say a constitutional assembly is illegal and fear Correa would use it to consolidate his own power.

''We want the established order to prevail,'' Congressman Federico Perez, of the opposition party, told the radio station Democracy.

Correa has blamed ''mafias'' within the current government who want to hold on to their privilege and power for blocking the constitutional assembly.

CONAIE, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, supported its own candidate in the 2005 elections: Luis Macas, Quichua.

But Macas and other indigenous leaders support Correa's efforts to create a new constitution, and have already begun meeting to discuss what should be included in it - like the nationalization of Ecuador's natural resources, agrarian reform, the defense of biodiversity and sovereignty of indigenous lands.

Humberto Cholango, president of ECUARUNARI, the Confederation of Quichuan Peoples of Ecuador, called on indigenous and social movements to take to the streets of Quito to pressure Congress to approve the Constitutional Assembly.

''If they try to stop it, and an indigenous rebellion is necessary, we'll do it,'' he told one reporter.

Five thousand supporters of the Constitutional Assembly clashed with police when they surrounded the congressional building on Jan. 30.

Cholango said CONAIE, ECUARUNARI and dozens of other organizations have banded together to form the National Front for the Plurinational Constituent Assembly.

Meanwhile, Ecuadorian indigenous groups from the Amazon met in Quito the last week of January in what they called an ''extraordinary'' event, bringing together 304 delegates from the Shuar, Kichwa, Shiwar, Andoa, Zapara, Huaorani and Achuar nations to reconstruct the indigenous organization CONFENIAE.

CONFENIAE, the Confederation of Indigenous Nations of the Ecuadorian Amazon Confederation of the Nationalities Indigenous to the Amazon of Ecuador, is associated with CONAIE and COICA, the Coordinator of the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin: two groups that have been working for indigenous rights for the past 20 years.

Delegates said the organization ''was able to put back together its organizational structure, which was damaged by various economic and oil interests that had brought it to the brink of profound division.''

In their statement following the meeting, delegates affirmed their support for Correa and reminded him of the importance of including representatives of indigenous nations and organizations in the new constitutional assembly.

They also asked that CONFENAIE be given more power over administration of Ecuadorian Amazonian indigenous territory and regional development, as well as a budget of $11 million.

Other demands included the withdrawal and/or renegotiation of mining, logging and oil contracts, reparations for damages sustained by oil development, government intervention in the lawsuit brought by indigenous people against Texaco and the strengthening of education, health and cultural services.

Ecuador's indigenous population is about 25 percent, less than that of neighboring Peru or Bolivia, and clustered in 12 different nations throughout the country's diverse terrain, which include high Andes, Amazon and coastal lands.

But Ecuadorian indigenous movements have wielded enormous power in shaping the political, social and economic history of the country in the last 20 years.

By successfully creating alliances with other dispossessed groups, they were instrumental in bringing populist President Lucio Gutierrez to power in 2003, then in bringing him down again when he didn't fulfill campaign promises.

Repeated protests by indigenous organizations against California-based Occidental Petroleum caused the Ecuadorian government to revoke its contract with the oil company in 2006.

Massive demonstrations by Ecuadorian Native groups have also managed to stall a free trade agreement between the United States and Ecuador, which many indigenous people say will harm local agriculturists with an influx of U.S. products.

Correa threatens to quit if opposition controls charter assembly

From People's Daily Online, Feb 18, 2007.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said on Saturday that he will resign if his supporters can not take control of the charter assembly.

Correa said in a nationwide radio speech that if opposition candidates win control of the assembly, "I simply have to go home."

Congress has approved an April 15 referendum on whether to create the assembly to rewrite the constitution. Most opposition lawmakers stayed away before the Tuesday vote in protest, saying that the measure is unconstitutional.

"My heart is not in power. It's in service," Correa said.

Correa said he was hoping to win at least 70 percent of the seats in the assembly. He said constitutional reform is necessary to limit the power of Ecuador's traditional parties, which he blamed for the country's problems. Correa has called Congress "a sewer of corruption."

The bill for the referendum was passed 57-1 in the 100-member Congress. Six parties - the Democratic Left, the Popular Democratic Movement, the Democratic and Ethical Network, Pachakutic, the Ecuadorian Roldosist Party, and the Patriotic Society - voted for the initiative. Only one opposition politician voted against it.

The plan, which was immediately passed to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, is the first political triumph for Rafael Correa, who has been campaigning on the issue since taking power as Ecuador's president on Jan. 15.

The decision was reached as some 1,000 people protested outside Congress, seeking an immediate start of the referendum. Last month, Correa's backers stormed the building to pressure for the vote, forcing a suspension of the session.

"If we want a change, vote for the candidates of the people to end these mafias that have plundered the country," the president said on Saturday.

Correa has said that the assembly will have the power to dismiss not only lawmakers but judges and even the president himself.

Ecuador Is Very Pleased with ALBA

Caracas, Feb 13 (Prensa Latina) The Ecuadorian government expressed satisfaction with the Venezuelan proposal of ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas) and considers it may join very soon, affirmed official sources Tuesday..

In declarations to the press, Ecuador s Vice President Lenin Moreno noted that the Executive is making the necessary evaluations with a view to joining that initiative.

Moreno, who is visiting Venezuela, said the project is a sample of solidarity, equality and equity in the spheres of economy, society, culture and justice, among others..

Ecuador is also thinking of materializing its return to OPEC.

The vice president met with Venezuelan dignitary Hugo Chavez on Monday to deal with bilateral links and common interests.

The talks were focused on the integration process and the Venezuelan experience in different social programs, as well as and the progress of innovation in the scientific and technological fields

Ecuador Makes International Bond Payment, Patino Says

By Patrick Harrington and Lester Pimentel

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, after roiling his country's bond market with threats to default on $10 billion in foreign debt, made the first interest payment due during his term, the government said.

Economy Minister Ricardo Patino said he ordered payment of $135 million due today on schedule, reversing earlier plans to invoke a 30-day grace period because of a cash shortage. The government made the payment after taking care of priorities such as salaries for public workers, Patino said in an interview on Ecuavisa television.

``Yesterday morning the deputy economy minister said to me, `Ricardo, we have the money to pay the interest on the bonds; do we pay?' he said in the interview. ``Let's pay.''

The decision to meet Ecuador's obligations on the bonds may signal that internal political struggles are at least postponing any move to restructure the country's debt. On Feb. 10, Correa said questions about debt had to take a back seat to convening an assembly to re-write the country's constitution and possibly dissolve congress. After his election in November, Correa said he might default on debt to free up funds for welfare and social development programs.

``The government is clearly playing a game with bondholders,'' said David Bessey, who manages more than $6 billion of emerging-market securities for Prudential Financial Inc. in Newark, New Jersey. ``The government has indicated it would rather not pay, but the downside of doing so has become clearer to Correa.''

Bond Rally

Ecuadorean bonds rallied from Jan. 26 after Patino signaled the likelihood of a default was receding, and the 2007 budget accounted for payment on all debt obligations.

The yield on the government's 10 percent bonds due 2030, Ecuador's most traded securities in international markets, rose 22 basis points, or 0.22 percentage point, to 12.06 percent at 12:40 p.m. in New York, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The bond's price, which moves inversely to the yield, fell 1.50 cents on the dollar to 84 cents.

Ecuador adopted the dollar as its official currency in 2000, a year after defaulting on $6.5 billion in debt.

On Nov. 27, the day after Correa won the presidential election with 67 percent of the vote, Ecuador surpassed Lebanon as the riskiest country for bondholders, according to traders in the credit-default swap market.

Ecuador is not a country with a debt problem, said Jeff Grills, Co-Head of Emerging Market Debt at JPMorgan Asset Management in New York.

`Robust Cash Flow'

``This is a country with a fairly robust cash flow,'' said Grills, who holds $4.8 billion in emerging market debt and sold his Ecuador position in September. ``This was never an Argentine situation where they were coming up against unsustainable debt payments.''

Patino said the government was not trying to mislead investors, only adjusting its priorities. Spending on anti- poverty programs, government salaries and other areas now takes precedence over meeting debt payments, he said. ``On Monday we didn't have the money on Wednesday we did,'' he said.

Ecuador's Deputy Finance Minister Fausto Ortiz on Feb. 12 told reporters in Quito the country would miss the payment because it had only $60 million on hand.

``Yesterday when it was determined that there were sufficient resources to make the interest payment on the bonds we proceeded to make the payment,'' Patino told the television station.

Ecuador's on-time bond payment confuses economists

IHT, Feb 15, 2007.

QUITO, Ecuador: Ecuador's announcement that it will meet a Thursday deadline for a US$135 million (€102.7 million) interest payment on its Global Bonds 2030 has left financial analysts struggling to understand the surprise decision.

Ecuador's new leftist government said Monday that it would pay the coupon during a 30-day grace period, claiming it lacked sufficient funds in its account. Two days later, the Economy Ministry announced it would make the payment by Thursday.

President Rafael Correa, a U.S.-trained economist who took office Jan. 15, has vowed to renegotiate the country's US$16.4 billion (€13 billion) foreign debt and direct resources to programs to help the poor.

Wall Street waited to see how Ecuador would handle Global Bonds 2030, the government's first scheduled interest payment, and Wednesday's decision has economists looking for answers.

Economy Minister Ricardo Patino told Channel 8 television on Wednesday that Ecuador has the sufficient tax revenue to make the payment on time, but offered no further details on the government's decision.

Ecuador's former Economy Minister Alfredo Arizaga says the country's ability to quickly come up with the cash is suspicious.

"Someone here is lying," Arizaga told The Associated Press.

He said Ecuadorean authorities could be trying to provoke sharp fluctuations in the prices of the bonds, driving down their value by announcing they would not pay the coupon on time, then allowing their value to shoot up when Ecuador changed its position two days later.

The decision might also be due to government's "total managerial incapacity and ignorance of how financial markets work," he said.

Ramiro Crespo of Analytica Securities, a Quito-based investment bank, told Dow Jones Newswires: "The only thing that the erratic, arbitrary, capricious and manipulative debt policy and the coupon payment have done is generate more doubts and uncertainty over what the government will actually do with the foreign debt."

The payment decision also comes amid suspicions that Venezuela has purchased a significant portion of the country's debt.

"There are many indications that Venezuela has an enormous influence," Crespo said.

In its budget proposal last month, the Ecuadorean government set aside US$2.7 billion (€2.1 billion) — 28 percent of the US$9.8 billion (€7.5 billion) budget — for foreign debt payments, more than US$1 billion (€800 million) less than in 2006.

When Correa took office last month, he said some of the debt arranged by previous governments was the result of corruption and that an international tribunal should be set up to decide what debt should be repaid.

Ecuador's next foreign debt payment of US$30.6 million (€23.2 million) is due May 15.

Ecuador: dignity, sovereignty on the rise

W. T. Whitney Jr., Feb 15, 2007
People's Weekly World

Rafael Correa, upon his inauguration as Ecuador’s president on Jan. 15, immediately called for Congress to approve a referendum for a constitutional assembly which he sees as crucial for “a profound transformation” of the country. While campaigning, Correa promised a new constitution, demanded that U.S. troops leave the country and condemned Washington-backed “free trade” agreements.

Despite 80 percent popular support for the assembly, Ecuador’s Congress, controlled by right-wing parties, had rejected the proposed referendum as unconstitutional. Since Jan. 30, widespread demonstrations, led by indigenous groups, have kept the issue open.

Marchers descended upon Congress on Feb. 12, demanding immediate action on the referendum. Indigenous leader Humberto Cholango told the crowd, “We can’t keep on leaving things up to a discredited, neoliberal political sector,” referring to those who advocate NAFTA-like pacts, privatization and public austerity.

Correa promised, if need be, to bypass Congress and set up a special entity to authorize the referendum. The next day, however, Congress, in a compromise, approved the referendum.

The government has also had to deal with a border dispute with Colombia, a U.S. ally. On Dec. 11, Colombian airplanes, fumigating coca plants in Colombia, dispersed the herbicide Glyphosate over inhabited areas in Ecuador, repeating the incursion on Feb. 5. Colombia called off further spraying five days later, after Ecuador announced plans to go to the International Court at The Hague.

The Correa government has outlined a “foreign policy peace initiative” on border problems, especially the humanitarian crisis affecting 250,000 Colombians displaced by that nation’s civil war.

Correa became Ecuador’s eighth president in 10 years after a 57 percent runoff victory on Nov. 26. Speaking partly in the Quechua language, he joined thousands of indigenous people on Jan. 14 for a symbolic inaugural ceremony. “This nation is one of the five Latin American countries with the least investment per inhabitant,” he said, and he has prioritized education, health care and support for the most vulnerable as his goals. Women occupy seven of 17 cabinet posts in his government.

“The neoliberal night is reaching its end,” Correa declared. “A sovereign, dignified, just and socialist Latin America is beginning to rise.”

President Evo Morales of Bolivia, on hand for the ceremony with Venezuelan President Chavez, responded, “The struggle of the Cuban people and Fidel against imperialism was not in vain.” According to the Mexican daily La Jornada, Correa is “taking on responsibility for Indo-America socialism epitomized by José Carlos Mariátegui,” a Peruvian Communist leader of the 1920s.

Under Correa, Ecuador plans to cut its ties with the International Monetary Fund. On Feb. 2, officials announced a 10 percent reduction in foreign debt repayments, allowing for a 6 percent funding increase for social services. Ecuador owes $11 billion, approximately 25 percent of its GDP, to foreign lenders.

In response, Thomas Shannon, U.S. undersecretary of state, advised caution. President Correa, he suggested, should “not place Ecuador in conflict with institutions and countries it needs and that can provide the most help,” adding, “We have an idea of how to do it, based on our experience [which] we are inclined to share.”

According to Correa, Ecuador will re-evaluate foreign debt obligations. He has proposed “an international debt arbitration court” to determine “legitimate foreign debt” and use of the “Bank of the South,” proposed by Venezuela, as repository for monetary reserves.

Under agreements ratified Feb. 9, Venezuela will help modernize Ecuador’s refineries and hydroelectric facilities, process 100,000 barrels of Ecuador’s oil on a daily, no-cost basis, and allow Petroecuador to drill for oil in Venezuela.

A cloud of tragedy, however, pervades these new beginnings. Defense Minister Guadalupe Larriva died Jan. 24 when two helicopters collided during military exercises near the Manta U.S. Air Base installation. She, her 16-year-old daughter, and five officers were passengers. All died.

Larriva, head of Ecuador’s Socialist Party, had condemned Ecuador’s military ties with Colombia, projected military reforms, and confirmed U.S. troop departure from Manta in 2009 when bilateral agreements expire.

President Correa fired Army chief Pedro Machado because of the crash, which, according to an international team, was not caused by mechanical problems. Observers liken Larriva’s death to that of leftist President Jaime Roldos in 1981. His aircraft also crashed under mysterious circumstances.

Lorena Escudero replaced Larriva as defense minister, joining female counterparts serving in Argentina and Uruguay. At Larriva’s funeral, Rafael Correa bade farewell: “Guadalupe, you liked hearing this, from the song for Comandante Che Guevara: ‘Until victory, always.’”

atwhit @ megalink.net

Ecuador Correa Aces First Month

Quito, Feb 15 (Prensa Latina) On his first 30 days in office, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa excels in leading changes towards replacing the neoliberal model.

Correa cropped greater prestige with the Human Development and Housing bonuses and approval of a vote on the Constituency Assembly.

The polling company Cedatos rates Correa s popularity at 73 percent, 18 percent over the November 26 runoffs, and highest in Ecuadorian democracy since 1979.

The numbers also show rocketing credibility by 68 percent and 67 percent approval to the cabinet.

Cedatos polls rates Congressional rejection by 68 percent and a mere 13 percent approval.

Political circles owe Correa s popularity to the fact that, unlike previous government, he is honoring campaign promises by supporting underpriviliged sectors.

Constituent Assembly advances in Ecuador

Hernan Etchaleco
Pravda.ru Feb 15

After weeks of disputes and frustrated sessions, the Congress approved the President’s request for a referendum on whether to rewrite the country’s constitution.

In what analysts consider as a stunning political victory of leftist President Rafael Correa, the Congress of Ecuador approved on Tuesday his request for a referendum on whether to hold a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the country’s constitution. The Congress meeting was originally scheduled for Monday but the negative of the opposition lawmakers to pass the bill delayed the session.

Early in the morning hundreds of supporters of President Correa gathered at the gates of the Congress building in Quito as they did two weeks ago when thousands stormed the building, battled police on the streets and forced lawmakers to evacuate the building to demand the referendum be approved.

Later on Tuesday, Ecuador's top election tribunal set April 15 as the date for the referendum, a court official told local radio.

To obtain the approval of the Congress, Correa introduced some amendments to the original proposal, which demanded two weeks of negotiations. Correa's movement has no formal representatives in Congress, but the former economy minister appeals to the public with his vows for a "citizens revolution" in a country where instability has toppled three presidents in a decade.

"This is a victory for the people," Interior Minister Gustavo Larrea told reporters after the decision. Larrea said the government sees no significant changes in Congress-approved reforms to the referendum plan.

Correa has not yet anticipated specific reforms he is willing to introduce in the new constituion. He has only advanced that constitutional reforms are needed to limit the influence of political elites on institutions such as the Supreme Court and the electoral authority. More than three-quarters of Ecuadoreans support Correa's referendum proposal, a survey by local pollster Cedatos Gallup showed in January.

Opposition lawmakers said they fear that granting a Constitutional Assembly broad powers will help consolidate Correa's presidential powers and usher in more instability. "Today the constitution has been broken," said opposition congressman Federico Perez. "I really hope our country doesn't fall in to communism."

The rewrtie of the constitution was the core of Correa’s proposals during the campaign last year. He has also pledged to restructure debt, renegotiate oil contracts with foreign companies operating in Ecuador and end a lease allowing the US military to une an air base.

Correa follows presidents of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez and Bolivia, Evo Morales, who have fuelled constitutional assemblies in their respective countries, shortly after taking office.

The Health Emergency in the Ecuadorian Amazon Region

From UpsideDownWorld

Written by Hanna Dahlström Thursday, 15 February 2007

Maria del Carmen Villota had a farm with her husband in the community of San Carlos. Every day at lunch time she walked on a road that was covered with crude oil dumped by Texaco. She would leave food for her husband who was working on the farm. She also washed clothes with the water from a nearby stream that was polluted with oil from recent spills.

“When the water rose it brought all the crude in the stream with it to the stream where I got my water, so as I saw the crude I washed and continued on the same,” said Maria.

Maria testified on March 8, 2006 during the judicial inspection carried out in the separation station Sacha Sur, located in the community of San Carlos. Her testimony was part of Aguinda vs. ChevronTexaco, the class-action law suit in which 30,000 farmer and indigenous inhabitants of the Ecuadorian Amazon have sued the multinational for contamination.

Eight months after Maria testified she died of cancer.

Fight and Resist

María del Carmen Villota is another victim of the contamination caused by Texaco (today Chevron) between 1964 and 1992 in the provinces of Orellana and Sucumbíos, where the company initiated the oil exploitation in the country. While Aguinda vs. ChevronTexaco continues in the court of Lago Agrio, more victims die due to the contaminating practices of a U.S. oil company that only cared about maximizing profits, while ignoring the well-being and health of the Ecuadorian people.

The purpose of this report is not only to present health statistics and the existing proof of contamination, but also to encourage people to use this information to fight and resist the injustices that the people in the northern Amazon region of Ecuador, who are living in a state of health emergency, suffer.

This report focuses on three rights: the right to clean water, the right to health, and the right to medical assistance.

The Right to Clean Water

Access to water is a fundamental right assured by the state according to articles 20 and 42 of the Ecuadorian Constitution. Water is needed to survive and to carry out various daily and vital activities.[i]

In spite of the fact that access to this resource has been recognized nationally and internationally as an indispensable human right, Texaco systematically dumped 18.5 billion gallons of carcinogenic and toxic waste to an infinite number of marshes, streams, and rivers in the provinces of Orellana and Sucumbios. An analysis of 412 water samples from the region and inspected by the Court found that 99 percent of the samples taken contain levels of toxins which exceed the standards permitted by law and represent a risk to human health.[ii]

In 1992, when Texaco left its operations in Ecuador, it abandoned more than 1,000 pools which held such toxic substances as chromium 6, lead, barium, and cadmium. The known carcinogen chromium 6, which is used to prevent corrosion during perforation of wells, can, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “cause stomach upsets and ulcers, convulsions, kidney and liver damage, and even death.”[iii] Texaco itself admits that the pools lacked lining [iv], which is used to protect the pools from leaching toxins. Instead, throughout the years the toxic contents of the pools filtered into the ground water, streams, and rivers, slowly killing an already diminished farmer and indigenous population.

Due to economic reasons, and with complete disregard to the human costs, the company decided not to eliminate the waste in an adequate way. 100 percent of the 42 sites inspected by the Court, show levels of toxins that surpass those permitted by the law, and of the 29 inspected sites that were supposedly “remediated”, 100 percent show contamination. Environmental remediation deals with the removal of contaminants from soil, sediment, groundwater, or surface water for the general protection of human health and the environment and is subject to an array of regulatory requirements according to the contract Texaco signed with the Ecuadorian government.

Since 1993, Petroecuador is now responsible for oil exploitation in the region. According to a report by the Office of the Comptroller General of the State, between June 1, 2000 and August 30, 2004, petro-production let out 83 million barrels of drilling water due to the lack of re-injection technology.[v] The technology that Petroecuador inherited from Texaco is a threat to the lives of Ecuadorians as well as to humanity for its destruction of the ecosystem. The company continues to use the same contaminating practices.

The Right to Health

The impacts of oil exploitation on health have been proven through various scientific studies carried out all over the world. Much of this information, based on peer-reviewed research, was compiled in a report by the prestigious Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment. The report concludes that oil exploitation exposes workers and communities to health risks, due to the exposure to chemicals, metals, drilling mud and accidental explosions.[vi]

Meanwhile, despite the abundance of existing research on the link between cancer cases and other diseases and with the permanent exposure to the toxins of the oil activities,[vii] Texaco continues to arrogantly allege that diseases from which the population in the region suffers are due to the lack of hygiene.[viii] The compounds used in the exploitation phases such as organic volatile hydrocarbons like benzene, metals such as barium, chromium, and zinc, water with high levels of salt, and the radioactive materials are highly toxic both to human health and the environment.[ix] The National Tumor Registry show that the rates of diagnosed cancer cases, based on medical histories registered in the capital Quito, has risen exponentially since the creation of this registry in 1984.[x]

The State should guarantee, promote, and protect the right to health through prevention of environmental contamination and recuperation of degraded spaces of nature as mandated in articles 42 and 86, number two in the Political Constitution of Ecuador.

Without a doubt, children are the most affected by the contamination and the most vulnerable. The leukemia rate in children 0 to 4 years of age who live in regions with oil exploitation is three times higher than in other parts of the country. The scientists who carried out the comparative study, Dr. San Sebastian and Dr. Anna-Karin Hurtig, investigated in regions with oil exploitation and in areas free from exploitation.[xi]

The women, who in many instances are heads of the household,[xii] are permanently exposed to the water contaminated with hydrocarbons, [xiii] because of their responsibilities to provide the basic necessities such as clean water and to wash.[xiv] The Yana Curi study resumes that women who live in the proximity of oil wells and separation stations in the Ecuadorian Amazon presented a higher frequency of symptoms related to the exposure to oil.[xv] Another study published in the International Journal of Occupation and Environmental Health found the rate of miscarriages to be 2.5 times higher in the communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon exposed to oil contamination than that in similar communities which are not. Other factors were taken account for, such as age of pregnancy, state of the pregnancy and socio-economic status, but none of these could explain the high incidence of the association between miscarriages and living in the proximity of oil fields. [xvi]

The Right to Medical Assistance

“The doctors told us to go to Quito to bring my three children to be cured, because it was due to contamination. But without money we couldn’t bring them and they died. One was 3 years old, the other 2 and the third 5 months.”[xvii]

Amnesty International affirms that women and children in marginalized communities in Ecuador often lack access to medical assistance.[xviii] On the local level, the Board of Health of the Bi-provincial Assembly of Orellana and Sucumbios also report the lack of medical assistance, since private medical assistance is not an alternative for the poorest population of the country.[xix]

In 2004, the Pan-American Journal of Public Health of the OPS (a regional organization of the World Health organization) concluded that the region suffers a “health emergency,” referring to the study by the same journal and titled “Oil Exploitation in the Ecuadorian Amazon: a Public Health Emergency” of Drs. Sebastian and Hurtig, which indicates that in communities close to oil wells, the most common health problems are skin fungus, head ache, eye irritation, ear pain, as well as “an excess in cancer.” [xx]

Ecuador’s newly elected president Rafael President Correa visited the Ecuadorian Amazon close to the Day of the Amazon, February 12, which is a day in homage to Francisco de Orellana’s “discovery” of the Amazon river in 1542. But it also marks 465 years of Amazonian resistance to colonization.

Correa is following in the footsteps of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and announced his position to increase oil exploitation in order to fund the health services, thereby offering the disease as the cure and stripping an already suffering population of their last dignity.[xxi]

It is necessary to not only research the imminent health emergency and the impacts of oil exploitation in human health from the studies mentioned in this report, but also take action to prevent further deterioration of the health of a population which is paying the price of Texaco’s toxic legacy. Any action adopted by the national government should focus on the prevention of the diseases that the population in the north of the Ecuadorian Amazon region has been exposed to.

This can be accomplished by averting further contamination from oil exploitation, and taking into account those populations which are most affected and most distant from the urban centers where the medical services usually are located. Such measures will not only lead to the recognition of the interdependence of human health and the environment, but will also contribute to the recuperation of the cultural values of the farmer and indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Contact Hanna Dahlström at hannagoanna@hotmail.com

---

[i] Constitución Política de la República del Ecuador, art. 20 y 42. [Constitution].

[ii] Estos y todos los resultados de laboratorio del muestreo de suelos y aguas en las inspecciones judiciales

reposan en los archivos de los demandantes y de la corte de Lago Agrio, donde son parte de la evidencia.

[iii] Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services www.atsdr.cdc.gov.

[iv] Glaubitz, Kurt. “Trial in Ecuador.” Second Quarter 2004: 5.

[v] Auditoria ambiental a la gestión de Petroproduccion en los procesos de explotación y producción de crudo, relacionados con fluidos y lodos de perforación y aguas de formación en las provincias de Orellana y Sucumbios. Abril 2005: 18.

[vi] Epstein, Paul R. y Jesse Selber, eds. “Oil: A Life Cycle Analysis of its Health and Environmental Impacts.” The Center for Health and the Global Environment. 2002.

[vii] Clapp, Richard W., Howe, Genevieve K., y Shevaun Aysa Mizrahi, “Oil Extractions and Its Human Health Impacts in the Amazon Region of Ecuador”. Julio 2006.

[viii] “Texaco en Ecuador.”

y ver a David O’Reilly, CEO de Texaco, entrevista con la British Broadcasting Corporation disponible en

http://www.pbs.org/previews/extreme_oil/

[ix] Dutton, A., Smyth, R., Nance, H., Mulligan, J., Gu, Y. “History, Regulation, and Closure of Abandoned Centralized and Commercial Drilling-Fluid Disposal Sites in Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.” Bureau of Economic Geology, the University of Texas at Austin, Reprinted from Proceedings of the 2000 Ground Water Protection Council Annual Forum, September 24-27, 2000, Ft. Walton Beach, FL.

[x] Auditoria ambiental a la gestión de Petroproduccion en los procesos de explotación y producción de crudo, relacionados con fluidos y lodos de perforación y aguas de formación en las provincias de Orellana y Sucumbios. Abril 2005.

[xi] Hurtig AK. and San Sebastian M., “Incidence of Childhood Leukemia and Oil Exploitation in the

Amazon Basin of Ecuador”, International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 10(3):245-50 (2004).

[xii] El estado de los derechos de niñez y la adolescencia en Ecuador 2005.” Observatorio de los Derechos de la Niñez y la Adolescencia, UNICEF, Fundación Observatorio Social del Ecuador. Quito, 2006: 194.

[xiii] San Sebastián M., Armstrong B y Stephens C. “La Salud de mujeres que viven cerca de pozos y estaciones de petróleo en la Amazonía ecuatoriana.” Revista Panamericana de Salud Publica, 9(6): 375-384 (2001), (comunidades dependientes de arroyos altos en TPH’s demostraron la prevalecía significativamente mayor de hongos de la piel, irritación nasal, irritación de garganta, fatiga, dolores de cabeza, irritación de ojos, dolores de oído, diarrea y gastritis).

[xiv] Camacho Zambrano, Gloria. “Mujeres al borde: Refugiadas colombianas en el Ecuador.” Quito, Ecuador: UNIFEM, 19.

[xv] “Informe Yana Curi: Impactos de la actividad petrolera en poblaciones rurales de la Amazonia Ecuatoriana” Instituto de Epidemiología y salud comunitaria “Manuel Amunarriz”. Coca, 2000.

[xvi] San Sebastian M., Armstrong B. y Stephens C., “Outcomes of pregnancy among women living in the proximity of oil fields in the Amazon basin of Ecuador.” International Journal of Occupational & Environmental Health, 8(4):312-9 (2002).

[xvii] Maldonado, Adolfo y Alberto Narváez. Ecuador ni es, ni será ya, país amazónico. Quito: Acción Ecológica, 2003.

[xviii] Amnistía Internacional. “Informe 2006”.

[xix] “Gobierno y petroleros incumplen los acuerdos firmados con la Asamblea de Orellana-Sucumbios” Comision de Prensa de Orellana. Boletín de prensa. 15 de diciembre de 2006.

[xx] San Sebastián M y AK Hurtig. “Oil exploitation in the Amazon basin of Ecuador: a public health emergency.” Revista Panamericana de Salud Publica, 2004; 15(3): 205-211.

[xxi] “Gobierno está revisando los contratos petroleros en busca de ilegalidades; no descarta declarar caducidad.” El Comercio. 3 feb 2007