| Written by Hanna Dahlstrom | |
| From UpsideDownWorld, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 | |
| On the road between the two oil towns Lago Agrio and Coca the brothels are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The women along the road are waiting for the oil workers. Many of them come from the Ecuadorian coastal region or are refugees from the conflict-ridden Colombia. Oil workers and Child Prostitution Swedish construction company Skanska states the company “generates employment” when it actually deprives the local population the possibility to hunt, fish, and cultivate crops on its own terms. The one employment that oil exploitation actually has contributed to is prostitution, because in the oil region of Ecuador women are the most exposed and their lives the most commercialized and exploited. Skanska, with the operational responsibility of 5,000 oil wells in Latin America (1), is raping the earth as well as the women of the region.
According to a study by CONAMU (Consejo Nacional de las Mujeres – National Women’s Council), the UN Children’s Fund, and Sucumbios’ provincial church, the bars and discotheques of the oil town Lago Agrio are actually brothels frequented by the oil workers from Ecuador and other countries. The same report confirms that girls aged 12 to 16 work as prostitutes under slave-like conditions 17 hours a day.  Brothel along an oil road in Orellana, Ecuador Swedish Skanska and sexism The contact Agneta Enström and I have had with the Skanska in Ecuador confirms the context of sexism in which Skanska operates and where prostitution is an every day feature. At the company’s administrative base a few kilometers outside of Coca, the kitchen staff give ”massages,” according to one Skanska manager. One of Skanska’s employees, a geologist by profession, wants to let people know how Skanska operates. He describes observing another Skanska manager, Oswaldo Contreras, yelling obscenities at women, including an indigenous woman carrying her child, who he drove past while on his way out to the oil field to work. At Bermejo, the Skanska base close to the Colombian border, the companies’ employees’ complain about how difficult it is to sleep at night due to the noise from pornographic movies. Naturally, Skanska’s male personnel visit the bars of Coca every week and some managers even occasionally reside at the luxury hotel Auca in Coca.
Militarized oil fields and institutionalized prostitution Oil companies like Texaco and Shell arrived in the Amazon region of Ecuador in the 1950s, and with the help of the military they stole indigenous lands. The region is now constantly militarized and the military has repeatedly been deployed against the local population during demonstrations. Women are particularly affected by the militarization since the presence of oil workers and military leads to prostitution, rape, and thus higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, HIV and hepatitis C. The role of the military in the oil state of Ecuador is clear – it is under direct order of the oil companies. The local population is forced to pass the oil companies’ military check points in their own villages, and outsiders must seek permission from the companies to visit the areas, and must state their relation to the company while travelling. In the Ecuadorian oil field called ”block 16” (in company language) where Skanska works for Spanish Repsol, the military is directly under the command of Repsol through a contract valued at more than 1 million USD. There, the military’s principal task, according to the aforementioned contract, is to prevent “intrusion by subversive elements into the areas of operation,” which is conveniently defined to apply to not only block 16 but to the country’s entire Amazonian region. In other words, the military personnel are mercenaries of Skanska and its clients and the military presence is constant. In addition, Skanska also employs its own security guards. Lawyer Bolivar Beltran from the Fundación Lianas in Ecuador has studied the contracts between the oil companies and the mlitary confirms these illegalities: Prostitution is further institutionalized in the Ecuadorian military since all military personnel receive a ticket to buy sex from one of the military’s own sex workers. The women mainly come from the coast to live on the military base while they work there. Each month, an obligatory five dollars is deducted for prostitution from each military’s $100 salary. The militarization of indigenous territory has also led to the military raping local women. “Around the military base kichwa girls become pregnant from the military” says Manuel Shiguango who himself is of the indigenous nationality kichwa and previously worked at the military base 49 Capitan Chiriboga in Montalvo. He now works with the indigenous federation CONAIE, as a youth leader of the indigenous peoples in the Amazonian province Napo, which is protesting against this oppression. Women protest against oil
The Waorani women refused to compromise with the companies. They protested against Brazilian Petrobras and Swedish Skanska’s illegal intrusion in their territory, and succeeded in stopping the thieves this time, as the Ecuadorian state withdrew their permit due to bribery scandals and insufficient environmental impact studies. Their territory and Ecuador’s largest national park is once again under threat as Skanska and Petrobras assert that it is possible to exploit for oil without damaging the sensitive rain forest and its inhabitants.(3) Naturally the oil companies are the first to talk about sustainability as the hunt for nonrenewable resources become increasingly bloody. Many are those who join the ranks of the oil companies’ preaching of high tech solutions to prevent an environmental disaster, and a very famous example is Sweden’s honorary consul Galo Abril, former minister of oil in Ecuador. His own position is at the height of ecological ignorance and arrogance and was manifested in an interview with Agneta Enström and I in which he said that there is no problem in building roads to reach oil in the rain forest as Skanska has done, if you just “let the treetops touch so that the monkeys can jump across.” The Waorani women’s current representative Manuela Omari Ima protested in an open letter to Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa: The Waorani’s preparedeness to defend its culture and territory has earned them the reputation of being bloodthirsty savages. In Waorani language wao means ”people” while cawode is used to describe outsiders, that is, the white man. Literally, the word cawode means ”inhuman cannibal,” or as an old Waorani warrior explained: ”those who cut up everything into pieces.”(5) Hanna Dahlström is an editor and reporter at www.yelah.net. Yelah is a Swedish independent media group, uncovering activism and politics worldwide. She has recently worked in Ecuador, researching Skanska and oil exploration on indigenous land. Contact: hannagoanna@hotmail.com Footnotes 1. See information about Skanska provided via trivia game on the website of a contracted advertising company. "Skanska - Trivia en Oil & Gas 2005": http://www.siainteractive.com/sitio2/050579.htm For further informaition on this topic, see the following series by Agneta Enstrom: (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) |
Friday, November 30, 2007
Swedish Construction as Sexism in Ecuador
Ecuador: Oil and Militarized Corporate Terrorism
| Written by Agneta Enström | |
| From UpsideDownWorld, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 | |
| This article is part 5 in a series by Agneta Enström (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4)
To maintain control over a local population fighting for its culture and environment, the oil companies often employs private security forces and a strategic militarization of the area around the oil fields. Militarization of oil regions has a number of social consequences, including violation of human rights, assassinations, abuse of women and institutionalized prostitution. The Amazon regions of such countries as Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia in which Skanska is extracting oil are characterized by military terror against the local population. According to the international network Oilwatch, the military’s role in these oil countries is clear in that it is directly controlled by the oil industry through special contracts. Protecting the oil companies against local opposition is the national army’s primary assignment, and in exchange for this protection, the companies finance military operations.  Guards at Skanska & Repsol-YPF oil fields “In fact, we couldn’t do business here around without military protection,” Diaz says, in an interview with the Swedish media Yelah, which has been investigating Skanska’s operations in Latin America since 2005. Ecuador – a militarized oil republic Ecuador is the oil state in which a special security council was established in January 2006 called GESPETRO – Grupo Especial de Seguridad Petrolera (Special Group on Oil Security), which is charged with coordinating security for the companies involved with oil extraction. Ecuador also has special security agreements regulating cooperation between the military defense forces and the oil companies operating in the country. These agreements involve such oil companies as Repsol-YPF and Petrobras, which are Skanska’s customers.
Skanska has become notorious in Ecuador for its operations in partnership with the oil company Repsol-YPF in the Yasuni National Park and on the territory of the indigenous Waorani people. On this oil field (which is called block 16) in the middle of the tropical rain forest, this controversial oil exploitation can only take place through the use of military violence to crush local resistance from the indigenous people.
Attorney Bolivar Beltran, from Fundación Lianas, explains that the contract violates Chapter V of Ecuador’s constitution, as well as the UN convention on the rights of indigenous and tribal people (ILO:169).
When the political scientist Hanna Dahlström and I met Alicia Cahuiya from the Waorani women’s organization AMWAE, she related that land belonging to indigenous people in Yasuni and around block 16 is totally occupied by the companies’ oil fields and the military.  Repsol & Skanska burn gas No one except the Waoranis, whose territory includes the land on which the oil field is located, may pass the military roadblocks surrounding the operations without permission from the oil company. This prevents human rights organizations and sometimes even provincial authorities from investigating the conditions under which the indigenous people are forced to live with the oil fields right in their homes. The Waorani people’s constant cries for help, and attempts to report the injustices suffered from the companies and the military in recent years have been relatively fruitless, since outsiders are systematically stopped by the military controls. Anthropologist José Proano from Acción Ecológica has worked with indigenous peoples in the oil region of the Ecuadorian Amazon for several years. He relates that human rights and environmental activists working with indigenous people are often persecuted and sometimes murdered, as was the fate of the well-know environmental activist Angel Shingre in the oil town of Coca, where Skanska has its regional base. “In Ecuador, those who oppose the oil industry are terrorized to the extent that many are forced to flee and give up the fight,” says Proano. “The oil regions in the Amazon are like corporate colonies, where the national defense forces are just another of the industry’s own paramilitary bandit forces.” Repsol-YPF, however, is not the only one of Skanska’s customers that employs military protection. The Brazilian oil company Petrobras, which also operates in Ecuador’s Amazon region, is another company known for its dubious contracts with the national forces. In another part of the Yasuni National Park (in what is called Block 31) and area where Petrobras and Skanska had their permits revoked in 2005 due to illegal operations, Petrobras had a secret contact with the military that remains classified to this day. Violence as the norm According to the Oilwatch network, use of military and paramilitary forces is the oil industry’s general method for controlling the local population in the Amazon. In Latin American oil republics, the security agreements between the military and the industry have created a culture of fear in which people are terrorized and killed so that industrial operations may continue without interruptions. With the military as a guarantor against the local population, there is an atmosphere of company immunity with respect to constitutional law and human rights.
When Hanna Dahlström and I met Skanska’s managers in the Amazon’s lacerated countryside and at the company’s base in Coca, they explained why their operations could never be carried out without weapons. “People here are slightly backward,” says Diaz, referring to the indigenous people. “You never know when the barbarians are going to start shooting arrows from the bushes. At Skanska, we also have a strict security culture. Personally, I never go unarmed in the bush.” Milton Diaz, together with several of Skanska’s more senior employees, sees no problem in business practices that demand arming themselves against the civilian society, in this case the indigenous people and small farmers. For the lawyers and human rights activists that work in the region, however, the oil industry’s culture of violence is deeply unacceptable. Pablo Fajardo, the head lawyer in the case against Chevron-Texaco, believes that the oil industry is completely dependent on military intervention and confirms the reports from the local population on how opposition is countered with threats, violence and murder on a daily basis.
"A state of emergency often prevails due to the political unrest arising from oil operations,” says Fajardo, explaining that Ecuador’s Amazon region is considered one of the world’s most dangerous places with respect to military and paramilitary violations of human rights. Like several other lawyers with whom we have spoken, Fajardo confirms that the oil companies for which Skanska works in the region are constantly associated with injustices and violence toward the local population. Assassinations in Colombia However, the link between Skanska and military forces in Latin America is not new. According to the Swedish reporter Dick Emanuelsson, Skanska was known for cooperating with the military as early as the late 1980s when the company built the main base for the Colombian Marine Corps in Bahia Malaga on the Pacific coast. “I stumbled on this story completely by accident in Bogota 1988,” relates Emanuelsson. “The whole business developed into a minor scandal when it became known that Skanska had received SEK 1.5 billion in export credit guaranties from Sweden’s Export Credits Guarantee Board (EKN) to build a military base in a country in which there was a long-standing armed conflict.” Emanuelsson told how the former member of the Swedish Parliament, Bo Hammar, raised the issue in an interpellation debate but that the Board’s chairman at that time, Harry Schein, defended the credit guarantees with the argument that they were partially related to a military base intended to combat Panamanian smugglers. Another notorious case with Skanska in Colombia involved the company’s dam construction project in Urra in the 1990s when dozens of Indians were murdered, including Kimy Pernia Domico, who was one of the Embera tribe’s leaders. The bloody accounts of the dam construction received the most attention in Sweden in 1999, when two of the company’s Swedish employees were kidnapped and held captive for five months by the FARC guerrilla. In a communiqué, FARC stated that the Swedes had been kidnapped “to focus the country’s and the world’s attention on the dam’s catastrophic impact on the environment, the eradication of fauna, the destruction of traditional cultures that are forced to abandon the flooded land without any guarantees whatsoever of obtaining a new home and livelihood and the interruption of river transports that since prehistoric times have been used by the indigenous Embera-Katio people and small farmers.” Even in Bolivia and Peru, Skanska operates under similar circumstances. People are being murdered, ecosystems destroyed and indigenous cultures eradicated. In Peru, Skanska began its operations during the first period of dictatorship in the 1970s, when the company conducted expensive projects that were added to the country’s national debt. Today, Skanska is involved in the gigantic gas and oil project Camisea (in partnership with the Argentinean corruption scandal company Techint) in which Skanska will build a pipeline through the country’s last remaining virgin rainforest. Several indigenous peoples have already lost their culture, and many are now losing their lives as a result of the companies’ inconsiderate rampaging. Today, there is important local resistance against looting and destruction taken place all over the Amazon rainforest and on indigenous territories. Some international networks, fighting together with indigenous people, are the international Oilwatch, the Ecuadorian Accion Ecologica, and Survival International. Agneta Enström is an editor and reporter at www.yelah.net. Yelah is a Swedish independent media group, uncovering activism and politics worldwide. She has recently worked in Ecuador, researching Skanska and oil exploration on indigenous land. Contact: nettila@hotmail.com For more information: |
Oil's Bloody Secrets in Ecuador and Bolivia
| Written by Agneta Enström | |
| From UpsideDownWorld, Tuesday, 06 November 2007 | |
| This article is part 4 in a series by Agneta Enström
Falsified invoices, bribery scandals, extortion, environmental destruction and serious violations of human rights are ethical and legal infractions that Skanska has been associated with in Latin America. Most recently, scandals have loomed ever closer regarding primarily the company’s operations in the controversial but economically lucrative gas and oil sector, to cite the notorious “Skanska case” in Argentina as one example. In The Company of The Oil Mafia Within the multinational oil industry that operates in the southern hemisphere, violations of human rights and environmental laws are more the rule than the exception. Through their collaborations with the major oil companies in the South, Skanska deserves a closer look on this issue. Especially since some of the company’s joint venture partners are notorious giants such as Exxon-Mobil, ChevronTexaco, Total Fina Elf and BP-Amoco, along with several other companies in the global oil industry, and whose operations systematically violate human rights, create political uncertainty and ecological disasters where they operate. Skanska’s joint venture partner, Repsol-YPF, a Spanish-Argentinean oil company, belongs to this group. According to Oilwatch, their operations are some of the most criticized in the world from a human rights and environmental standpoint [1]. Despite that, Skanska works with Repsol-YPF in some of Latin America’s most vulnerable regions (including the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia), which are characterized by vulnerable ecosystems and where oil extraction is criticized and continually met with strong local opposition [2]. Repsol-YPF is involved in a number of legal cases involving crimes against both national and international environmental laws, as well as human rights and the rights of native populations.[3] In Argentina alone (where the company has the largest gas and oil fields in the Mapuche people’s territories), the company is the subject of at least four different legal cases involving serious pollution and socio-cultural devastation. However, even in Bolivia and Ecuador, in oil fields where they have developed technical cooperation with Skanska, Repsol-YPF is the subject of legal cases and criticism from native peoples, human rights and environmental organizations.[4] Calculated Double Standard
“We continually strive to reduce our physical environmental impact. We do this in Weapons and Bribes The Yasuni national park, a UNESCO-protected nature reserve and the native territory of the Waorani people, is situated in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon. There, Skanska and Repsol-YPF are operating under very controversial conditions, something that organizations such as Oilwatch and Acción Ecológica have highlighted. Together with the Waorani people, Oilwatch has criticized how the companies’ violent advance is taking place under the protection of military forces and private security teams. Oilwatch’s book, “Atlas Amazónico”, describes how the company has committed the most terrible violations of human rights in the particular area of Yasuni (oil block 16) where Skanska has worked for a longer period of time with Repsol-YPF. When the Swedish independent media group, Yelah.net [7], went undercover to meet with Skanska’s regional manager in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Milton Diaz, numerous times during 2006, he confirmed the militarized situation that the oil industry creates and in which Skanska actively participates. He explained that Skanska also operates under military protection and that private armed forces (read mercenaries and paramilitaries) are essential to be able to operate in what he refers, disparagingly, as “banana republics.” In Ecuador, where Diaz oversees Skanska’s oil activities in the rain forest, the local population, authorities and environmental organizations have directed harsh criticism towards the operation. According to Marcos Baños, from the environmental inspection unit in the Amazon province of Orellana, Skanska has been negligent from an environmental standpoint as well as a purely legal one, a problem that they have attempted to bribe themselves out of. However, it is not just in Ecuador that Skanska is behaving badly. There are also Bolivia – a Highly Dangerous “Banana Republic”
In oil fields in the Bolivian Chapare, where Skanska works with Repsol-YPF, this has resulted in catastrophic consequences for the local population, and even though innocent people have lost their lives, the companies continue with their illegal polluting practice.[8] In Latin America, they are obviously able to operate in a climate completely exempt from penalties and with military protection against local civic opposition. In June 2005, Repsol-YPF’s gas emissions around an oil field in Bolivia (Chapare-Surubí D) resulted in an explosion in which people from the local native village were killed. Skanska works with Repsol-YPF at the same field (overseeing technical aspects of the exploitation), without acknowledging any responsibility whatsoever for the hazardous situation that the oil production generates.
Those affected by the gas explosion in Bolivia included 45-year old Emilio Uceida and his two sons who, during the evening of the accident in 2005, were out on a fishing trip by the river next to their home. When one of the family members lit a cigarette lighter, the gas that had been released out over the river ignited, upon which the father and his sons started burning. Emilio Uceida and his 13-year old son Edgar Uceida burned to death, while the other son, 18-year old Mario Uceida, received such life-threatening burns that he still remains in hospital care. His condition is critical and he will suffer from pain and invalidity for the rest of his life. It was not until a week after the tragic event that the company allowed the Bolivian authorities into the area for a criminal investigation. When the various authorities and organizations from the Cochabamba province later visited the area to inspect the oil field, they were denied access to the oil block, while the parties involved persisted in denying all responsibility for the event. Repsol-YPF has also threatened to report the Uceida family for an “sabotage”, which has terrified Emilio Uceida’s widow, Nicola Uceida, and other family members. Nor have the survivors received any form of compensation or pension, despite major economic hardships resulting from the loss. Instead, the oil company built a cement house for them along the oil road and on land that is now worthless and unusable due to contamination.[9] An Enslaving Death Industry
Chapare in Bolivia is just one of many oil regions where companies put their agenda ahead of human lives and ecosystems. It is in this context – of an industry whose mafia-like operations terrorize the local population, string along the local authorities and destroy entire ecosystems – the Swedish giant Skanska’s activities in Latin America are occurring. The fact that Skanska has promoted itself as an ethical company appears, in light of this duplicity (of on the one hand promoting “Sustainable Development” and on the other hand exploiting oil) as an ironic confirmation of a shameless double standard and hypocrisy. It is also a reminder that marketing concepts such as “Corporate Social Responsibility” and “Green Technology” are not at all necessarily anchored in reality. At present, Skanska, the Swedish constructionist that promote itself as a “green builder”, continues to extract oil in regions where native people are being wiped out due to the predatory exploitation of the Amazon’s black gold. Organisations who are fighting against companies like Skanska and Big Oil in Latin America are Oilwatch, Acción Ecológica, the Repsol-mata network and campaign, among others, as well as organizations for tribal people’s rights like Survival International. Agneta Enström is an editor and reporter at www.yelah.net. Yelah is a Swedish independent media group, uncovering activism and politics worldwide. She has recently worked in Ecuador, researching Skanska and oil exploration on indigenous land. Contact Agneta Enström at nettila@hotmail.com More Information: Oilwatch - http://www.oilwatch.org/ Notes: [1] Oilwatch: http://www.oilwatch.org/ |
“Civilizing” the Ecuadorian Amazon: Colonial Corporatism
| Written by Agneta Enström From UpsideDownWorld, Tuesday, 30 October 2007 | |
This article is part 3 in a series by Agneta Enström (Part 1) (Part 2)
For slightly more than a year and a half, the Skanska base has been located outside the oil town of Coca in Ecuador’s ravaged rainforest province of Orellana. The company’s activities conducted in cooperation with the oil companies in various oil fields in the region are controlled from here. One of Skanska’s regional managers in the Amazon basin is Milton Diaz, a man with many decades of experience in the oil industry. He used to work for Skanska in his native land of Argentina, where the company’s continental headquarters are located. From a series of meetings and interviews with Diaz and his colleagues conducted in Ecuador (from spring 2006 on) by the political scientist Hanna Dahlström and myself, we pieced together a cohesive picture of Skanska’s leading figures. The opinions Diaz expresses represent a cultural racism, in which Ecuador’s population in general, and the indigenous peoples in particular, are described in sharply pejorative terms. “People here in the bush should be grateful to industry instead of just complaining and making unreasonable demands,” he argues. “If it weren’t for the companies, they would still be living on bananas and not know anything other than the jungle – just like apes. In spite of everything, this is an undeveloped banana republic.” Unfortunately, Diaz’s opinions are not unusual. The racist discourse he gives voice to is in line with conventional perspectives of Northern companies in the global South on culture and development. Concepts like “blockheads,” “banana republic” and “low culture” are taken to symbolize the Others, who are the local and so-called undeveloped. “All people here think about is lazing about and seeking pleasure. No-one takes any responsibility for anything…They don’t realize that the companies have given them everything. Roads, bridges – everything we see around us,” says Milton Diaz, spreading his arms wide to indicate a vast industrial area where the rainforest once stood. The corporate myth of sustainable development
According to oil workers from oil block 18, where the Swedish company works with the oil giant Petrobras, gas burning in the field is so extensive there are no living things in view. That, if anything, confirms that the environmentally friendly technology and sustainable development with which Skanska wants to be associated is nothing more than propaganda. Another Argentinean in a management position at Skanska in the Amazon region is Oswaldo Contreras. He, too, frankly admits that oil extraction always has a number of dirty downsides. “Oil drilling can never be environmentally friendly...However, it’s one of those things you just have to live with,” he says with a shrug. Unlike the local population, which is forced to live with the pollution, Contreras does not have to be concerned about oil in his drinking water. Nor does he have to worry about the high risk of developing any of eight oil-related forms of cancer or several other serious health problems associated with emissions from the oil industry in the Amazon region. And just like Milton Diaz, Contreras argues in terms of benefits that accrue to the population from the industry’s presence. “Skanska,” he boasts, “has built a road for the local population in Campo Bermejo on the Columbian border. That’s the kind of thing we call social responsibility and compensation…” Extortion and lies According to environmental inspector Marcos Baños, head of the environmental authority in the oil town Coca and the province of Orellana, Skanska has behaved in a suspicious manner and shown a great lack of respect in the region. Baños says that company representatives have visited the authority to offer to perform “projects.” “I considered it extortion,” the environmental inspector explains. Baños relates further that Skanska is one of the most slippery companies he has to deal with in his work. And it is difficult to doubt him, since his information about Skanska undeniably complements the picture of a company that will try to fake its way around laws and regulations at any price. He is not alone in giving this picture of Skanska in the Amazon region. Raul Vega, in the provincial environmental office in Coca, fills in the story about Skanska with more scandals. He, too, is very disappointed at Skanska’s mode of behavior in Ecuador – showing no consideration for environmental laws or people, and complete lack of respect for the country’s government agencies and its indigenous people. “Oswaldo Contreras was the first Skanska person we contacted,” Vega explains, “and he refused to give us the information we required. If they had only shown us they’d done an environmental study, we would have given them a permit… But it was not until a subsequent occasion that Skanska submitted any information. That information, however, turned out to be false. The company claimed it had conducted an environmental study, which was a complete and utter lie.” When Business created the Earth According to Skanska’s regional managers, it is thanks to the companies that the indigenous people finally have the opportunity to become civilized. This view is not unique to corporate leaders in developing countries, but is rather shared by neoliberal ideologues in Europe – such as Swedish Johan Norberg, whose attitude to non-industrialized cultures is equally crass and prejudiced. Norberg’s book, När människan skapade världen (“When man created the world,” Timbro: 2006) expresses a frightening lack of understanding for non-industrialized cultures whose homes are occupied by western companies like Skanska and unscrupulous oil giants. According to Norberg, globalization, the free market and industrial production are a universal recipe for happiness and welfare. Because, in Norberg’s world, human history has consistently been a “story of bottomless misery” – a perspective that is not only ignorant but also leads to lethal ethnocentrism when adopted by large companies seeking to justify their rapacious behaviour in the southern hemisphere. “In the beginning, we were all developing countries,” argues Norberg, without concerning himself about the imperialistic dominance that regularly destroys aboriginal cultures struggling desperately for survival against multinational corporations and corrupt governments. However, Norberg’s and Skanska’s attitude is both incorrect and racist. According to the indigenous people, their culture is not under-developed and their lives were not miserable before the companies launched their “operation civilization” campaign in the jungle. On the contrary, it is the western concept of development that stands for death and destruction in the Amazon basin. Unlike Johan Norberg, who despite his successful career as a writer can only distort perspectives, companies like Skanska unfortunately have a physical power over the cultures unlucky enough to stand in their way. And under the unequal relationships between large companies, states and civil society, particularly in the southern hemisphere, Skanska has shown itself to represent cultural and ecological regression, rather than the “social responsibility” and “sustainable development” it clams to offer the world. Today, there is an important struggle and for the future crucial resistance against oil exploration in sensitive ecosystems and on indigenous territories. Networks fighting against the devastating industry in Latin America are the international Oilwatch, the Ecuadorian Accion Ecologica and Frente de Defensa de la Amazonia (FDA). Survival International is an other organisation working with and for tribal people all around the world. Agneta Enström is an editor and reporter at www.yelah.net. Yelah is a Swedish independent media group, uncovering activism and politics worldwide. She has recently worked in Ecuador, researching Skanska and oil exploration on indigenous land. Contact: nettila@hotmail.com Oilwatch - http://www.oilwatch.org/ Accion Ecológica: http://accionecologica.org/webae/index.php Frente de defensa de la Amazonia (FDA): http://www.texacotoxico.com/ Survival International: http://www.survival-international.org/ |
According to Skanska, their aim is to promote “sustainable development” by practising the most environmentally friendly of possible alternatives. However, these visions are obviously and entirely dependent on external regulation. Victor Vazquez is Skanska’s environmental manager in the same region in which Diaz works. Vazquez claims that Skanska burns toxic gases (slag products) in the open air, even though that is an extremely polluting procedure. Vazquez’s explanation of this behaviour is that the Ecuadorian state lacks the resources to execute environmental laws pertaining to such an absence of environmental consideration. “Ecuador is not that developed yet, and there is no incentive to invest in better technology. In other countries, however, such as Argentina, naturally we use the best techniques available,” he says.Ecuador orders emergency to quell oil protest
He also removed Interior Minister Gustavo Larrea, a close adviser, for not stamping out the protest of villagers in the oil-rich province of Orellana, the spokeswoman said. They are demanding more funding for infrastructure projects.
The state of emergency bans public gatherings and marches and sets curfews.
Earlier on Thursday, Correa replaced the head of the state's oil company, Petroecuador, and called on a high-level government commission to negotiate with protesters.
Petroecuador's output is down 20 percent to around 139,000 barrels per day this week due to the four-day protest, which has blocked roads leading to key oil installations.
Ecuador, South America's fifth largest oil producer, repeatedly suffers from demonstrations that curtail output in the oil-rich Amazon region. (
PetroEcuador President Pareja Is Fired After Protests
By Stephan Kueffner
Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa removed the head of the state-owned oil company, saying the government needed to re-establish order at PetroEcuador after protests shut $3 million of daily production in the country.
PetroEcuador President Carlos Pareja was fired today and replaced by Fernando Zurita, a Navy admiral, the government said in a statement. Oil produces about a quarter of state revenue.
Correa declared a state of emergency for the company, saying it was so badly run he was left with no option other than bringing in the Navy. An emergency order may be applied to Orellana province, Ecuador's main oil-producing area, if the protests over jobs and environmental concerns don't end, he said.
``It is necessary to urgently intervene in the whole of the PetroEcuador system to safeguard national interests,'' Correa said today in the statement. Correa named Pareja to the post when he took power in January.
Protesters demanding jobs, better roads and environmental cleanup forced the company to shut 47 oil wells at the Auca and Cononaco fields this week, trimming 20 percent of production at PetroEcuador's biggest unit. Ecuador is South America's fifth- largest oil producer, with average daily output of 500,000 barrels.
``A lot of money is being lost daily'' because of the protests, said Zurita, speaking at the presidential palace in Quito. He said his first task will be to establish order in Orellana and arrest protesters, PetroEcuador employees or anyone else who hampered oil production.
Efficiency
Correa said there had been a ``progressive and intense'' loss of efficiency at PetroEcuador, and said violent protests won't be tolerated.
Zurita said he would use a team of Navy officials at ``key positions'' in the company. Pareja will be retained as an adviser to Correa, a 44-year old economist with a doctorate from the University of Illinois.
Ecuador is set to officially rejoin the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries on Dec. 5 after a 15-year absence from the group.
Ecuador assembly opens constitutional reform debate
MONTECRISTI, Ecuador, Nov 29 (Reuters) - An Ecuadorean assembly opened its debate on constitutional reforms on Thursday with President Rafael Correa's controlling majority ready to shut Congress and advance his leftist proposals.
Correa, elected last year as a political outsider promising a citizens' revolution, wants the assembly to curb the powers of discredited traditional parties and beef up state control over the economy of South America's No. 5 oil producer.
The U.S.-trained economist is popular for taking on elites many Ecuadoreans blame for instability that has toppled three presidents in a decade. But his promises to restructure debt, heavy spending and a flagging economy have investors on edge.
"This citizens' revolution is a process that will bring about deep reforms in Ecuador," said Alberto Acosta, a Correa ally who was named president of the 130-member assembly.
Correa's close Andean allies Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales are also seeking sweeping constitutional reforms that at times have led to violent protests and divided public opinion.
The assembly has six months to draft a new constitution with the option of a 60-day extension. Some pro-government members have said Congress, currently on recess, should close until the charter is drafted and put to a national referendum.
Opposition lawmakers have vowed to stay in office while others say they could take action in international courts.
Correa handed in his resignation to the assembly in a symbolic move to show his independence from members, though the assembly is certain to ratify his presidency.
The initial session was delayed for more three hours as opposition members squabbled over internal rules and procedures at the assembly, where Correa's Alianza Pais party has a 80-seat majority.
A splintered opposition with only a few seats in the assembly says Correa wants to consolidate his presidential powers as Chavez did in Venezuela after his 1998 election. They have promised to try to block any proposals they see as autocratic.Ecuador Sets Up First Public TV Channel
This communication media belongs to the society and must be independent of private propaganda, to be able to inform objectively without fear, Correa stressed.
Today "is a very happy day for all, because we finally have a public channel," the leader said, stressing that this channel "does not defend private interests because it is not in private hands," adding it is difficult for private agents to conform their interests to those of society.
Correa took the occasion to greet the Assembly members, meeting in the Ciudad Eloy Alfaro Complex, and stress the importance of the Constituent Assembly.
He confirmed that he will be present Friday in Montecristi for the opening of the Assembly, which will also be attended by the presidents of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, and Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, and representatives from Bolivia and PeruEcuador’s Constituent Assembly
• Correa ratifies its full powers
Granma, Nov 29, 2007
QUITO.— President Rafael Correa of
At a press conference in
“The Constituent Assembly is fully empowered to draw up a new Constitution and reform the institutional framework of the state,” Correa told journalists, after returning from a tour of several Asian nations.
“Let’s not repeat what the losers (the right-wing minority) are saying; they lost at the polls, and now they want to create chaos,” he warned. The president added: “We are respectful of the minority, but we are not going to betray the mandate of the Ecuadorian people because of the whims of a handful who want to change the rules of the game.”
Meanwhile, ANSA reported that the Ecuadorian Congress declared the day before that it would go into legislative recess for 30 days, as stipulated by the current Constitution, one day before the installation of the new Constituent Assembly.
One of the first resolutions to be adopted is the dismissal (removal) of Congress, which has been accused of fomenting chaos and blocking the process of change in the country that began when Correa took office on January 15, Prensa Latina reported.
It was confirmed that leaders of the region would be present at today’s installation ceremony.
Ecuador forum debates key reforms
 The assembly is due to meet for six months |
An assembly elected to rewrite Ecuador's constitution has begun work amid continuing tension between the president and the opposition.
President Rafael Correa, whose allies control the assembly, wants to push through reforms blocked by the opposition-dominated Congress.
Mr Correa says Congress is corrupt and inept and wants it dissolved until a new body can be elected.
His opponents have attacked his plans as an attack on democracy.
Mr Correa's drive for reform echoes those of his allies in Venezuela and Bolivia, Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales.
Mr Correa has repeatedly argued that constitutional reforms will make Ecuador a more just society and tackle endemic political instability.
The impoverished Andean nation has thrown out three presidents in the past 10 years.
Critics say the reforms will focus more power in the president's hands and this will frighten off foreign investors.
Mr Correa, who made reforming the constitution a key part of his election campaign last year, does enjoy widespread popular support.
In April, nearly 80% of voters backed his call for an assembly that would bypass Congress and rewrite the constitution. In September, voters then chose assembly members, giving 80 of the 130 seats to his Alianza Pais party.
The Constituent Assembly began its work on Thursday morning in the town of Montecristi, nearly two months after it was elected.
The assembly is due to meet for six months, after which the draft constitution will be put to a national referendum for approval.
Mr Correa was expected to ask the assembly to force Congress into recess and assume its legislative powers until a new congress can be elected under a new constitution.
On Wednesday, members of Congress who do not recognise the assembly's authority voted to begin their end-of-year holiday early but insisted they would be back at work on 3 January.
Ecuador Opposition Split in Assembly
Still lacking a definite strategy, the 18 Assembly members of the PSP ("Patriotic Society"), eight from the PRIAN ("Institutional Renovation"), five from the PSC ("Social Christian"), and the two from "Uno" will occupy their seats at the Ciudad Alfaro Complex, headquarters of the Assembly.
These factions, along with others from the left and central-left wings total 50 votes, in front of the 80 in the hands of Alianza Pais, the most voted movement in the September 30 elections.
Local media noted the opposition is weakened by the electoral defeat, and none of those groups have facilitated a political rapprochement with the Alianza Pais members at the Assembly to present a joint proposal with their statements
Ecuador for Constituent Revolution
The 130 assembly members are to open sessions at the Ciudad Eloy Alfaro architectural complex in Montecristi, Manabi, which will be for six months the center for political discussions of the Andean nation.
Sessions are to begin at 09:00 local time with the election of the directive board, whose presidency will fall on former minister Alberto Acosta, from the Country Alliance Movement and the candidate with the most votes in the September 30 elections.
With 80 seats in this Assembly, the Country Alliance Movement also aims to hold the two vice presidencies and propose Fernando Cordeo and Anmiya Benano to hold such posts.
It is expected that the country appoints chiefs and members of the 10 commissions, which will be made up of 13 assembly members each.
Among aims of the Assembly is deepening the reform process started here on January 15 with Correa"s inauguration, building the 21st century socialism and a society of producers and owners, and undertaking political, economic and social transformations to implement a national planning system.
Also on the list is to create bases to achieve an active and participative democracy.
The new Constitution, to be ratified in a referendum in 2008, must also recover rights to property, housing, social security, and healthy environment, as well as vindicate education and free health.
The opening act will be held Friday in the presence of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, as well as ministers, statesmen and other figures.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Ecuador president to offer submit his resignation to constitutional assembly
IHT, 28/11/2007
MONTECRISTI, Ecuador: President Rafael Correa on Wednesday offered to submit his resignation to the constitutional assembly, a largely symbolic move that comes a day before the body meets to begin rewriting Ecuador's constitution.
Correa, whose allies control the assembly, vowed to submit his resignation on Friday so it "can decide whether to send me home or keep me in power." His Cabinet members are expected to follow suit.
Assembly members — who gather for the first time Thursday to write a new constitution — are unlikely to accept his resignation. Correa's political movement, Alianza Pais, controls more than 60 percent of the assembly, which was elected in September.
Correa, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, is pushing to rewrite the charter in a bid to reduce the power of the traditional political parties that he blames for the politically unstable Andean nation's problems.
He is expected to ask the constitutional assembly to replace Congress with a parliamentary committee until a new legislature is elected under a new constitution, which could take at least a year.
But many members of the opposition-controlled Congress have refused to recognize the assembly's power to fire them and voted Wednesday to recess until Jan. 3.
Congress President Jorge Cevallos denied that recess is a bid to avoid dissolution, insisting that lawmakers will return to their posts next year.
"If they want to be dictators, let them say: 'We're closing Congress," said Carlos Gonzalez, vice president of the legislature.
Earlier this year, Correa pushed new rules through the constitutional court, giving the constitutional assembly power to dismiss any elected official. The move plunged the country into a political crisis that led to the firing of more than half of the legislature in March. They were replaced by alternates.
Correa, Ecuador's eighth president in the last 10 years, has said he wants the country's new consitution to let presidents serve two consecutive four-year terms. He denies he is seeking to stay in power indefinitely.
The assembly has at least six months to draft the charter, which will then be submitted to the public in a referendum.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Chavez both plan to attend the assembly's opening ceremony on Thursday. The pair are embroiled in an escalating diplomatic spat and have traded public insults in recent days.
Ecuador president to hand in resignation to constitutional assembly
MONTECRISTI, Ecuador: President Rafael Correa said Wednesday that he will hand in his resignation to the closely allied assembly elected to rewrite Ecuador's constitution, a move seen as a largely symbolic gesture.
Correa's political party controls more than 60 percent of the assembly, which meets for the first time Thursday to rewrite the constitution of this politically unstable Andean nation.
"I will present my resignation so the assembly ... can decide whether to send me home or keep me in power," said Correa during a news conference. He plans to tender his resignation on Friday. His Cabinet members are expected to follow suit.
The 44-year-old former economy minister says the new constitution is necessary to reduce the power of traditional political parties he blames for the country's problems.
He is expected to call for the closing of Congress and to have it replaced with a parliamentary commission until a legislature is elected under the new constitution.
Correa, Ecuador's eighth president in the last decade, also wants to have the president be allowed to run for two consecutive four-year terms, but he denies that he seeks to stay in power indefinitely. The president is not currently allowed to run for immediate re-election.
Correa is a close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an ardent critic of Washington who is seeking extensive changes to his own country's constitution.
On Sunday, Venezuelans will vote on 69 amendments that would allow Chavez to run for re-election indefinitely.
Ecuador's Correa:To Push OPEC To Switch To Stronger Currency
"This is an Ecuadorian thesis. Venezuela, Iran and other countries had supported it and we will defend our proposal," Correa said at a press conference after returning from a trip to Saudi to Arabia, China and Indonesia.
Correa also said that in the future he hopes to organize a common group, with countries like Bolivia and Argentina, against the World Bank's International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes. (ICSID)
He said that Ecuador has "already had enough of being subjected to international bodies that try to work against our sovereignty."
Correa added that his government has reinforced commercial relationships with Asia, Europe and Brazil.
Speaking of the oil sector Correa said the government will give preference to state companies to do business and to create alliances.
He gave as an example, Chilean state-owned Enap as a company that could form an alliance for exploiting natural gas in Guayaquil.
He also mentioned state companies as possible partners for developing some marginal and mature oil fields in conjunction with Petroecuador.
"If we receive good proposals I will ask to the constituent assembly to award (contracts) directly," Correa said.
A constituent assembly, dominated by Correa supporters, will start work this week, aiming to write a new constitution. Correa, a left-leaning economist, took office earlier this year.
Ecuador wants to favor state firms in oil projects
QUITO, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said on Wednesday his government planned to directly assign oil projects to state companies from allied countries to avoid a long bidding process.
"We are going to ignore the bidding process, because time is crucial for us and a bid could take up to five or six months," Correa told reporters after returning from trips to China and Indonesia.
"The judicial framework already allows us to directly assign projects using strategic alliances with state companies from other countries," he added.
Chinese and Indonesian state-run oil firms should "very quickly " make offers to operate oil fields run by Ecuador's state oil company, Petroecuador, Correa said.
Correa, a left-wing economist, is pushing to rework oil contracts with foreign oil firms to increase the state participation in deals that allow companies to keep part of the oil they extract.
He surprised investors in October by hiking a windfall oil tax that affects companies such as Spain's Repsol.
Correa said an upcoming government-controlled assembly rewriting the constitution would ratify the decision to directly assign oil projects in the nation, which is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Ecuador, South America's No 5 oil producer, has seen its output dwindle in recent years due to scarce investment in state-run oil fields. The country's produces around 500,000 barrels of oil per day, half of which is extracted by private firms.Ecuador's Correa targets Congress, pushes reforms
By Alonso Soto
QUITO, Nov 28 (Reuters) - President Rafael Correa will seek to shut down Ecuador's opposition-dominated Congress when a new assembly under his left-wing party's control starts work on Thursday to craft a new constitution.
Correa, elected last year promising a citizens' revolution, plans to use the assembly to push through reforms that have been blocked by his foes in Congress.
His drive comes as his Andean allies, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales, face mounting and sometimes violent opposition to their own attempts at sweeping constitutional change.
Setting up a 130-member assembly was Correa's main campaign pledge and its broad powers will likely allow the U.S.-trained economist to boost state control over the economy and curb the power of traditional parties he calls "pillaging pirates."
"The assembly will bring changes at the root, radical reforms ... so this country can finally advance freely," Correa told supporters recently in the town of Montecristi, where the assembly will meet to debate a draft of a new constitution.
Correa plans to use his majority bloc of 80 seats in the assembly to force Congress into a recess and take over its legislative powers during the six months of debate on drafting a new constitution. The move could come in the assembly's opening session on Thursday.
Opposition lawmakers in Congress have rejected or weakened some of Correa's major proposals, including a far-reaching banking reform bill to increase state control over banks and force them to lower interest rates.Some congressional opponents have vowed to resist Correa's plans and stay in office, raising tensions in a country where unrest has ousted three presidents in the last decade.
Voters gave Correa a clear mandate for challenging the old guard, blamed by many for instability in South America's No. 5 oil producer. But his promises to renegotiate foreign debt, his high public spending and the anemic economy worry Wall Street.
Opposition leaders accuse the former economy minister of using his popularity to control institutions such as the courts and say he is seeking to bolster his presidential powers, as Chavez has done in Venezuela.
'DICTATORIAL'
But opposition leaders question how much decision-making power the assembly has as its own statute says all reforms will have to be ratified in a referendum next year.
"The government is interpreting the statute as they please in an attempt to concentrate power," said Gilmar Gutierrez, the top assembly member for the center-right Patriotic Society party. "We are going to fight those dictatorial tendencies."
Still, he and other opposition leaders will have little power in the assembly and they have failed to form alliances to counter Correa.
Correa wants the assembly to call for an early presidential election, curtail the influence of political parties in the courts, and reform tax and financial laws to lower taxes and interest rates for the poor.Analysts warn the assembly's broad powers could in the long-run hurt Correa as Ecuadoreans, tired of instability and corruption, expect too much from the new body.
"The government bloc has enough power now to approve whatever it wants," said Alexandra Vela, an analyst with the think-tank Cordes in Quito. "But as they take so much power the assembly will also assume the pressures felt by Congress and that could come back to bite the government."
Chavez, a fierce foe of the United States, used a similar assembly to consolidate presidential powers in Venezuela in 1999, but he faces a tough referendum vote on Sunday on whether to approve deeper reforms.
A similar assembly in Bolivia has divided public opinion and generated violent street protests with four people killed over the weekend and opposition leaders calling for a general strike in six of its nine provinces.
Since taking office in January, Correa has won strong backing with his tough stance against foreign oil firms and promises of social programs for the poor, although weak economic growth threatens his popularity.
"The economy will be the breaking point for the government," said Paulina Recalde, a pollster with Perfiles de Opinion in Quito. "Correa has created a lot of economic expectations and he needs to deliver quickly."
