Gianmarco Di Costanzo | Chernobyl in the Ecuadorian Amazon

A reportage from Ecuador, where oil companies, in particular Texaco (now Chevron), have irreparably polluted the Amazon forest in the province of Sucumbíos. Indigenous peoples have halved, notably the A’i Kofan and the Siekopai, due to air and water pollution-related diseases. Rivers such as the Aguarico, a source of water for many indigenous communities such as the Siekopai community of San Pablo de Kantesiya, are irreparably polluted.
Oil companies have tried to compensate indigenous peoples for the damage by financing projects to modernize communities, as the case with the A’i Kofan Community of Dureno, today called the “Millennium Community”, equipped with more modern infrastructure and schools in addition to an electricity system.
Associations such as the UDAPT (Unión de Afectados y Afectadas por las Operaciones Petroleras de Texaco) have been formed to defend the rights of these people, and they have sent the Chevron to the Court, with a legal battle that still continues.
The UDAPT has started to organize the “Toxic Tour”, a guided tour that allows to see the damages that the oil companies have caused since the 70s, visiting mecheros (chimneys that burn the exhaust gas of the oil extraction), and oil wells in the forest.
Published by El País, El País Brasil, La Repubblica, La Stampa and Green & Blue.