Ecuador Eco Volunteer

Archive for the ‘Corruption, Crime & Ecuadorian Law’ Category

Here is a hilarious cartoon that speaks volumes about the police and judicial corruption in Ecuador – and I bet it resonates not only with most other Latin American countries but the majority of the third world as well.

The world media are reporting that the government secured a $117 Million downpayment (well over the 100 million needed) before December 31st 2011 to protect Yasuni National Park from being drilled for oil.

Firstly this is fantastic news that this important issue is still in the international spotlight.

It means more scrutiny for reports on corrupt dealings like Chevron Texaco using “blood money” to bribe the Ecuadorian government with $500 Million for the Yasuni ITT protection in exchange for forgetting its $18 Billion in damages it needs to pay for creating a “Chenobyl in the Amazon” 30 years ago.

“Given Chevron’s toxic legacy and the debt it owes the people and rainforests of Ecuador, the fact that this ‘bribe’ is even on the table is an aberration of justice. “This is a multi-billion dollar bait and switch, it’s illegal, and can’t be allowed.” said the Ecuador program coordinator for Kevin Koenig for Amazon Watch.

Why then are my friends who work at the Ministry of Environment and the Provincial Council for Coca in Orellana Province which controls Yasuni National Park not convinced?

Reaching the 100 million dollars may have saved Yasuni National Park for another year but my friends say the prospecting continues as usual. Its encouraging however to see that Rafael Correa donated the proceeds of the $40million lawsuit against the newspaper El Universo even though it challenged Freedom of Expression in Ecuador.

Lets hope that what the ex-president of the Yasuni ITT initiative Roque Sevilla said about President Rafael Correa in his Yasuni interview is not true.

Here is a translation of an interview with Roque Sevilla, the ex-president of the Yasuni ITT Commission who also helped draw up the borders of Yasuni National Park 32 years ago and.

The Yasuni ITT initiative is a project that aims to preserve the most biologically diverse region on the planet, the region of Ecuadors Amazon between the rivers Ishpingo, Tambococha, and Tiputini (ITT) by securing donations from developed countries in exchange for keeping the vast oil reserves beneath the national park untapped.

If the Ecuadorian government does not receive 100 million dollars by January 1st 2012 it will exploit the oil inside the national park.   In this frank and critical interview Roque Sevilla claims that this was the Ecuadorians governments intention the entire time.  

Please share this interview or the original transcript in Spanish.

Where you surprised by the statements of German parliamentarians who visited the country?

“Yes, I noticed that those MPs where looking at current events in a newspaper like El Universo. That means that a local issue like Freedom of the in Ecuador is certainly important and is being projected internationally. This shows that the national management influences the confidence that creates a doors to the outside world.”

The statements of the minister of the German cooperation are clear. Do you rule out the governments support for the Yasuni-ITT project?

“I will rule it out while this actual government is in power. Ecuador has constantly sent ambigious and contradictory messages with respect to the Yassuni ITT. It remains in force, for example, the Pacific Refinery which will process 100,000 barrels inside the ITT. The president in his remarks on saturday explained in detail the techniques that will apply to the development of plan B. So clearly, it sends the message that Plan B is the real plan A. This creates distrust.”

How do you explain then that the chancellor Patiño did a tour of Europe to supposedly achieve more support for the Yasuní?

“Ill get back to that answer. Alberto Acosta, when he was energy minister, proposed the idea of leaving the oil underground in Yasuní. That became a hot potato for the government which always wanted to get out of that truck.”

He did not do it? How do you explain it?

“Because surveys show that 65% of Ecuadorians support the Yasuni-ITT project.  Now the government is making the effort to fix the quotes to present the force, between quotation marks, that helps the government get the contributions from developed countries. This is clear, with contradictory messages and with, sometimes, agression on the future contributors. This is to say, for example, they get the coins out of his ears.”

Are you saying that the official strategy is to boycott the project?

“If I promote an idea and then do my best so that it is not accepted, I get the result I want: the failure of the project.”

That was a very clear strategy since January 2010 because we could have advanced, in an extraordinary way, if a month before the resignation of the commission to which I belonged, we would have signed, as scheduled on December 17, 2009, the contract trust with the United Nations in Copenhagen. The previous day, the president called to say do not sign.

But the Government replaced the team and did not undo the project.

“But since then there has been a systematic policy to avoid all possible contributions and be able to justify it. Now in December, the President will announce – as I am certain he will do – that they have made every effort humanly possible to get that money. He will say that the developed countries are bad because they did not want to contribute and that the government is consequently forced to exploit the oil of Yasuni.”

In this theory, Maria Fernanda Espinosa and Ivonne Baki are parts used by the president?

“Absolutely used, because the intention has been to do everything the opposite. If its not like that then explain the Pacific Refinery. Then explain the additional concessions given to PetroChina right on the bank of the Napo River for pipefitters right in front of Tiputini. It explains the presidents remarks that Tiputini is no longer part of the ITT and all that remains is the IT.”

“He invents a new compass, a new GPS which excludes the Yasuni National Park area Tiputini.  This invention allows them to exploit this oil without asking the people of Ecuador, because that goes against Article 407 of the Constitution.  These plans are drawn and advanced to exploit the oil.”

But has the government ever talked of a plan C. Do you know Rafael Correa?

“I do not know it. I think there is a single plan, B, which is to exploit the oil. So much so that in the case of Armadillo, which everyone knows is the Taromenani (uncontacted tribe in the Yasuni Amazon) just made a tender to operate without complying with any of the principles of the Constitution or international treaties to protect communities that have chosen to live in voluntary isolation. So the signals are wholesale. Here’s what will happen on January 1st – they are going to exploit the Yasuni ITT oil.”

You say that this topic is popular, which will generate resistence in the peoples opinion. What is the benefit to the Government to develop antidote policies against the Yasuni ITT?

“That’s the risk you run. But with the confidence they have in their power to manipulate public opinion through television channels, and the president’s personal popularity, they believe they will win this battle. I think those who are aware of the importance of the issue of Yasuní, we have to go to battle against the decision to exploit the oil from the world’s richest area of biodiversity as dumb and stupid. The Government itself has said this to the United Nations itself, therefore, those who are in favor of the protection of the Yasuni have to prove it.

Following your logic, the Yasuní may become a political boomerang for President?

He will produce a political boomerang because Ecuadorians are not easily fooled. The Government will say that the exploitation will be a perfect surgery. But that does not exist. The oil will spill and cause damage. Look at the final research survey which has only been done in two dimensions, 2D. You have to make the third dimension and this includes the construction of trails on a grid and, at the intersection of each track, you have to put a stick of dynamite and exploit it to measure the effect of sound waves. The rebound is measured by the size of the oil fields.

That demands a brutal intervention with groups of cutters and bulldozers that knock down everything to make the trails and explode dynamite. There are helicopter flights, installing the pipes… Now the president says that everything’s going to be underground, that drilling will be 11 km horizontal to Tambococha. They already know everything. That itself has advanced to the final detail, but if we ask them how much they have advanced in the regulation of the trust agreement, or even have it.

There will be nothing left of Yasuni National Park.

There has been, however, a sustainable alternative to the Government’s argument that says, in short, that under the Yasuní is a gold mine for social work.

There are alternatives: the use of biodiversity with economic valuation through the pharmaceutical industry and the systematic investigation of organized wealth that is there.

Tourism is another alternative. Costa Rica lives with three million tourists a year and here we are barely a million, but Ecuador has twice the biodiversity of Costa Rica. What happens is that Costa Ricans understand what sustainability is and here we like the exploitation of natural resources for fast, easy and short term money.

We can also take advantage of alternative energy sources other than oil. In hydropower we use a seventh of what we have available to us. Solar power, geothermal water that is heated with volcanoes. The advantage of New Zealand, Costa Rica and Iceland.

There are options, then. And the first is to continue the Yasuní-ITT project by negotiations with the countries concerned, but showing signs of confidence and strength in the proposal. No contradictions or game fixing. Along these lines I am convinced that we can raise $ 3,600 million.

Right now when there is virtually recession in Europe and the U.S.? What signals is this based on?

“It is worthwhile to follow closely what is happening in Guyana. In 2009, two years after us, Guyana Prime Minister proposed to the world that he would raise 540 million dollars a year and give up mining and logging in their country to preserve their natural resources.

The country has already received $250 million of contributions from Norway and is in line to receive the 540 million that was set because there has been a commitment of that State, a sovereign decision and a job to do so unambiguously that builds confidence in the world”

Are you going to fight in the street to avoid exploitation of Yasuni?

I have always fought for the protection of the environment. Ill say that a few days ago a friend sent me a photograph from 1976 in which I am in a canoe in the middle of Yasuní creating the border of the national park in conjunction with two technicians of the FAO, Allain Putney and a Dutch man.

Thanks to these studies Yasuni was declared a National Park. The defense of the park for me, then, is old enough to accept that without further ado, it violates the Constitution and the government will destroy the incredible biological richness of this country.

Today Carolina from Finland starts her second week of volunteer work in the Animal Rescue Center. This is the second time she has volunteered inside Ecuador, the first was for a similar center focused on protecting endangered animals in a place called Ibarra in Northern Ecuador which she loved and had an amazing time.

Fortunately, unlike many other volunteers, Carolina wasn’t ripped off or scammed into paying thousands of dollars for volunteer work which normally costs a few hundred dollars at most. A travel agent in London originally offered her the price of $2,000 to volunteer for two weeks at the NGO but she was wise enough to wait until she got to Ecuador before organizing the volunteer work and to her surprise she was able to find the EXACT same NGO for the price of $100 per week!

That decision saved her $1,800!

Sadly however, there was another girl from Connecticut in the States volunteering in the same center for two weeks who paid the corporation “I-to-I”, one of the biggest international volunteer work cartels in the world, $2,500 to volunteer for two weeks. This poor girl was devastated when she found out that all the money she had worked so hard to save up over the summer filled the coffers of I-to-I and a measly $200 of the $2,500 was given to the NGO rehabilitating the endangered animals.

So guys and girls be very very careful when choosing volunteer work especially if it costs over $1,000 month because it may turn out to be a scam. I’m not trying to scare you out of volunteering nor am i trying to convince you that www.ecuadorecovolunteer.org is the only safe way to go because there are so many amazing programs out there.

Just be careful when organizing volunteer work especially if its with one of the big international companies. A great site for anyone interested in finding high quality low cost volunteer work in Latin America is www.volunteersouthamerica.net which is an amazing directory of all the best programs on the continent (you will see us under Ecuador:)

Its a shame that these big companies give the entire industry a bad name but whats good is that i believe more and more people are becoming aware of the volunteer work scams out there and are beginning to avoid them at all costs thanks to altruistic websites like www.volunteersouthamerica.net

I witnessed a very sad sight last night. I had just arrived in Riobamba after spending 9 hours on a bus back and forth from quito to finally get my visa. On friday night Riobamba is always alive as hundreds of young people walk up and down the main Avenida; in and out of restaurants, bars, and clubs; drinking and having carefree fun with friends.

I popped into a friends bar which is decorated with bulls heads besides the framed photos of bull fighters delivering the coup de grace in the bulls final battle. A man parked his car 15 metres from the bar and walked in, ordered a beer, took a sip and began chatting to the bar tender. A moment later a boy selling flowers approached him but the man refused the flowers and something in his stomach must have said ‘go check your car’

The man walked outside and in the two minutes it took to order the beer another boy had broken into the car and was busy stealing the radio. The man yelled for help and ran to the car to catch the thief and a crowd quickly gathered round as other men blocked the doors and trapped the him inside. They rang the police then began to taunt the boy inside whose eyes were wide like a cornered animal desperate to escape his fate.

The other boy selling flowers as a distraction had disappeared so the mobs wrath was centered on the one in the car who had locked the doors from the inside to prevent the owner from breaking in and violently venting his anger on the boy.

My friend remarked to me that the boy looked like he was high on Glue, used commonly amongst street kids because it is dirt cheap and helps suppress pangs of hunger and the biting cold while making the sniffer feel euphoric. Glue also removes inhibitions and fear but long term use severely damages brain cells destroying any hope the kids will lead a normal life as adults.

It took 45 minutes for the police to arrive (even though the police station was 5 blocks away) and the boy looked relieved as they pushed back the mob and escorted him to the police station. Nothing in the car was damaged and the men in the mob laughed as the boy was lead away.

I couldn’t help but feel deeply sorry for the scared little boy and somewhat horrified at the mobs behavior that, in a better world, should have been more understanding and compassionate towards him even if he was trying to steal.

Martin Luthar King once said:
“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar, it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”

I believe that this quote also applies to circumstances like this and its only when we seek first to understand the reasons why some kids are more prone to substance abuse and stealing instead of just outright blaming them for doing wrong will society become a fairer community for all and these incidents can be better prevented.