By Organización Comuna Amazónica
The aggressive advance of mining extractivism in Ecuador threatens the entire country. In our province, Napo, we are experiencing one of the most serious environmental disasters in our history, caused by the complicity of mining companies, illegal mining operators, and the government, who have formed a network of corruption that is poisoning our water sources and bleeding the jungle, affecting our economy and putting our health at risk.
As an Indigenous-led organization that advocates for the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Cultural Survival condemns the vile murder of Eduardo Mendúa (A’i Cofán), land and environmental defender and Head of International Relations of the Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador (
Cultural Survival’s Keepers of the Earth Fund grant partners, the A’i Cofán de Dureno community in Ecuador, have been mobilizing to defend their ancestral lands against oil exploitation by the national oil company Petroecuador for six months.
The A'i Cofán community of Dureno is located on the Aguarico River in the province of Sucumbios in the northeastern part of the Ecuadorian Amazon. For thousands of years, the A'i Cofán people have tended this territory, living in balance with their environment. During the last several decades this region has suffered oil exploitation and currently faces a threat from the State oil company, Petroecuador, a situation that is generating an internal division among community members.
A diario, las vidas y los medios de vida de pueblos Indígenas corren peligro en Abya Yala, donde los sistemas coloniales siguen oprimiendo los derechos y su lucha por tener una vida digna y respetada. Cultural Survival es una organización que apoya la autodeterminación y derechos de los pueblos y comunidades Indígenas desde 1972.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.