The Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin requested the annulment of Executive Decrees 95 and 151 -of July 7 and August 5, 2021, respectively-, issued by President Guillermo Lasso, with which they “formalize the entry into validity of the immediate action plans to generate profound transformations of the oil and mining policy in Ecuador ”.
These documents, they say, are worrisome due to the violation of their rights of participation in the decisions that may affect them and the risks of serious and irreparable damage derived from the expansion of the extractive frontier.
They explain that Decree 95 protects the interests of the private sector and financial entities, and “proposes a” transition “in which the control and management of strategic sectors pass from the hands of the State to transnational companies.”
They consider that this would imply that various enabling processes that authorize the bidding and / or concession of oil blocks be reviewed, accelerated and made more flexible, as well as makes possible several regulatory changes that would evade the constitutional framework.
This current Decree would also affect the tax revenue of the State, to the detriment of the economic, social and cultural rights of the population. The organizations criticize that it also imposes a model of participation contracts that ensure profits to companies, and transfers the cost of risks to the State.
While Decree 151, they say, “pretends in a deceptive way, to position the country as an attractive mining investment.” They expressed their concern and hope that it is not a justification “to increase attacks and stigmatization of people who oppose mining activity.”
They criticize that the decrees expand extractivism and, in their opinion, it is omitted to explain the way in which the rights of nature, human and collective of indigenous peoples and environmental defenders that are currently criminalized are going to be guaranteed.
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