60,000 people are affected by oil spill in Ecuador

Given this, indigenous communities will take legal action against oil companies.

After the rupture of a pipe of the Heavy Crude Oil Pipeline (OCP) in the Piedra Fina sector, Napo province, on January 28, multiple environmental damages and effects on indigenous communities in the sector were reported. According to a preliminary calculation, it is estimated that approximately 60,000 people were affected.

Alexandra Almeida, a member of Acción Ecológica, warned that the oil companies and the authorities try to minimize the damage and effects on communities, animals and biodiversity in general.

“The authorities are not taking the necessary measures, nor are the companies responsible for this. They try to hide it and they try to cover it up by saying that everything is under control. These damages are irreparable and irreparable,” she warned.

Indigenous and environmental groups also claimed that the oil reached the Coca River and later the Napo River, a tributary of the Amazon River, and affected them in a matter of hours.

In addition, they warned that they were left without access to water and fishing, due to this they do not rule out mobilizations, since they assure the State is not respecting their rights.

For her part, Silvia Bonilla, a lawyer for the Human Rights Alliance, assured that legal action will be taken and also asked the constitutional judges to take action to sanction oil companies.

“We demand that the Constitutional Court generate the appropriate standards for reparation, but, above all, that this decision generate measures of non-repetition and that cases like these do not happen again and that these oil companies do not go unpunished.”