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See
Also:
AGUINDA V. TEXACO WEBSITE
WWW.CHEVRONTOXICO.ORG
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ECUADOR
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The Cofan tribes,
once a thriving community, have seen disease and forced migration
reduce their population from 15,000 in 1970 to a few hundred
today.
There are three indigenous communities that live in the area where
Texaco operated:
the Cofan
the Secoya,
and the Siona.
These peoples have developed distinct cultures and traditions that
are inextricably linked to the abundance of the rainforest where
they have lived for thousands of years.
Texaco's toxic discharges
have literally propelled these cultures to the brink of
extinction.
The Cofan, who numbered approximately 15,000 people
when Texaco built its first well in
Ecuador on Cofan territory in
1971, have seen disease and forced migration reduce their
population to a few hundred.
The Secoya and Siona also have seen a
dramatic decreases in their populations.
The impact of the
contamination on the primary rivers in the area —the Aguarico
and the Napo — indicates why these indigenous cultures are
tottering as a result of Texaco's practices.
The three
aforementioned tribes have lived off of the riches of these two
rivers and their tributaries for thousands of years — for food
(fish), hygiene (bathing), and transport.
In scarcely more than
two decades of oil development, these rivers have been rendered
virtually useless as sources of nourishment. Because of the oil
contamination, the indigenous peoples can no longer fish in the
rivers. This has forced them to turn all of their attention to the
hunt for animals, which has so decreased the gaming population
that there is not enough food for adequate nourishment.
As a
result, young people are moving away to the cities, where they
take (if they can find them) low-paying entry-level jobs in a cash
economy. Often, indigenous peoples will do cleanup work for the
very oil companies whose contamination has forced them to leave
their historical lands.
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Maria
Aguinda and her Family
walking on
the oil roads. |
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Woman
walking on road which is slicked
with toxic sludge from Texaco's waste
pits |
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This website is the creation of the Frente
Para La Defensa De La Amazonía. It is not a website of
Texaco Inc. It is website that describes the plight of the people
of the rainforest caused by Texaco Inc.
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