Referendum on Sunday will decide whether to halt fossil fuel extraction in Amazon park, home to the Waorani people
As Ecuadorians go to the polls on Sunday they must not only decide between eight presidential candidates but also vote on an unprecedented referendum question that could set a new course for their oil-reliant nation.
A second referendum question will ask voters, just in Quito, whether to allow mining in vast tracts of land near the capital city known as the Chocó Andino. By creating a fund for half of the oil’s estimated value, $3.6bn, countries would compensate Ecuador for not touching the oil reserves. “The decision is now ours: we can change the course of history by saying yes to Yasuní, we can all be defenders of Mother Earth and protect our future”, she told the Guardian.
“The oil won’t last more than 15 years. It’s a non-renewable resource,” she said. Gualinga fought and won a case in the inter-American court of human rights in 2012 to block government-authorised oil exploration by an Argentine company on her people’s land.
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