Ecuador Protests Challenge Foreign Oil

Two days later, when military repression of the population reached national news, General Solon Espinosa, commander in chief of the troops in the region, was forced to resign for his “weakness” to tackle the violence and his inability to take preemptive measures against the strike. General Oswaldo Jarrin Roman took command in his place. 

General Jarrin had been appointed defense minister under the previous government of ousted President Lucio Gutierrez, but resigned from office five months later. He was said to have opposed Gutierrez’s attempts to “politicize” the armed forces. Human rights organizations in Ecuador say Jarrin has been a big supporter of the militarization of Ecuador’s northern border, as specified under the U.S.-initiated Plan Colombia. 

Nevertheless, Jarrin’s first move was to release local officials from prison and transport them to the nation’s capital, Quito, to begin immediate negotiations with President Palacios’s administration. The first two days of talks failed, as representatives from foreign oil companies refused to sit at the negotiation table, repudiated demands brought by local officials, and called for the prosecution of all strike leaders. 

In the meantime, the protests continued. According to the national newspaper El Comercio, four out of twelve women, all members of women’s organizations, were arrested as they called for a hunger strike in Nueva Loja’s main church. There was also an attempt by the military to close down Radio Sucumbios. The station was spared only under the condition that it would replace its daily reports from the region with music broadcasts. 

Residents from Orellana, Sucumbios, and other Ecuadorian provinces have a long history of disputes with foreign oil companies. Most of the revenue from oil falls into foreign hands and locals have seen little improvement in their standard of living. 

In their request to renegotiate oil contracts with foreign companies, officials from Orellana and Sucum- bios petitioned that 50 percent of the net oil profits go back to the state (as opposed to the current 25 percent), 15 percent of which would be invested in the water systems, road improvement, the construction of their first hospital, and economic support for their schools. They also requested payment for any natural resources used in the process of oil exploration and that future negotiations between the local government and oil companies take place in offices instead of military compounds, as has been done so far. 

On Friday, August 26 an agreement between officials from Orel- lana and Sucumbios and the national government was reached. It ended the two-week state of emergency and granted 16 percent of the 25 percent oil revenue for regional investment. It also included a provision for further talks about the invalidation of Occidental’s contract, said to violate legal stipulations for conceding some of their rights for oil exploration to EnCana without state approval, and the re-negotiation of contracts with the remaining oil companies. Delegates from the foreign oil companies did not attend the negotiations, but subscribed to them in absence. 

“Honestly, we are not satisfied because it has been as if we managed to get a few cents from the great economic power that oil companies have,” said Guillermo Muñoz, prefect of Sucumbios.