CONAIE
CONFEDERATION OF INDIGENOUS NATIONALITIES OF ECUADOR
PRESS RELEASE: OCTOBER 28, 1992

THE HUAORANI PEOPLE WILL STAY IN QUITO UNTIL THEIR DEMANDS ARE MET

On April 3, 1990, during the government of Rodrigo Borja, land title was adjudicated for the ancestral territory occupied by the Huaorani. Today, invading private property, the oil company MAXUS, after having completed seismic exploration , is attempting to open a road in our land. This road will facilitate their work, and also benefit the companies ELF of France and PETROBRAS of Brazil. A road in our territory would bring in not only oil companies, but colonizers who, with their "civilization," destroy everything in their path: our culture, our territory, our lives.

For this reason we have come all the way to Quito, to demand that our right to life be respected. We demand:

Yesterday, October 27, we went to Petroecuador to dialog with their president, who has offered to look for some sort of solution. For that reason we have a meeting today with the Minister of Energy and Mines, and Petroecuador.

When we went to the offices of Maxus to give them our demands, they refused to receive us and instead called the police to force us to leave. They agreed to meet with indigenous leaders of CONAIE, CONFENIAE, and ONHAE only when we took their public relations person, Roxana Fayeta, who has taken on the job of trying to divide our people.

Later we attended an audience given to us by the President of the Congress, the Engineer Carlos Vallejo, who, after having us wait for over two hours, received us and offered his support but nothing more specific.

We are here and we will not leave until our demands are met. We did not come to usurp anything, the way that MAXUS is in our territory.

We desire that our lives be respected. We desire to stay in our territory the way we always have lived: we are protecting the environment for the good of all Ecuadorians and the world. We hope that our demands will be addressed. We ask for the solidarity of the Ecuadorian people in our just cause, because in demanding our rights, we are demanding the rights of all Ecuadorians.

      LUIS MACAS                         VALERIO GREFA
      PRESIDENTE CONAIE                  PRESIDENTE CONFENIAE

      JOSE JACINTO GUAMAN                NANTO HUAMONI
      SECRETARIO GRAL. ECUARUNARI        PRESIDENTE ONHAE
(Posted to Native-l on Oct 29, 1992 by ccc@conaie)