Ecuador rips up 16 toxic treaties.. Corporate Vulture-Courts stole $21 billion

Image result for investor state dispute settlement

by Nick Dearden / Global Justice Now Ecuador is the latest country to tear up ‘free trade’ agreements that have so far cost the country $21 billion in damages awarded to foreign companies by ‘corporate courts’, and yielded next to nothing in return, writes Nick Dearden. So the outgoing President Correa did the only sensible thing: in one of his final executive acts this month, he scrapped 16 toxic trade and investment treaties.

These treaties not only failed to attract additional investment, they also diverted millions of dollars of government money to fighting costly lawsuits. We hope other governments will learn from Ecuador’s example.

Ecuador has struck another blow against the power of big business, ripping up 16 trade deals with countries including the US and UK…. Continue reading “Ecuador rips up 16 toxic treaties.. Corporate Vulture-Courts stole $21 billion”

URGENT: Ecuador Shuar Warriors in desperate fight for Mother Earth

The Shuar warriors fight police in an earlier confrontation

BY EMIL SIRÉN·MARTES, “The military came with thirty trucks and two helicopters that shot at us. I’ve been told one of us is injured but I don’t know anything about the others. Everyone ran off to the forest”, says an indigenous person who was a target of the helicopter shooting [1]

On the 15th of December, the Ecuadorian government sent troops, tanks, and helicopters against an indigenous community in Ecuador. The civilians got shot at from two helicopters with automatic weapons while fire bombs were dropped on houses and crops that the indigenous people feed on. The president of Ecuador refused to have a dialogue, in contrary, he threatened with even more violence.

Background:

The indigenous people in Ecuador have a long history of conflict with the government, which mercilessly has invaded their territories to exploit natural resources, violating their constitutional rights. For example, the heavily criticized company Lundin Gold operates large scale mining operations in areas nearby to the current conflicts.

Shuar family ritual…Por milenios, los shuar fueron los únicos habitantes de la selva amazónica y de esa forma desarrollaron una visión propia del universo, idioma, gastronomía, mitos, música, danza, sistemas productivos sustentables y costumbres, en estrecha relación con la naturaleza.

Continue reading “URGENT: Ecuador Shuar Warriors in desperate fight for Mother Earth”

Key Blog stopped: Darker Net is going dark – bye, bye…

Darker Net is going dark – bye, bye…

Posted on September 29, 2013 by admin

Darker Net is closing down – going dark – going off the grid entirely – though we may reincarnate – in another time, in another place and with another name, so expect us… Meanwhile, after heading south and crossing two borders we are now approaching our destination – Chiapas – where we intend to stay for a while, perhaps indefinitely. Below, are some of the ‘highlights’ of the Darker Net ‘project’, together with closing remarks re some of the ‘themes’ we covered: above, is a video whereby at long last our true political philosophy is revealed!

Continue reading “Key Blog stopped: Darker Net is going dark – bye, bye…”

Deal for Yasuni Paradise Lost due to Euro Greed

Morning mist floats above the Tiputini River in Yasuní National Park, Ecuador. Photograph by Tim Laman, National Geographic with thanks — Morning mist floats above the Tiputini River in Yasuní National Park, Ecuador.
Photo from Tim Laman, National Geographic +with thanks+

In 2010 Ecuador made the world an offer it couldn’t — or at least, shouldn’t have been able to — refuse. For the measly price of $3.6bn, it promised not to exploit the Ishpingo-Tiputini-Tambococha oil block in the Yasuni national park, a 675 square mile patch of pristine Amazon rainforest that is home to barely contacted indigenous tribes, thousands of species of trees and nearly 1bn barrels of crude oil. Continue reading “Deal for Yasuni Paradise Lost due to Euro Greed”

Is Wikileaks doomed?..How we could save it.. Plan B.

Posted on November 12, 2012 by admin

End game in sight for Wikileaks – or time to open the floodgates?

With Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of leaking war crimes, admitting to certain charges, together with the news of CIA interference in Ecuador to get rid of President Rafael Correa, some may argue that the end game is in sight for Julian Assange, editor-in-chief of Wikileaks. Unless, that is, the US can be outflanked by opening up a new front… Continue reading “Is Wikileaks doomed?..How we could save it.. Plan B.”

Greedy politicians to auction Amazon to Oil Criminals

Peru and Ecuador Set to Auction Off More Amazon for Oil

Posted by Darrin Mortenson on Monday, 29 October 2012 in Environmental Justice and Human Rights

Even as indigenous people struggle to cope with current levels of contamination and illness caused by years of oil production in the Amazon, the governments of Peru and Ecuador are preparing to sell off even more Amazonian territory to the oil industry in coming months.

Starting in November, Peru’s state-run leasing agency Petroperu plans to start auctioning licenses to 36 new oil blocks for exploration, 19 of them in the northern region of Loreto. Just across the border, Ecuador is set to lease at least 13 blocks on or near waterways that eventually flow south into Peru and join the Amazon River.

Many of the blocks overlap or abut protected areas and indigenous territories and threaten the forests and rivers that indigenous people and other river people depend on for their lives.

Indigenous groups are rallying to stop their governments’ plans, and some talk of making a stand for a total moratorium on all exploration until both countries come up with a regional environmental plan. Continue reading “Greedy politicians to auction Amazon to Oil Criminals”

Sarayaku victory..Children of the Jaguar

27 July 2012

Ecuador: Inter-American Court ruling marks key victory for Indigenous Peoples

A regional human rights court has come down in favour of the Sarayaku Indigenous community in the Ecuadorian Amazon in what Amnesty International has called a key victory for Indigenous Peoples.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) ruling in Sarayaku v. Ecuador, ends a decade-long legal battle by the Sarayaku Indigenous People – backed by their lawyers Mario Melo and the Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL)
CGC, partnering with ConocoPhillips, felled forests, destroyed a cultural site, and drilled hundreds of boreholes for seismic surveying on tribal lands despite never gaining permission to do so from the community. As tensions rose, the Ecuadorian government set up military camps on indigenous land. Continue reading “Sarayaku victory..Children of the Jaguar”