(left to right) Blanca Chancosa, leader of national indigenous movement, Belén Paez, former executive director of Fundación Pachamama, and Steven Donziger, lawyer in Chevron case.
As we reported yesterday, Fundación Pachamama held an event Thursday evening in Quito to mark its closure and to celebrate its 17 years of work and accomplishments supporting indigenous peoples and rights of nature in Ecuador.
The event was attended by over a hundred people representing a wide range of groups affected by and supportive of Fundación Pachamama’s work— indigenous leaders from both the Amazon and the highlands, ex-government officials, heads of other NGOs working in Ecuador, young environmentalists, and ordinary people. A short film highlighting the wide range of projects and accomplishments was shown.
Steven Donziger, who is the lawyer organizing Ecuador's struggle for justice against Chevron/Texaco, spoke at the event. He remarked how important Fundación Pachamama’s work has been to build the kind of grassroots support among the indigenous communities so that the devastation caused by oil development in the northern Amazon in Ecuador does not ever happen in the south.
Blanca Chancosa, who is a legendary leader of the national indigenous movement in Ecuador, also spoke and pointed out how the work that Fundación Pachamama has done provides a solid base of accomplishment and inspiration for the indigenous people of the Amazon from which they can effectively move forward to defend their rights and the rights of nature.
Belén Paez, the former executive director of Fundación Pachamama, then closed the evening thanking people for their support and partnership over the years and urged everyone to continue to build on the work that has been done, to not be discouraged by the closing of Fundación Pachamama, to guard against resignation or apathy when faced with big challenges, and to keep working to build a model of El Buen Vivir in Ecuador and to protect the most bio-diverse place on the whole planet.
The otherwise totally inspiring evening was marred only slightly by an unfortunate incident in the parking lot following the event where several Americans who have been connected with Fundación Pachamama in the past and who attended the event were stopped by plainclothes immigration officials who wanted to see passports and evidence of valid status in Ecuador. The people did not have their passports with them and were detained for several hours, threatened with jail time and released. “People often don’t carry their passports and the officials know it. This was clearly just a political act intended to harass and to send a message that although Fundación Pachamama is closed the government is still watching. Thankfully everything was resolved,” said Bill Twist, CEO and co-founder of Pachamama Alliance, who attended the event.
