Ecuador activists reoccupy OCP pipeline construction site

For Immediate Release: July 15, 2002

Contacts: Lucy Braham (510) 419-0617 or cellular (310) 4208245

Alexandra Almeida, Acción Ecologíca in Ecuador, 011 593 2-254-7516

Ecuador activists reoccupy OCP pipeline construction site
Julia "Butterfly" Hill takes action in solidarity with South America's first tree-sitters

* * * Photos and video footage available * * *

(Guarumos, Ecuador)-Several dozen local community members from Mindo, accompanied by Julia "Butterfly" Hill, and members of Acción Ecológica and Amazon Watch, are currently re-occupying the Guarumos construction site of Ecuador's new Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados (OCP) in the Mindo Nambillo Cloudforest Reserve, in order to bear witness to the destruction caused by the building of the pipeline.

The activists ascended the Guarumos ridge early this morning, after a brief confrontation with 12 military police. Police later responded with force as community members attempted to halt construction at the site. Military police and pipeline guards are currently standing by, with Ms. Hill and other activists risking arrest during the coming night in their determination not to leave the strategic ridge, from which local protestors were forcibly evicted earlier this year

Julia Butterfly, best known for her two-year tree sit 200 feet atop a 2000-year old threatened California old growth redwood tree, arrived in Ecuador on July 9 on a solidarity visit to areas affected by the pipeline and by oil drilling. Today she joins the struggle of the people of Mindo, in defense of their forests and communities. Speaking from the cloudforest site earlier today, she said:

"When I heard about what was happening with the oil pipeline in Ecuador, I knew it was bad. After coming here and seeing the whole pipeline and what it is doing to the land and the people, I know more than ever that it is worse than that. This is very, very destructive. Being European-American myself, and with the oil being extracted for American and European markets, I am committed to doing what I can to stop it."

Mindo residents also discovered today that construction has advanced 200 meters inside the Guarumos property legally owned by the community without their agreement. Residents put the OCP and police on notice that they are illegally trespassing on private lands. A judge is expected to visit the site Friday to issue a ruling on the property lines.

Construction works have now reached a tapering knife-edge ridge, high above the region's watersheds. According to Atossa Soltani, Executive Director of Amazon Watch, "to bring heavy machinery up here would cause massive landslides and a massacre of incredible and endangered ecosystems."

The Mindo Nambillo Cloudforest Reserve, through which the OCP is being built, is an unparalleled epicenter of biodiversity and home to more than 450 species of birds-46 threatened by extinction. The Mindo community, opposed to the pipeline's passage through this rare ecosystem and inspired by forest defense tactics used in North America, staged a three month tree sit earlier this year at Guarumos to physically halt construction. This action was the first of its kind in South America.

The controversial pipeline would transport heavy crude from the country's eastern rainforest region to the Pacific Coast, placing fragile ecosystems - including 11 protected areas - and dozens of communities along the 300-mile route in jeopardy. In order to fill the new pipeline, Ecuador would have to double its current oil production, setting off an unprecedented boom in new oil exploration that could lead to the irreversible loss and destruction of some the country's last remaining old growth rainforest and territories of isolated indigenous peoples.

Meanwhile, German bank WestLB continues to come under fire for syndicating a $900 million loan to the OCP in violation of its own lending policies. The loan, which does not meet minimum World Bank environmental guidelines has sparked public outrage in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia (NWR), which holds a 43 percent stake in WestLB. In recent months, several German government delegations have visited Ecuador to investigate the issue. According to government sources, the majority of Amazon crude that will flow through the OCP pipeline is destined for markets on the West Coast of the United States. The OCP Consortium includes: Alberta Energy (Canada), Occidental Petroleum (OXY- USA), AGIP (Italy), Repsol-YPF (Spain), Perez Companc (Argentina), and Techint (Argentina). The US Bank JP Morgan Chase is the financial advisor for the project.

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