Fluye el Petróleo, Sangra la Selva (As the Oil Flows, the Jungle Bleeds): Ecuador vs. Chevron

Abstract

In 1993, 30,000 Ecuadorians filed a class-action lawsuit against Chevron Oil Company for extensive damage to ancestral lands as a result of petroleum extraction in the Amazon. More than 20 years later the lawsuit continues. This study considers the trajectory of the case through interviews with lawyers, activists, Indigenous peoples, and others in order to understand how and why the plaintiffs prevailed in the highest court in Sucumbíos, Ecuador. Additionally, this study also pushes back on a common narrative of passive, submissive communities affected by extractive industries using ethnographic exploration to understand perspectives and emotions of people in Lago Agrio, Ecuador that experienced setbacks, sabotage, and success during the trial. This work is centered with a political ecology framework to understand the relationship between state structures, multinational oil corporations, and marginalized communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon.