The Waorani people say no one seems to care but they will have their voices heard. Earlier this year the Tribe won rights to the Amazon forest after winning a lawsuit against Big Oil. They believe the lawsuit is linked to the Amazon fire that lacked media coverage for 20 days. They won the lawsuit last month, July 2019.
The Waorani people of Pastaza are an indigenous tribe from the Ecuadorian Amazon. They’ve been fighting to keep their sacred lands from being sold to oil companies.
Their lands had been auctioned off and approved to be sold by the Ecuadorian government, which the tribe forbade.
The lawsuit has been going on for 2 years.
This year, May 2019, a court decision ruled that the tribe had not been properly consulted before the lands were sold, and put an end to all the deals.
The Ecuadorian government appealed the decision but ultimately lost when the panel of 3 judges upheld the ruling that the tribe had not been properly consulted before the government made decisions to sell off their land.
The decision was upheld in July 2019 and saw half a million acres of land protected from being mined for oil drilling by oil corporations.
Everyone needs to watch this. A Brazilian native speaks on the atrocities happening to her people and the Amazon. #PrayForTheAmazon #PrayforAmazonia pic.twitter.com/6H63WKKmEv
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) August 22, 2019
The Amazon was in danger long before the fire that’s ravaged the rainforest for three weeks. Indigenous communities in Brazil have been struggling with illegal mining, logging, and the loss of protected status for indigenous lands. pic.twitter.com/nTzwkPz53m
— AJ+ (@ajplus) August 22, 2019
https://twitter.com/DarshanBhatt22/status/1164485157472100354?s=19
The speculation is further ignited by the fact that Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, has made continuous political moves in an effort to reclaim the rainforest. Bolsonaro has repeatedly said he wants to reclaim the rainforest from indigenous tribes and offer them incentives to get them to give up the land for a “better life.”
People took to Twitter to suggest that the fire, that’s nearing a month, is too much to be a coincidence, considering the tribe won the lawsuit just last month.
No links have been made to the lawsuit yet.
