The actor and environmental activist asks that the Constitutional Court in Ecuador set an example to the world and rule in favor of those affected by the April 2020 disaster
Yalilé Loaiza
June 4, 2021
From Quito
On his Facebook account, Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio published his support for the lawsuit of the Amazonian peoples against the Ecuadorian State in relation to an oil spill that occurred in April 2020. This is not the first time that DiCaprio has spoken out on issues environmental of Ecuador. He has done so on several occasions and has even met with national authorities.
“The Constitutional Court of Ecuador has a great opportunity to set an example in Ecuador and around the world. What happens in the Amazon matters everywhere, and the world will be attentive to the outcome of this case,” wrote the actor on social networks. It refers to the oil spill caused in Ecuador in April 2020 in the jungle and Amazon area on the banks of the Coca River and the Napo River, at the meeting of both tributaries, approximately 440 kilometers away from Quito, the capital of the Andean country.
The spill was caused by a land subsidence, or sinking, which caused the rupture of the Heavy Crude Oil Pipeline and the Trans-Ecuadorian Pipeline System, as well as the leakage of 15.8 thousand barrels of crude oil, directly impacting the lives of 27 thousand indigenous people that they are inhabitants of the sector, according to the Amicus Curiae legal action presented by the American foundation Amazon Frontlines before the Constitutional Court of Ecuador.
The sinking occurred on the border between the provinces of Napo and Pastaza, to the northeast of the territory of Ecuador, in the sector called the San Rafael waterfall. Activists, geologists, hydrologists and the media denounced the progressive disappearance, as a result of extractive actions in the sector, of the waterfall that gives its name to the sector and which is the highest in the country.
DiCaprio and environmental conservation in Ecuador
Leonardo DiCaprio’s history of support for environmental conservation in Ecuador is not new. In June 2019, the American actor, producer and environmental activist surprised some by showing his international support for the campaign promoted by the Waorani indigenous people that sought to prohibit oil exploitation in block 22, in a jungle area of the Ecuadorian Amazon. .
A year later, on July 30, 2020, the actor spoke about the presence of a fleet of fishing boats on the border of the exclusive economic zone of the Galapagos Island . In his Instagram account, DiCaprio stated that “Chinese fishing boats arrive every year in the seas around the Galapagos, which were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1978, but this year’s fleet is one of the largest in recent years.”
Three months ago, on March 13, 2021, the actor met with former president Lenín Moreno on Baltra Island of the Galapagos Archipelago in a private meeting, to discuss some elements of environmental policy in Ecuador. The actor, who is also an ambassador of the United Nations (UN), met with and was accompanied by other international activists related to environmental matters.
Leonardo DiCaprio also participated in a recovery initiative for the Galapagos Islands in May 2021 with an investment of more than USD 40,000,000.00 destined for the restoration of endangered species.
The peoples vs. the state
This dispute between civil society and the Government of Ecuador stems from the extractivist policy of former President Rafael Correa, who hurled insults at local and international activists on countless occasions. On Saturday, January 16, 2010, in his weekly television program – broadcasted by all the private radio and television media by mandate – Correa said verbatim “the children’s environmentalism wanted to leave the oil underground without any conditions, without any conditions, with which again we were going to be the useful fools of the planet.” The aggressive policy of mineral extraction was a constant during the government of former President Rafael Correa and maintained by his successor, former President Lenín Moreno.
Read the original coverage from InfoBae at https://www.infobae.com/america/medio-ambiente/2021/06/04/leonardo-dicaprio-mostro-su-apoyo-a-los-indigenas-amazonicos-ecuatorianos-afectados-por-un-derrame-petrolero/
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