The Sarayaku Peoples: A Long Fight to Reclaim Their Rights Fernanda González Ronquillo, Ecuador

The Sarayaku Peoples: A Long Fight to Reclaim Their Rights

By Fernanda González Ronquillo, Ecuador

Introduction

Ecuador is a multi-ethnic country with 14 nationalities and 18 indigenous peoples (Go Raymi, n.d.). Among them is the Sarayaku people, who belong to the Kichwa community of the Ecuadorian Amazon, and which have approximately 1,600 inhabitants (Sarayaku, n.d.). The Sarayaku people consider themselves as children of the great jaguar and perhaps that explains their strength to confront the Ecuadorian State and oil corporations, as well as their consistency to become a symbol of resistance for many indigenous communities in the region. In this essay, I will analyse the strategic actions of the Sarayaku in their struggle to gain recognition by the Ecuadorian State. The Sarayaku struggle started more than 30 years ago when they began to resist the Ecuadorian State. In 1992 what is known as the first uprising ignited, where several communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon marched to the capital, Quito, to demand the government legalise the land titles of the territory they inhabit (Bravo, 2017). The government yielded and this was the first battle that the Sarayaku won. However, just 4 years later, the government granted a block of Sarayaku territory for oil exploration to an Argentinean company, and 10 years later they entered Sarayaku territory without communal permission to begin with the exploration on community land (InterAmerican Court of Human Rights, 2012). At that time, the Constitution of 1998 was in force and recognised some collective rights and responsibilities regarding indigenous communities, including the obligation to consult them on plans for the exploitation of non-renewable resources in their territory (Asamblea de la República del Ecuador, 1998). However, it also allowed indigenous communities to benefit from these projects and receive compensation in cases of any damage caused by corporations. Thus, since the 1998 Constitution, there have been constitutional guarantees to defend social and community rights for indigenous peoples (ibid, 1998). Once, the Sarayaku faced the invasion of the Argentinian oil company, CGC, and this is a good example that shows what they had to confront. They organised themselves as a community, but also legally to prevent the destruction of their territory and their lifestyle. During the invasion, the Sarayaku created the Campamentos de Paz y Vida (Peace and Life Camps), where the whole community went to the mountains to organise themselves and defend their territory (Romero, 2018). This was the first time where they had to directly confront the State, who used military interventions to harm and kidnap members of the community, in alliance with CGC’s workers (Pueblo Indígena Kichwa de Sarayaku VS. Ecuador, 2012). The Sarayaku community has been historically organised, and since the beginning, they have used legal mobilisation as a tool to fight for their rights and their leaders have the obligation to know the legal corps in order to defend their rights (Sarayaku, n.d.). An understanding of the concept of legal consciousness is central to understanding the capacity of legal mobilisation since it settles in people’s perceptions of the law and legal enforcement (Hertogh, 2014; as cited in Handmaker, 2019). As the Sarayaku have been a community with several state interventions due to mining and oil concessions, they have been able to organise themselves politically to ensure that their way of life is respected and above all, that their constitutional rights are recognised (Sarayaku, n.d.).

Sarayaku inner organisation

To better comprehend the Sarayaku people, one must examine their inner organisation since it is key for understanding their decision-making capacity. Sarayaku people have organised themselves internally through two entities. First, through the Tayjasaruta, which is their governing council, and second, through the People's Assembly. The Tayjasaruta is made up of Sarayaku community leaders, who are elected as president, vice president, treasurer, and representatives of health, land, education, 44

and external relations, but also includes a Kuraka (traditional leader), the Yakak (shamans), and representatives of internal women's and youth organisations (Chavez, Lara Ponce & Moreno, 2005). The president of the Tayjasaruta has an important role in the community's external relations, as he/she is the one who defends the interests of the Sarayaku people at the national, regional, and international levels. This is why this leader should be someone who understands different ways of life and can communicate the community's demands to outsiders (Chávez, Lara Ponce & Moreno, 2005). On the other hand, the Assembly discusses the most relevant decisions for the community at the local level. But it is the leaders of both entities who oversee the community's interests, without neglecting the cultural and social heritage that they possess (Chávez, Lara Ponce & Moreno, 2005).

Sarayaku in local politics

According to Madlingozi (2014), social movements are collectives of marginalised actors who develop a shared identity and organise themselves to achieve their long-term objectives. This relates to how the Sarayaku community has decided to intervene actively in national politics, for example, they are present in the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalitites of Ecuador (CONAIE), that during the period 2008-2011 had a Sarayaku president, Marlon Santi, who is also the national coordinator of the political party Pachakutik. The latter was the alternative political party of indigenous groups, who moved away from the null vote to support the creation of the Plurinational Unity Movement Pachakutik. This party sought to advance the political interests of various indigenous organisations in Ecuador and, in the last elections of 2021 managed to reach second place in the votes for the National Assembly, becoming the second political force in Ecuador (Movimiento de Unidad Plurinacional Pachakutik, n.d.). Pachakutik has politicians from the Sarayaku community, who have reached seats in the Assembly, and who have made the Sarayaku struggle an issue of national relevance. Their participation in politics can be explained as one of the steps that this community took to organised themselves and that allows them to expose their realities to a society that struggles to understand them. The Sarayaku are a remarkable example of organisation, strategic litigation and association. This community has linked with different actors in society to assert their collective rights and have chosen to form a political party as a tool to keep their issues exposed. For example, in 2014, the Sarayaku people gave asylum in their territory to three opposition politicians sentenced for insulting the then President Rafael Correa. The former president then declared that "the Sarayaku community is a highly politicised community" (Mena Erazo, 2014). However, being a politically organised community is what has allowed Sarayaku to defend and achieve objectives in terms of the struggle for their rights, being one of the few Amazonian communities that has put the national government in check through legal measures. Even though being political in these ways has been a mechanism that this community needed to use to fight for their rights and their visibility, it has also put them in the frontlines against threats and murder in a country where in the last 10 years, at least 449 environmental defenders were threatened, harassed, or killed (Basantes, 2021).

Strategic litigation: A tool to confront social injustices and rights violations

The struggles that indigenous communities have navigated respond to a State and society that have historically discriminated against Afro-Ecuadorian and indigenous populations, despite being considered an intercultural and plurinational country (Asamblea Nacional del Ecuador, 2008). In communities of these minorities, it is possible to observe the structures of exclusion that continue to affect these groups, which is reflected in the lack of social investment in these communities and the lack of legitimisation of the problems they face (Fundación de Desarrollo Social Afroecuatoriana Azúcar, 2017). Legal mobilisation can therefore be used as “an indispensable tool against any form of dominance and attempted hegemony” (Hoffman, 2003, p. 121; as cited in Handmaker, 2019). The 45

Sarayaku community has used legal and political opportunities to bring the struggles of their community, as well as those of other indigenous communities, to the table. Legal mobilisation has been one of the tools most used by this community to stop not only their social-political invisibility, but also to stop oil and mining exploitation in their territories. For a social group to mobilise there must be several variables that allow a group to sue, i.e., available legal stock, the rules determining legal standing, and the rules on legal costs are needed (Vanhala, 2018). In the case of Sarayaku, the creation a new constitution contributed to their search for legal justice. Authors such as Vanhala (2018) mention that changes in the legal stock can create or limit opportunities for groups to formulate their legal demands in a decisive manner. In 2008, a new Constitution was enacted, which expanded the collective rights of indigenous groups, granting them the right to self-determination and territory. Additionally, nature was granted rights in this Constitution, making it a subject of law (Asamblea Nacional del Ecuador, 2008). The latter is aligned with the measures that the Sarayaku community has taken in order to exercise the rights they have been granted. The Sarayaku community's first attempt at utilising international courts was in 2004, when they presented a formal request to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, where the Court granted provisional precautionary measures in favour of protecting their integrity and territory (Centro para la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional, n.d.). However, the State did not execute these measures, which led the Sarayaku community to request precautionary measures again, thus forcing the suspension of oil exploitation in their territory. Once this request was concluded in the Commission, the case was presented before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2010 (Centro para la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional, n.d.). In 2012, the IACHR ruled in favour of the Sarayaku people, finding the Ecuadorian State responsible for a series of constitutional violations such as the right to consultation, communal property, personal integrity, cultural identity and judicial guarantees (Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 2012). The Courtalso settled on a series of reparatory measures by the Ecuadorian State, including the removal of approximately 1,400 kilograms of pentolite explosives buried in Sarayaku territory within three years and respect for the right to prior consultation (ibid, 2012). This victory in international courts was an outstanding achievement for the Sarayaku people and for the indigenous peoples of the region, who saw in this ruling an opportunity to exercise their right to consultation, which has historically been ignored by the governments of the region (Amnesty International, 2012). However, for leaders like Patricia Gualinga, this victory is the beginning of a long fight that takes place under unequal conditions, as they face multinationals that are protected in many cases by the State (Riofrío, 2018). The efforts of civic actors are also conditioned by institutional structures and substantive law, which tend to benefit elites and the powerful (Handmaker & Arts, 2018). The use of international courts is also a tool that the Sarayaku have used since local courts tend to be biased towards big corporations, and respond to the extractivist interests of the government. It is also important to highlight the translation capacity of the Sarayaku community, who have organised themselves for the defence of their rights with the support of international organisations, but by being themselves and translating a local problem to the international level, without controlling interventions of external actors (Merry, 2006). According to Brysk (2012), when an indigenous organisation is weak, they seek greater international solidarity to confront the State, while stronger organisations maintain the struggle at the local level. However, because access to justice in local courts is a controversial issue for Ecuadorian citizens due to corruption at this level, and according to Barnhizer, “when a legal system is controlled by corrupt interests for their own purposes without recourse for those harmed by its decisions, there has been a violation of human rights” (Barnhizer, 2001, p.16). It has therefore been easier for the Sarayaku people to advance their rights when the decision is made outside the Ecuadorian judicial framework.

International exposure: A tool for advancing their rights

In this sense, the Sarayaku community has made use of strategic litigation to stop oil exploitation in their territory. The Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), a regional human rights organisation, has become the Sarayaku community's greatest ally in international courts (CEJIL, n.d.). These types of organisations are constituted as support networks that allow them to stop attacks from the State, but also to confront large corporations that invade their territory (Benavides Banegas, 2009). Through their leaders, they have been able to expose the social problems their communitiesare going through, in such a way that their struggle has become known locally and internationally. The Sarayaku have participated in struggle not only for the respect of their territory and culture, but have also joined other struggles of civil actors, such as the fight against global warming, where they have raised their voices against oppressive governments and have protested mining exploitation in their territories (Sarayaku, n.d.). Authors such as Handmaker and Matthews (2019) describe how civil actors also gain international visibility through civil interactions with communications media and global solidarity groups. These strategies are widely used by the Sarayaku community who have organised nationally and internationally through alliances with various environmental groups such as Yasunidos, who sued the Ecuadorian State to stop oil exploitation in the Yasuni ITT National Park. They haveused platforms such as Instagram or Facebook and through their new generation of young activists such as Nina and Helena Gualinga, they have communicated their struggles at the international level in various forums such as COP 26 (UN Climate Change Conference, 2021). Also, as a community they have a website where they explain all the legal and social processes that they have carried out to demand respect for their rights (Sarayaku, n.d.). The Sarayaku people are also making an international claim called Kawsak Sacha or Living Forest, where they propose a legal recognition of territorial and nature rights for all indigenous peoples across the world. With this proposal, they demand that the Ecuadorian State recognises the Living Forest as a subject of rights and protection, and preserve sustainably the territories, as well as the material and spiritual relation between the Forest and the people who inhabit these spaces (Kawsak Sacha, n.d.). This declaration has been exposed in different local and international spheres, such as the National Assembly but also at the COP21 and COP23 (Kawsak Sacha, n.d.). It is also necessary to mention that Sarayaku women have an active role within the political organisation of the community. Since the first uprising, women where the ones who convinced the male leaders to walk to Quito to fight for the title deeds for their territory (Gimenez, 2017). But nowadays, women’s associations are organised through the Asociacion de Mujeres de Sarayaku (Sarayaku Women’s Association), where they have taken political stands by denouncing military abuse in different indigenous communities, exposing their struggles in international forums, and fighting to gain political representation within the CONAIE (Biodiversidad, 2004; Gimenez, 2017). Legal mobilisation can also be considered as a shield against State abuses that enable a change of structures that perpetuate injustices and inequities (Handmaker and Matthews, 2019). Even if the State does not fulfil their obligations to this community, there exists legal stock and organisations that can support Sarayaku leaders in their aim to keep fighting for their rights, which provides protection and encouragement to these minorities. For example, despite the positive outcome of the judgment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Ecuadorian State has yet to comply with the reparation measures demanded (Farfan, 2019). Ecuador has only retired 14 kilos of pentolite in this territory (Farfan, 2019). In 2019, seven years after the judgment, Sarayaku then sued the State before the Constitutional Court for noncompliance with the judgment (Farfán, 2019). Therefore, the Sarayaku community has once again used strategic litigation to force the State to comply with the judgment. The struggles of these communities reflect an explicit imbalance in power relations. Even though indigenous communities have rights detailed in the Constitution, they are still being considered second class citizens. It is therefore vital to recognise how this human rights struggle also

has a political dimension to it (Crawford and Andreassen, 2015). When the State diminishes the political aspect of their fight, it also denies the transformative capacity that legal mobilisation has for people that have been historically oppressed, since this has become the most efficient way for them to make their struggle visible. Despite the international judgement in favour of the Sarayaku people, the national government has ignored their duties to this community, from not taking responsibility for the eradication of explosives in the area, to failing to change the local law in accordance with international standards. The Ecuadorian state has been clear in exposing their extractivist position by allowing international companies to tender for oil exploitation in Sarayaku and indigenous lands without complying with previous judgements and referendums with to these communities (Mcarnaney, 2016). The position of the State is clear, but so is the Sarayaku response to this disrespect of their social, cultural, and environmental rights. They will keep fighting. To conclude, the Sarayaku people have shown that an organised community can be successful using strategic litigation. But they have also shown the power of joining international networks to defend their rights. The Sarayaku people became an example for all indigenous communities that they can confront powerful actors and get positive outcomes in international courts. This community have led an important path for other indigenous groups whose rights are threaten by the State or corporate actors. The Ecuadorian Constitution has adopted progressive articles that guarantee the rights for indigenous communities; however, the historic exclusion of these communities from the State has limited them fully in exercising their rights. The political organisation of Sarayaku leaders and the decision of the whole community to face the consequences of confronting the State have made them a highly respected community locally and internationally. The use of litigation has contributed for their recognition as part of the Ecuadorian society, but also provided a legal support for those who have been ignored and for those whose rights have not been respected. The Sarayaku people teach us that even if the road is long, they are going to keep fighting until the State and the Society treat them with the dignity and respect to which they are entitled.

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