Ecuador’s Constitution: Manifesto for Environmental Democracy from Earth’s Middle
Maria Isabel Arroyo
In the summer of 2008 Ecuador made history as the first nation to extend personhood rights to the environment. This paper first looks into the social, philosophical, and political context of this new law by examining Ecuador’s evolution from a nation under a Eurocentric cultural imperative to a pluronational republic, unapologetically aware of its indigenous relationship with the earth. Additionally, the social implications of nature’s rights are examined via the human rights issues that have emerged as a result of environmental exploitation of the Ecuadorian rainforest and the Louisiana coast in the present day. Ecuador’s economic future as an environmental democracy concludes the paper, discussing the possible benefits that could arise for the country given the decision to move out of petroleum based development towards a sustainable and green domestic economy.
I. Referendum: In which we start over for the 21st time I was visiting Quito the July of 2008 when the Constitutional Assembly of Montecristi drafted the new Ecuadorian constitution. The day they adjourned all the shops in the city closed early. My regular session of watching television with my grandmother changed from a marathon of Brazilian soap operas to a dinner with the evening news. Happy to miss out on the discomfort inherent in watching Spanish dubbed sex scenes with my grandmother, I made an effort to actually hear what was coming out of her televisions feeble and static prone speakers. There was a lot of excitement. One woman excitedly declared that this promised to be a truly Ecuadorian constitution because it had been authored by a diverse group of people. The news anchor then went on to list some of the changes that the constitution would provide, which included two surprises. Kichwa and Shaur would be the national languages in addition to Spanish and the Andean concept of mother earth, Pachamama, had been adopted into the text as a legal entity. The following September after gaining popular voter approval of its new constitution, Ecuador made history as they first nation to grant legal rights to nature. Unlike the United States, whose national government has not altered itself structurally since 1787, Ecuador is no stranger to revision. As of 2008, the Republic of Ecuador has seen twenty-one constitutions since its break from La Grande Colombia in 1830, with the last referendum occurring in 1998. Motivations for constitutional changes range from coups, military, takeovers, or power disputes. Culturally, there is an understanding that you will experience a government’s overthrow or revision at least once in your lifetime. Instability is a reality, but not necessarily a cause for panic. My mother regularly recounts, with a high degree of sentimentality, stories about her college days when highly political professors and students would hold loud, emotional protests. The first time we visited Quito after my family’s emigration in 1994; she eagerly took notice of a group of protestors holding up signs in front of the presidential palace, joking that we might get lucky and witnesses someone being taken out of office. In the spring of 2010 I visited a restaurant in Quito famous for its walls covered in portraits of Ecuador’s presidents with captions indicating the time they stayed in office. Some had terms that lasted
for a few days, others just two years, almost no one lasted the full four years Current president Rafael Correa had a stop watch under his portrait indicating to the second the time since swearing in. The slightly humorous tone that Ecuador’s instability acquires can be attributed to the comparatively peaceful nature of its past coups. In 1970, the Ecuadorian military ousted President Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra, initiating a decade of a military dictatorship.1Under the Executive control of General Guillermo Rodriguez Lara, Ecuador experienced what could be deemed the “least awful” Latin American dictatorship. Though responsible for Ecuador’s economic crisis in the 80’s, owing to his misuse of government revenues from the oil market on political bribes, Rodriguez Lara did not leave behind the same bloody legacy as his peers. His politics operated on a platform of reform rather than suppression of political dissenters2. This meant he was willing to take Ecuadorian nationals and left leaning Chileans into Ecuador as refugees following the rise of fascist military dictator Augusto Pinochet. In 1977, when the Carter administration’s decision to halt monetary assistance to governments acing in violation of human rights, Ecuador under Lara continued to receive funds while heads of state in Haiti, Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Uruguay got cut off3. Following the return to Democracy in the 80’s, Ecuador has experienced a series of presidents with short political careers. Yet the ephemeral nature of the presidency and the recurring historical theme of vocal student protests in Quito exists in peaceful contrasts to outbreaks of riotous discontent in other Latin American states. Thus Ecuador is often referred to as the South American island of peace. Due the unique nature of its political instability one can read Ecuador’s constitution a plan for the present rather than the guide for all proceeding generations or the manifesto of a violent takeover. Consider Ecuador’s preamble to the constitution. While America’s is a long vague sentence promising a “more perfect union” by “ establish[ing] justice, insur[ing] domestic tranquility, provid[ing] for the common defense, promot[ing] the general welfare , and secur[ing] the blessings of Liberty,”4 Ecuador ‘s contains more specificity. First, the preamble identifies the country’s citizens as “heirs to [the] social liberation struggles against all forms of domination and colonialism” who will be “celebrating the Pachamama,” “recogniz
ing [their] diverse forms of religion and spirituality,” “calling upon the wisdom of all the cultures that enrich[them] as a society.” It then proceeds to describe the goal of establishing “a new form of public coexistence, in diversity and in harmony with nature” through “a society that respects, in all its dimensions, the dignity of individuals and community groups” as “a democratic country,” dedicated to “peace and solidarity with all peoples of the Earth”5.This preamble looks to the future but it does not vaguely outline the aspirations of liberty and justice of an infant nation. It addresses the specific problems of a modern society like popular disrespect of other cultures, religious prejudice colonialism, and abuse of nature. The preamble’s intent to establish nature as someone with rights receives elaboration in the seventh chapter of the 2008 constitution where Pachamama’s full rights are outlined6. Its first article grants Pachamama the right to exist via its necessary function and systems. It then gives all people the right to petition the authorities to “enforce the rights of nature.” The second article gives nature the right to restoration. The Third article grants the state the right to exercise measures to prevent extinction of any species and forbids the introduction of any species that might alter Ecuador’s “Genetic assets.” The final article grants people the right to enjoy the environment in a manner that promotes “Sumak Kasway”. The chapter does not have a lot of concrete information about how a law regarding the rights of nature should be enforced, which cast some doubt on the law’s potential for environmental policy. However, Pachamama’s rights have since been used in the litigation process. On March 30, 2011 the Provincial Court of Justice of Loja, Ecuador enforced the first Article in Chapter 7, via injunction against the provincial government of Loja. Local road development had dumped large amounts of rock and ruble into the Vilcabamba River, narrowing its stream and forcing it to flow at a faster rate, ultimately contributing to large, violent floods. This case was presented as direct violation of nature’s rights and the rights of the people residing close to the Vilcabamba. The court gave the government thirty days to implement a re-habilitation plan for the river and an order to construct a low impact area to house the rubble7. Three years after the Assembly of Montecristi, this case stands out as the first legal victory for the rights of nature, opening up the possibility for further legal action against environmentally damaging development practices.
Another concern in regards to the constitution’s seventh chapter deals with the very real possibility of another constitutional referendum. History tells us that within a decade this constitution will likely be replaced. Fortunately, the decision to extend standing or legal protection to nature is not something that has come out of the blue within Ecuador’s geographic and cultural context. The 80’s and the 90’s showed a trend where several South American countries, like Brazil and Columbia incorporated the right to a clean and healthy environment into their new constitution.8 The 2007 Venezuelan constitution grants its citizens the “right and duty” to maintain the environment for themselves and posterity. The 2007 Bolivian constitution equates environmental destruction to war crimes and treason. As of now the Bolivian national legislature is also debating the “mother earth law” which in recognizing the earth as a system synchronized with the human world will grant Pachamama the right to “life, regeneration, biodiversity, water, clean air, balance, and restoration.”9 South America has been advancing towards a mentality that demands environmentalism for humanity’s sake. Ecuador represents a turning point and continuation of the trend by declaring nature must be saved for Pachamama’s sake. This idea feeds into the greater goal of an Environmental Democracy, a concept Indian Feminist and Ecologist, Vanada Shiva, outlines as a life-centered system. All life forms and cultures have value, meaning they can neither be owned or stripped of their well being by other life forms. Ecuador via the proxy of the constitution’s writers and the Ecuadorian electorate voters declares itself as a nation with the desire to both mend its relationship with the earth and acknowledge its diverse groups of people as equality valid parts of a natural whole. This is an ambitious declaration because it stands aggressively against a historic goal of a homogenous national identity.10
II. The Porcelain Mask The United States is referred to as a melting pot because its population has the distinct feature of having an ancestry that traces itself to various countries outside of the United States. This multi-ethnic population can trace its ancestry back to the indigenous people, the colonizers, the imported laborers, and immigrant groups. However in the US mixture and intermarriage has occurred in a manner that has created large general categories of race. We can think of Ecuadorian demographics as a stew of multiple ethnicities that has been put through blender for over four-hundred years. Unlike the Virginia Company or the Pilgrims who constructed the idea of “miscegenation” as crime, the Spanish had no such social or legal restrictions regarding who they partnered with during their conquest of Latin America. The conquistadors of central and South America were mostly men who, lacking the presence European women, sought the company of the Amerindian women. Together they conceived a mestizo population that would later mix within itself and with other Amerindian, European, African, and Asian groups. In Ecuador this resulted in a creolized population consisting of a 65% Mestizo majority with a 25% pure Amerindian minority. Pure whites and blacks respectively make up a mere 7 and 3% of the population pie.11 Having mostly killed or isolated the Amerindian population, Americans traditionally examine the history of race in the United with the simplistic narrative of black versus white. (Outside groups of non European an non African decent can’t fully assimilated into either categories meaning their position in the racial narrative fits into the broader conflicts of white vs non white or natural born citizen vs immigrant). In Ecuador race is neither literally nor figuratively speaking in “black and white.” Owing to the historical admixture of races, the majority of Ecuadorians are simultaneously white and “Indio”. I myself come from two families that have been in the country for so long that I can guess Spanish and Amerindian decent but I have no detailed information about my ethnic origins. This is typical of most Ecuadorians. Creolization, however, does not prevent race from emerging as a social issue. Following their conquest
of Latin America, the Spanish established a caste system that placed themselves at the top, those of mixed decent in the middle, and the enslaved/conquered people at the bottom. The mentality of white/ Spanish supremacy and “Indio” inferiority continues to haunt Ecuadorian society. However, since 90% of the Ecuadorian population is of Amerindian decent, traditional Ecuadorian racism manifests as the social pressure to suppress the “Indio” within. Gaining an “Indio” or “Spanish” identity relies both on blood and performance. To be “Indio” is to be a part of a non-Europeanized, indigenous culture. Loss of “Indio” status occurs with the assimilation into western culture via garments, language and vocation. As a result personal disdain and open racism towards “Indios” can persists in spite of ancestral reality. Meanwhile, visible signs of whiteness are prized or feigned. Many women of my grandmother’s generation regularity got perms in their youth and continue to sport tight curls because long, straight hair is an “Indio” characteristic. Signs of an indigenous ancestry that prove difficult to conceal, on the other hand, undergo a rebranding. My grandmother regularly calls my sister her “princessa Hindu” (Indian princess), which is a term of endearment regularly given to a person with dark skin. While very few Ecuadorians have any ancestral or cultural ties to South Asia, the act of exoticizing a dark complexion circumvents the need admit and give aesthetic merit to an indigenous background. These acts of caste system adherence translates into a broader national identity program that has been a historical attempt to put a white glaze over the entire country. I grew up outside of the Mestizo- pseudo-white idea of Ecuadorian national identity. As an Ecuadorian-born, American-raised child of immigrant parents my identity responded more to the 16 year long process of becoming naturalized. Since Latin America Immigrants get lumped together as Latinos in the United States, ancestry games would have been a useless attempt to gain social status. Spanish language and surname mean a default position outside black and white. Additionally, my parents raised me in a manner that avoided any possible discussion of race. I spent most of my early childhood aware that white, black, Latino, and Asian existed but I was heavily sheltered from prejudice. A few social studies classes in elementary school introduced me to the concept of racism as some ominous characteristic of the American past. The social acceptability of blatant and loud derogatory statements about Mexicans and Arabs in my middle and high school, introduced racism as a concrete problem
of the American present. My naive understanding of Ecuador developed from parents’ childhood memories, books about the Inca Empire, brief sections in my history textbooks, and the CIA world fact book. To me, it seemed only logical that a Mestizo nation would never favor one race over another because such a preference would, in the context of mixed ancestry, translate into self hate. Racism, to me was an American problem. Sensing my growing perception of Ecuador as an egalitarian paradise, my father thought it best to gently killed my idealism. “You know that Ecuadorians aren’t racist towards blacks because there aren’t enough of them to be racist towards, right? Ecuadorians are absolutely terrible to the Indians.” The summer of 2007 my family finally gained permanent residency status which allowed us to visit Ecuador for the first time in 13 years. I was less idealistic about the old country at that point, nevertheless that and the following visits served as an education on how race functioned in Ecuador on the quotidian scale. Based on my experiences, white assimilation has grown less important with each generation. My grandparents were a part of generation where the importance of whiteness was a heavily emphasized social norm. My grandparents do not have particularly negative feelings about the indigenous people of Ecuador, but they do feel the need to identify themselves as separate from the “Indios” because there is social protection through whiteness. For example, my grandmotherwas regularly subjected to prejudice by her own relatives, owing to her darker complexion. Thus she grew up with the beliefe that Lighter skin is better, becuase it means the chance of an easier life, My parent’s generation, on the other hand prioritizes the concept of a peaceful national identity. “Us as Ecuadorians” gains the main focus. My mom regularly frames “us” (meaning both Ecuadorians and Latin American immigrants) as a group who has struggled and suffered. To her poverty and being subject to injustice serves as a signifier of virtue and a means of unification. We are strong because we have suffered colonialism and exploitation and we must sympathize with the Irish, the Polish, and all Latin Americans because “they have suffered like us.” My dad, on the other hand focuses on historical importance. Visits to the pre-Columbian section of museums become a chance to marvel on just “how advanced we were” before the Spanish conquest. Ancient pottery, textiles and monuments give him a chance to emphasize that we are the decedents of a great civilization. As children and ado-
lescents my parents witnessed their county’s simultaneous industrialization and its rapid depletion of petroleum-based wealth by the military dictatorship. As young adults they experienced the exciting novelty associated with witnessing a national election for the first time, followed by a subsequent sense of political disillusionment. The 80’s saw democracy return along with its inability to alter the economic consequences of the dictatorships. Inequality, hunger, and illiteracy remained prominent social problems.12 Meanwhile, the violent behavior of United States-backed governments in proximate states continued to be topical concerns. Solidarity through poverty and ancestral pride demonstrated resentment towards the corrupt incompetence of the government and the tyrannical consequences of American Imperialism. Race had become less important than economic recovery, national dignity, and peace. My own feelings lack relevance in this discussion about contemporary Ecuadorian society. Mine is an Americanized, immigrant background that gives way to sentiments of panLatino unity owing to a distinct bicultural and bilingual experience. However based on my interaction with my cousin who is a year older than me and has spent her whole life in Quito, I can gauge that the generation I would have been a part of has entered into a phase of ethnic rediscovery. My cousin regularly tells my grandparents not call her their “princessa Hindu” politely insisting that she is Ecuadorian. She also expressed vocal disdain for the presence of some Neo-Nazi groups in Quito during the summer of 2008. Owing to everyone’s mixed ancestry, the existence of Ecuadorian Nazis was idiotic to her. Like me, she’s curious about her Amerindian ancestry and wants to learn Kichwa. Loving the indigenous part of Ecuador to her is analogous to national pride.
III. The necessary and inevitable The ratification of a constitution that makes Pachamama an individual and acknowledges all people as valid parts of a multi-faceted national identity, adds evidence to the waning tide of white assimilation as a cultural imperative. Enough has changed for the framers (mostly consisting of members that are part of the elite, educated class) and the voters (a sample of most adult Ecuadorians since voting is a mandatory) to agree, or at least not object to a Pluronationalistic Environmental Democracy. Ecuador’s indigenous heritage becomes both public and official as a matter of national pride. Pachamama comfortably exist with the Abrahamic God as a spiritual force for the country. These shifts prepare Ecuador for the challenges of the radical mentality shift necessary to make the rights of nature a reality. Questions remain. Can things have rights? How can something that can’t speak for itself have rights? Does this law violate people of their right to property? Alberto Acosta, president of the 2008 constitutional assembly, has addressed such concerns via the context of history. He points out that for millennia, regardless of biological fact, a slave was not considered a human being. The abolition of slavery required society to undergo a massive ideological change because it had always been understood that slave was a piece of property.13 Initially, Abolition met with popular opposition because it threatened a slave owner’s right to property by granting his possessions rights. Acosta presents the extension of legal rights to nature as part of yet another drastic change in human society. The idea of nature having the right to “integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes”14 has very serious ramifications. To say nature has rights implies that its value as a living entity supersedes its exploitable economic utility. If life alone is the determining factor of what can have rights then there can be no denying that all people have the rights to their “life cycles, structures, [and] functions.”15 This is a radical idea because it forces western society to objectively look at itself in order to contend with its failures in the area of human rights.
Pachamama’s legal rights have a crucial link to the interest of the Amerindian community of Ecuador because its full adoption makes the disenfranchisement of the Indigenous communities unacceptable and denounces the western concept of “nature as property.” The official Ecuadorian opinion on nature becomes similar to the cosmological relationship between nature and Amerindian groups like the Kichwa community, which Nina Pacari, Kichwa judge of the Ecuadorian Supreme Court, describes such a relationship as one of mutual respect. The earth is considered a nurturing mother, someone that cannot be bought or sold. Pacari also considers the compatibility between human and Pachama’s rights as a part of the Kichwa concept of the collective subject, wherein by being born in a community one automatically becomes a part of an entity bigger than the self.16 Nature is inherently a part of any community, granting nature the right to exist means granting its housed collective the right to exist. Nowhere is this more applicable than in “El Oriente,” the eastern part of Ecuador that holds both the forests of the Amazon basin and much of the county’s petroleum reserves. This region houses a lot of potential for exploitability owing to the lure of it “black gold.” However, petroleum extraction often translates into devastation. The companies first clear out forest in order to obtain the petroleum. Later, management of toxic drilling by-products translates into either dumping the waste into the river systems or leaving it in open air pits where it can leach into the soil.17 The resulting biological consequences are grave owing to the fact that “El Oriente” houses some of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. Further still, the consequence of oil extractions is not simply natural loss from human gain. The Amazon basin is also the home of several indigenous Amerindian groups that depend on the forest for survival. Immediate consequences for these indigenous include exposure to fatal diseases for which they have no immunity, displacement, and poverty following their inability to resume their way of life outside of their home environment.18 Long term consequences include overall decline in health and inability to re-cultivate the earth resulting from the chemical pollution. The Lago Agrio field of northeastern Ecuador, illustrates this fatal link between abuse of nature and human rights violations. This site was subject to heavy oil extraction by Texaco (now Chevron Corporation) from 1967 to the 90’s.19 The thirty plus years of careless drilling techniques and the practice of disposing crude waste into unlined pits inside of the forest culminated in what has often been
described as the “worst oil-related disaster in the world.” Oil leached into the well system, entered the river, killed the fish, and contaminated the fresh water supply of Cofán people’s ancestral home.20 The effects of toxic exposure like increased rates of birth defects, severe skin rashes, mouth, stomach and uterine cancer continue to plague those residents surrounding the Lago Agrio’s.21 Regardless of whether the rain forest should or should not have had legal protection from the actions of Texaco, the rights and well being of fellow humans should have been motivation enough to extract the petroleum in a safe and clean manner. The complete disregard for the displaced people in the pursuit of petroleum factored into sloppy waste management. Working to make sure a clean freshwater supply remained after extraction was not a priority for the oil companies, nor was it of interest to the Ecuadorian government who allowed the oil companies entry into the field. Drinking water didn’t matter because the people didn’t matter and the people didn’t matter because they were Amerindians in a “third world” country. Ecuador’s historical attempt to disguise, suppressed, or ignore the reminders of the undeniable “Indio” genetically within the Mestizo majority, manifested as permissive oil and environmental policy that gave a carte blanche to Texaco/Chevron to suppress and murder of the physical “Indio” within. This image of neglect, abuse, and corporate irresponsibility feeds into a point that Nina Picari later makes regarding the fruits of western mentality regarding nature. The belief that one can own nature and treat it as source of unrestricted exploitation acts in direct violation of the collective subject and thus against any sense of justice or equality. 22 The Lago Agrio also illustrates the change in global and Ecuadorian opinion regarding indigenous rights and rights of nature. In 2009 the Cofán filled a class action suit against Chevron. In 2011, their case reached a US court which ruled in favor of 1.8 billion fine on Chevron to pay for cleanup efforts as well as punitive damages.23 Chevron attempted to re-open the case to an Ecuadorian appeals court in January of 2012 and was again ordered to uphold their fine, which was ultimately doubled when the company refused to make a public apology.24 The fine has yet to be paid and the Chevron corporation has since been attempting to claiming that the they had been sued due to corruption and manufactured evidence. Nevertheless, this case sets a very important precedent. The legal success of the indigenous groups in such a big case shows their waning political invisibility. Meanwhile, Chevron and other international corpora-
tions have experience a shift in how their presence abroad is governed. They no longer have the full support, encouragement, or blind eyes of the host government. In time period spanning his election into office and the 2011 court decision Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has voiced support of the communities, pledging some government financial assistance in evidence collection. He went on to declare the victory of the indigenous communities a matter of justice describing the 1.8 billion dollar fine as the Chevron’s “moral duty” to Lago Agrio.25 His public support of the Lago Agrio community speaks of the new social and political stage from that has made the 2008 constitution possible. Whether or not his comments are merely an attempt to court a constituency. They do indicate that nature and the Amerindian communities have a newfound political value. Such a value has made possible what several Amerindian groups have been fighting for: a legal initiative to insure “Sumak Kawsay,” a term that translate into “the beauty of life in harmony with the continuum of society.” According to Environmental lawyer Mario Melo, The inclusion of this Kichwa environmental spirituality into the constitution is a change necessary to give Environmentalism a moral imperative. If is understood that that Pachamama is and entity with rights and that humans are granted protection and a guarantee for survival if she is given the same, we can no longer regard the Chevron oil spill or any other similar environmental disasters mere costs of business. They can only be regarded as “mortal sins” because they demonstrate a strategy towards wealth via a ruthless desecration.26
IV. Louisiana I spent the summer of 2011 in Chauvin, Louisiana as a part a group civic engagement fellowship funded by Duke University. The program’s goal was to work with the communities affected both the 2010 BP oil spill and Southern Louisiana’s ongoing land loss. For two months we collaborated on wetland restoration projects (manual labor ranging from maintaining plant nurseries to planting sparatana in mud fields), managed a day camp, and met with members of local nonprofits, cultural centers, advocacy groups, and churches. This experience demonstrated an American example of the inevitable need to place legal and social priority on nature’s systems as a way of insuring human rights Like the El Oriente, Southern Louisiana is a very valuable piece of ecological property that happens to sit on a large oil reserve. The unique landscape of the Mississippi Delta, known as “America’s Wetland” contributes to a highly productive estuary system along the Louisiana coastline. It sequesters carbon dioxide and provides a habitat for several unique species ranging from sea life to migratory birds. The Mississippi river’s sediment deposits incrementaly build up the land, meaning the Louisiana coastline is inherently dynamic. It depends on sediment-rich flooding to maintain landmass and plant life to retain soil. Human attempts to control flooding via levee and lock systems have cut off cities from sedimentation, causing the land to compact and slowly sink under its own weight with no regular addition of sedimentation to maintain comfortable altitudes above sea level. Development over wetlands via oil pipelines and canal systems, has additionally contributed to land loss by removing the matrix of plant roots that hold together loose soil.27 The network of wetlands and barrier islands of the delta serves as the region’s first line of defense against tropical storms and hurricanes.28 They slow down winds and floods, decreasing the storm’s severity once it reaches solid land.
Residents of Southern Louisiana suffer from the consequences of land deterioration and sinking (more severe floods and decreased buffers against hurricane) with the impending threat of displacement as the coastline disappears. Their culture, way of life, and survival inherently depends on the wetlands. Thus there right to exist hinges on their ecosystem’s right to exist. Unfortunately, Southern Louisianans suffer from political alienation. Their relationship with the rest of America has historically afforded a certain level of antagonism owing to the xenophobia felt against the French influences among the Creole and Cajun populations. At the start of the 20th century, organized national assimilation efforts worked to suppress francophone culture by banning bilingual education in public schools. Teachers were additionally encouraged to severely punish and beat students who spoke French during school hours. Some of the stigma associated with French Cajun culture has been lifted since World War II when several Cajun soldiers served as French interpreters in Europe.29 However, the scars remain. As a part of wetlands restoration project, our group consistently met with environmental advocates and volunteers who were members of Cajun, African American, and Native American communities of the area. Among all three demographics we were consistently presented a sense of neglect, exclusion, and exploitation in regards to their states relationship to the national government. They are all Americans, however the Mississippi delta’s distinct culture separates it from the Anglo-dominant hegemony which translates into a sense of foreignness. One woman (a clean water and Cajun cultural advocate who gave us a presentation about US offshore drilling policy in the Delta) went so far as to claim that the United States regards Louisiana as more of a colonial holding rather than a part of the union. She explained that Louisiana has a very large oil industry that exceeds all other states in offshore oil production. However, since most of the oil sold out of Louisiana is actually from the Gulf of Mexico the resulting tax revenues go to the federal government leaving a small fraction to the state.30A lot of money goes through Louisiana but only a minuscule amount is actually allowed to stay. Further still , residents of towns like Chauvin, who mostly come from shrimping backgrounds are the first to experience the negative consequences of environmental exploitation, like the BP oil spill.
Community leaders described any national interest in protecting Southern Louisiana as really a myopic focus on the oil industry and the Port of New Orleans. The port functions as a crucial link to the global market. It is the location from which half of the nation’s grains exports departs, the gateway for the inflow of the Gulf Coast’s oil, and one of the most popular trade centers for the coffee, rubber, and steel industries.31 Years of sediment deprivation has placed it in a city that exists as a bowl like dent in landscape. Water-fueled natural disasters like hurricanes become a massive threat to trade. Any assault on the port equals and assault on the nation’s position in the global market. Thus, the main goal becomes to enact any effort to keep floods out of the city. This means re-enforcing the same levee systems that facilitated the city’s vulnerability. The focus is not on protecting the wetlands and barrier islands even though they would not only decrease the severity of floods but also protect the Bayou communities of Cajun Louisiana in addition to New Orleans. Within the Louisianan context, an imperative that giving nature legal protection from the consequences of human development and economic activity feeds into an imperative to help the people of the state. This region has experienced the harsh touch of poverty and hurricanes because of a mentality that views natural resources as something to be controlled and sold. As is the case in “El Oriente” The belief that national identity can only fit into a narrow frame allies itself with this abuse towards nature because it enhances the opinion that the destruction or abuse of life (human or animal) as a consequence of nature’s comodification is of minor importance. Consequently, the citizens of “El Oriente” and “The Bayou” have a very similar fate to contend with. Their environment and strategic location functions as someone else’s capital. Ultimately, this dehumanizes the human residents because (as seen with the consequences of BP and Chevron) they bare so much of the brunt for so little of the profit. Residents of the delta and “EL Oriente” both occupy a valuable property that’s dissolving year by year. As coastal wetlands disappear so do the nursery habitats for much of the animals caught for seafood. Local industries suffer as a consequence of human attempts to modify and control the activities of nature.32 Meanwhile the physical structure of the land
continues to dissolve, depriving its citizens of a home. Likewise, the disappearance of the Ecuadorian rainforest means disappearance of the historic food sources and homes of people like the Cofรกn. Without the bayou and without the rain forest they have to enter into a different society in order to survive. However cultural alienation along with the lifestyle demands of a new terrain will prompt assimilation as a means for survival. Thus, their culture dies with their ecosystem.
V. The Era of Green Gold Since the Spanish conquest, Ecuador’s relationship with nature has revolved around its resources’ potential for monetary gain. It was gold that lured the conquistadors into Latin America and it was petroleum, black gold, that has attracted the attention of foreign corporations. Indeed, with its abundance of resources both mineral and biological the country’s vast potential for wealth acquisition stands paradoxically next to its poverty and debt. It is this paradox that has ultimately shaped my life the most because my parents emigrated from Ecuador due to economic pressure. In the early nineties Ecuador experienced an economic crash. The country had took out a loan from the International Monetary fund to pay off national debts, this transaction that came with the condition that Ecuador would devalue its currency. The resulting inflation prompted a mass exodus that left for Spain and the United States. Growing up I’d ask my mother why we moved the answer through much of the years was constant. “We were poor.” Now, My mother’s answer has its poignancy because it has two levels of meaning. The “We” represents us the family that suddenly found itself unable to afford weekly grocery trips but it also represents “we” the nation. The United States was what Ecuador could not be: the chance to start again. The American Economy had greater stability and the added promise of social mobility for me and my sister through education. Ecuador had become a dead end for my family. Yet Ecuador shouldn’t be dead end. The finches of the Galapagos helped inspire Darwin’s theory of evolution. Its strategic location on the Equator has attracted the interest of several scientists, including the astronomers of the French Geodesic Mission whose measurements of earth’s meridian curvature in Cuenca eventually fed into the development of the metric system.33 The threatened Yasuni valley remains home to the most biodiverse forest in the world making the country a contemporary pharmaceutical oasis. Quito, the capital city has a history that goes back over a thousand years.34 The pre-Columbian people of the Andes were well known for their engineering accomplishments which included the construction
of earthquake-proof stone buildings. A country so rich in mineral, intellectual, and biological resources should not have 45% of its population under the poverty line, 25% of its children suffering malnutrition, nor have such a low prominence in the world’s academic stage.35 Alberto Acosta takes on the Paradox by declaring Ecuador’s natural wealth the cause of its poverty, or rather the country’s inability to control the wealth the cause.36 Economist Carlos Larrea elaborates on this point by linking Ecuador’s economic and political instability to international trade. Ecuador bases its economy around cycles of exporting one resource, like bananas or coca. Once the demand for the resource declines, or weather patterns disrupt crop output, the economy collapses. Currently Ecuador is a part of an oil-based economy with petroleum accounting for 60% of the country’s exports. This current economic set up however has three major flaws. The first flaw is sustainability. Unlike bananas, petroleum is not a renewable resource. Larrea puts a thirty year time stamp on this current economic cycle before a crash. He points out that Ecuador does not have enough Petroleum reserves to keep it competitive in the oil market in the long term. It will eventually lose out to other countries like Venezuela in the oil market.37 An unsustainable economic center will ultimately lead to a crash. The second flaw with a petroleum based economy is its contribution to the “we are poor because we are rich paradox.” Acosta point out that petroleum extracts have given the country about 130 billion dollars and yet Ecuador has “not developed, or gained full advantage of the money.” This raises a question, given global demand why is that “oil has not solved [Ecuador’s] problems” like poverty, hunger, and poor health.38 Larrea answers this question by stating that mineral extraction leads to the opposite of progress because Ecuador’s current development model focuses more on international trade than on how profits can be used to meet the needs of the people. The third flaw with petroleum comes with its environmental impacts. Extracting oil destroys rainforests; burning oil pollutes the air and contributes to global climate change. Abuse of Pacahama also cuts off other more sustainable possibility for development. Given Ecuador’s biodiversity, oil fields in the Amazon basin have the potential to contribute to a more sustainable economic model by remaining untouched. More than the start of a massive Eco-tourism industry the rain forest has the potential to transform Ecuador into a country of science and medicine because biodiversity is a boon to pharmaceutical research.39 Clearing out rainforest would stifle this potential future.
Currently some progress toward sustianbility has been made in the form of the Yasuni-ITT Initiative. The initiative seeks to circumvent oil prospection in the Yasuni firth through a government ban on oil production In the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oil fields. In exchange for preventing the emission of 1.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide the Ecuadorian government is seeking $ 3.6 Billion over the course of 13 years to offset the potential profits. The money raised would be a part of an effort to build the Ecuadorian economy based on renewable resources. 40 The intitative has gaind the support of LenĂn Moreno, the Nobel prize nominated vice president of Ecuador and the government is petitioning Qatar to support the $3.6 billion trust fund.41 However, Ecuador continues to cultivate an interest in petro development. The Ecuadorian government is currently in the process of auctioning off over three million Hectares of Amazonian rainforest in the Ecuadorian southeast to Chinese oil companies. Citing the constitutional guarantee that the indigenous people are to be consulted, and duly compensated for environmental damages when their land is being considered for nonrenewable exploitation, seven Indigenous nations inhabiting the land have launched a protest. In addition to claiming that their advice against the eleventh round of auctions had been ignored during the decision making process they have condemned the entire operation for its cultural and environmental consequences. 42 The Ecuadorian secretary of hydrocarbons Andres Donoso has dismissed their campaign as a political ploy that will detract from a national attempt to accelerate development and the fight poverty. 43 However his claims fail to mention that the auction seems to be less of a humanitarian effort and more of debt management attempt. Ecuador currently owes $ 8 Billion to China meaning that its willingness to auction off its natural resources mirrors a desire to continue its financial relationship with China by meeting its energy demands. 44 Ecuador’s potential for positive development rest with Sumak Kawsay. Petroleum is the Western mentality of earth stewardship. It simplifies the earth into an oil well to be sold and drained until nothing remains. No thought is put into the future, meaning one generation gains at the expense of its posterity. Reconfiguring use of Ecuador’s resources for tourism and research depends on a respectful rapport with nature because these industries have an inter-
est in protecting biodiversity. In addition these sustainable ventures give focus to the needs of the Ecuadorian people. In “El Oriente� conservation protects indigenous groups. Meanwhile they will gain power through ecotourism and research. Individual members can serve as valuable tour guides for scientists and tourists. 45 Research will give incentive to pump resources into education because it will put the pharmaceutical industry into the hands of Ecuadorian scientists. The new constitution thus stands as the building block for a new national initiative because it favors sustainability.
VI Conclusions: Breaking from poverty’s stigma My family’s immigration to The United States has an inescapable morsel of irony considering that we move from one area famous for a rich culture, ethnic tensions, poverty, and illiteracy to another. As a college student this means my mostly neutral accent makes my South Carolinian upbringing and South American origins a little hard to grasp to a surprising amount of well educated, open minded strangers. During my fellowship in Louisiana it also meant that I lacked a good portion of the preconceived notions some of our host expected us as college students from the (relative) north to hold. I expected people to have accents but I figured most people would be educated and articulate. I expected to encounter a distinct culture, but one that was still unmistakably American. I negatively anticipated humidity and mosquitoes but time in the Carolinas made it hard for me to believe a summer could consists of anything else. Poverty, racism, and education problems would exist but their would also be good music, plenty of scientists, and a lack of burning crosses. I ended up being correct on all counts. I was surprised, however, by the similarities between the cultural and environmental politics of my fieldwork site to those of my birthplace. The eerie multi layered link between oil, environmental damage, and social exclusion seems to be the problem of both the so called First and Third World. As a part of first generation immigrant family in America my life here has the following epithet: You are here because Ecuador is limited. While proud of you ancestry and culture, becoming an American must be what you strive for. We are here to stay, we will never come back, this is our home. I diverged from this mentality growing up because even in a town with very small Latino Community, true assimilation proved to be impossible because the end result of having an American education and Ecuadorian parents, was a hybrid identity. Full assimilation into the particular strand of American culture I was immersed in was also not without its problems. As a southerner or South American terms like “less-developed” and “less educated would forever be unavoidable.” Immigrant history further complicates how I viewed myself because the American emphasis of superiority. First world America versus third world Ecuador
creates a bit of an inferiority complex. However it also gives way to an annoyance that can be easily understood by the people I met in Louisiana. It is so easy to administer labels like “developing country” that effectively erases a central university that has a history older than Harvard, the earthquake resistant work of pre-Columbian engineers, and a rich tradition of literature, art, and music. Similarly, calling a state poor and its residents “rednecks” discounts the works of Capote, world famous cuisine, and the creation of jazz. The merits of a place goes unnoticed and with it any hope of positive change because the citizens are seen as infantile, inept, and disposable This new political climate for Ecuador however creates a learning moment for the rest of the worth. A as nation where the people vote to live in a Pluronationalistic country that give rights to nature, Ecuador has the opportnity to strike a blow against a perceived state of backwardness and inferiority. It is the first country to legally recognize protection for all life and thus the first country to set such a high bar for itself in the realm of environmentalism and human rights, giving a large industrial power like the United States an example of how it might need to reconfigure itself both socially and politically in order to preserve ecologically, economically, and culturally valuable locations like the Mississippi Delta.
About the Artist and Author
Maria Isabel Arroyo was born in Quito, Ecuador in 1991. Her family immigrated to the
United States in 1994 and eventually settled in Lexington, South Carolina. Maria Isabel’s interest in art began at a young age and lasted into her high school years, resulting in her admission into The South Carolina Governors School for the Arts and Humanities. There, she received her high school and art scholar’s diploma for a visual arts major with a concentration in printmaking. In 2009, she began her undergraduate studies at Duke University. As a sophomore she contributed her artwork and edited the catalogue for the Duke Haiti Lab’s collaborative installation, Haiti: History Embedded in Amber, with artist Eduard Duval Carrie. The following summer she participated in the Duke Engage Service program as a participant in a wetlands restoration program in Chauvin, Louisiana. The experience prompted her to double major in visual arts and environmental sciences with a concentration in urban planning. Since then Maria Isabel has researched environmental democracy, taken on an internship in Eduard Duval Carrie’s Miami studio, and completed the catalogue, Global Caribbean IV, for the Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance’s exhibition for the 2012 Miami Art Basel show. Her senior distinction thesis is a visual exploration of the social context of Ecuador’s 2008 constitution, which grants personhood rights to nature. Though most of her training has been in printmaking and painting, Maria Isabel considers herself a mixed media artist, and has moved into working with fabric and resin. In the long term she hopes to continue practicing art and to pursue a career in green design.
Chaapter notes
I.
1. Pineo, Ronn F. Ecuador and the United States: Useful Strangers. Athens: University of Georgia, 2007. 178 2. Pineo 179 3. Pineo 187 4. “Transcript of the Constitution of the United States - Official Text.” National Archives and Records Administration. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html>. 5. “Ecuador: 2008 Constitution in English.” Political Database of the Americas - Georgetown University. 8 Oct. 2008. Web. 13 Dec. 2011.<http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Ecuador/english08. html>. 6. “Ecuador: 2008 Constitution in English.” 7. Natalia, Greene. “The First Successful Case of the rights of Nature Implementation in Ecuador.” The Rights of Nature. Mar. 2011. Web. <http://therightsofnature.org/first-ron-case-ecuador/>. 8. Acosta, Alberto, and Esperanza Martinez. “Eduardo Gudynas.” Derechos De La Naturaleza: El Futuro Es Ahora. Quito, Ecuador: Ediciones Abya-Yala, 2009. Print. 9. Buxton, Nick. “The Law of Mother Earth: Behind Bolivia’s Historic Bill” Therightsofnature.org. Global Alliance for The Rights of Nature, 2011. Web. Apr.-May 2012. <http://therightsofnature.org/bolivia-law-of-motherearth/>. 10. Alberto, and Esperanza Martinez. “Vanada Shiva.”
II.
11. “Ecuador.” The World Factbook. The Central Intelligence Agency, 2008. Web. 2011. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ec.html>. 12. Pineo 188
III.
13. Acosta, Alberto, and Esperanza Martínez. “Alberto Acosta” 14. “Ecuador: 2008 Constitution in English.” 15. “Ecuador: 2008 Constitution in English.” 16. Acosta, Alberto, and Esperanza Martínez.”Nina Picari” 17. “The Impact Oil Production in the Rainforest.” Rainforests. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http:// rainforests.mongabay.com/0806.htm>. 18. “Yasuni Green Gold.” Yasuni Green Gold. Save Yasuni! Keep the Oil Underground. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://www.yasunigreengold.org/about-yasuni.php>. 19. “Lago Agrio Case | Chevron Ordered to Pay $8 Billion by Ecuador Court - Los Angeles Times.” Featured Articles From The Los Angeles Times. 14 Feb. 2011. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/14/business/ la-fi-chevron-20110214>. 20. “Lago Agrio Case | Chevron Ordered to Pay $8 Billion by Ecuador Court - Los Angeles Times.” Featured Articles From The Los Angeles Times. 14 Feb. 2011. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/14/business/ la-fi-chevron-20110214>. 21. “ChevronToxico | Health Impacts.” ChevronToxico | The Campaign for Justice in Ecuador. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://chevrontoxico.com/about/health-impacts/>. 22. Acosta, Alberto, and Esperanza Martínez. “Nina Picari” 23. “BBC News - US Court Rules against Chevron in Ecuador Oil Case.” BBC - Homepage. Sept.-Oct. 2011. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14983123>. 24. “Ecuador Appeals Court Rules against Chevron in Oil Case.” Bbc.co.uk. BBC News, Jan. 2012. Web. Mar.-Apr. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16404268>. 25. “EXCLUSIVE: Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa on the Lawsuit Against Chevron, Eradicating Foreign Debt and Why He Says “Ecuador Is No Longer for Sale”” Democracynow.org. Democracy Now! Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://www.democra-
cynow.org/2008/2/11/exclusive_ecuadorean_president_rafael_correa_on>. 26. Acosta, Alberto, and Esperanza Martínez.”Mario Melo”
IV.
27. “The Rise and Disappearance of Southeast Louisiana.” Nola.com.The Times Picayune, 2008. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://ww w.nola.com/speced/lastchance/multimedia/flash.ssf?flashlandloss1.swf>. 28. “Issues.” America’s Wetland Foundation. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://www.americaswetland.com/custompage.cfm?pageid=257>. 29. Tidwell, Michael. Bayou Farewell:The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast. Vintage Departures: New York, 2004 30. Allen, Greg. “Louisiana Demands More of Offshore Oil Revenues.” NPR. NPR, 14 Feb. 2006. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5205346>. 31. “Port of New Orleans Overview.” Portno.com. Port of New Orleans. Web. Apr.-May 2012. <http://www.portno.com/pno_pages/about_overview.htm>. 32. “Issues.” America’s Wetland Foundation
V.
33. “Mitad Del Mundo/Half of the World.” Ecuadorsbest.com. 2005. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://www.ecuadorsbest.com/mitaddelmundo.html>. 34. Velasco, Juan De, and Diezcanseco Alfredo. Pareja. Historia Del Reino De Quito: En La América Meridional. Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1981. Print. 35. Acosta, Alberto, and Esperanza Martínez.”Carlos Larrea” 36. Vidal, John. “Andean Voices: Alberto Acosta “ Latest News, Sport and Comment from the Guardian | The Guardian. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://www. guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/02/andean-voices-alberto-acosta>. 37. Acosta, Alberto, and Esperanza Martínez.”Carlos Larrea” 38. Vidal, John. “Andean Voices: Alberto Acosta “ 39. Vidal, John. “Andean Voices: Alberto Acosta” 40. Johnson, Stanley. “Saving Yasuni: Can a Revolutionary Plan Protect the Rainforest from Commercial Exploitation?” The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 9 Mar. 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2013. 41. James, Bonnie. “Ecuador Conservation Initiative Seeks Qatar’s Support.” Gulf-Times. N.p., 9 Feb. 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
42. Viteri, Franco, Jaime Vargas, Manari Ushigua, Manuel Maiche, Dario Jaramillo, Jose Gualinga, Manuela Ima, Francisco Shiki, and Cristobal Jimpikit,. “OPEN LETTER FROM THE CONFEDERATION OF INDIGENOUS NATIONALITIES OF THE ECUADORIAN AMAZON TO THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COMPANIES INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING IN THE RONDA SURORIENTE.”Amazonwatch.org. N.p., 30 Nov. 2012. Web. 43. Kaiman, Jonathan. “Ecuador Auctions off Amazon to Chinese Oil Firms.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 26 Mar. 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2013. 44. Nelson, Steven. “Ecuador’s Amazon Rainforest May Be Auctioned to Chinese Oil Companies.” US News. U.S.News & World Report, 28 Mar. 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2013. 45. Acosta, Alberto, and Esperanza Martínez.”Carlos Larrea”
Bibiolgraphy Acosta, Alberto, and Esperanza Martínez. Derechos De La Naturaleza: El Futuro Es Ahora. Quito, Ecuador: Ediciones Abya-Yala, 2009. Print Allen, Greg. “Louisiana Demands More of Offshore Oil Revenues.” NPR. NPR, 14 Feb. 2006. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5205346>. “BBC News - US Court Rules against Chevron in Ecuador Oil Case.” BBC - Homepage. Sept.Oct. 2011. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14983123>. Buxton, Nick. “The Law of Mother Earth: Behind Bolivia’s Historic Bill” Therightsofnature.org. Global Alliance for The Rights of Nature, 2011. Web. Apr.-May 2012. <http://therightsofnature.org/bolivia-law-of-mother-earth/>. “ChevronToxico | Health Impacts.” ChevronToxico | The Campaign for Justice in Ecuador. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://chevrontoxico.com/about/health-impacts/>. “Ecuador: 2008 Constitution in English.” Political Database of the Americas - Georgetown University. 8 Oct. 2008. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Ecuador/english08.html>. “Ecuador Appeals Court Rules against Chevron in Oil Case.” Bbc.co.uk. BBC News, Jan. 2012. Web. Mar.-Apr. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16404268>. “Ecuador.” The World Factbook. The Central Intelligence Agency, 2008. Web. 2011. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ec.html>.
“EXCLUSIVE: Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa on the Lawsuit Against Chevron, Eradicating Foreign Debt and Why He Says “Ecuador Is No Longer for Sale””Democracynow.org. Democracy Now! Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/11/exclusive_ecuadorean_president_rafael_correa_on>. “The Impact Oil Production in the Rainforest.” Rainforests. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0806.htm>. “Issues.” America’s Wetland Foundation. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://www.americaswetland.com/custompage.cfm?pageid=257>. James, Bonnie. “Ecuador Conservation Initiative Seeks Qatar’s Support.” Gulf-Times. N.p., 9 Feb. 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2013. Johnson, Stanley. “Saving Yasuni: Can a Revolutionary Plan Protect the Rainforest from Com- mercial Exploitation?” The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 9 Mar. 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2013. Kaiman, Jonathan. “Ecuador Auctions off Amazon to Chinese Oil Firms.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 26 Mar. 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2013. “Lago Agrio Case | Chevron Ordered to Pay $8 Billion by Ecuador Court - Los Angeles Times.” Featured Articles From The Los Angeles Times. 14 Feb. 2011. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/14/business/la-fi-chevron-20110214>. “Mitad Del Mundo/Half of the World.” Ecuadorsbest.com. 2005. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://www.ecuadorsbest.com/mitaddelmundo.html>. Natalia, Greene. “The First Successful Case of the rights of Nature Implementation in Ecuador.” The Rights of Nature. Mar. 2011. Web. <http://therightsofnature.org/first-ron-caseecuador/>.
Nelson, Steven. “Ecuador’s Amazon Rainforest May Be Auctioned to Chinese Oil Compa- nies.” US News. U.S.News & World Report, 28 Mar. 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2013. Pineo, Ronn F. Ecuador and the United States: Useful Strangers. Athens: University of Georgia, 2007. Print. “Port of New Orleans Overview.” Portno.com. Port of New Orleans. Web. Apr.-May 2012. <http://www.portno.com/pno_pages/about_overview.htm>. “The Rise and Disappearance of Southeast Louisiana.” Nola.com.The Times Picayune, 2008. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://www.nola.com/speced/lastchance/multimedia/flash. ssf?flashlandloss1.swf>. Sanchez, Mariana. “Amazon Tribe Sues Texaco for $6bn - Americas - Al Jazeera English.” AJE - Al Jazeera English. 27 Mar. 2007. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://www.aljazeera.com/ news/americas/2007/03/2008525172535500875.html>. Tidwell, Michael. Bayou Farewell:The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast. Vintage Departures: New York, 2004 “Transcript of the Constitution of the United States - Official Text.” National Archives and Records Administration. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html>. Velasco, Juan De, and Diezcanseco Alfredo. Pareja. Historia Del Reino De Quito: En La América Meridional. Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1981. Print. Vidal, John. “Andean Voices: Alberto Acosta | Environment | Guardian.co.uk.” Latest News, Sport and Comment from the Guardian | The Guardian. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http:// www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/02/andean-voices-alberto-acosta>.
Viteri, Franco, Jaime Vargas, Manari Ushigua, Manuel Maiche, Dario Jaramillo, Jose Gualinga, Manuela Ima, Francisco Shiki, and Cristobal Jimpikit,. “OPEN LETTER FROM THE CONFEDERATION OF INDIGENOUS NATIONALITIES OF THE ECUADOR IAN AMAZON TO THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COMPANIES INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING IN THE RONDA SURORIENTE.”Amazonwatch.org. N.p., 30 Nov. 2012. Web. Weitzman, Hal. “Rafael Correa: Chavista with a Whip Hand.” Ft.com. Finacial Times, 9 Oct. 2006. Web. Oct.-Nov. 2011. <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/23a5e4fa-5732-11db-9110- 0000779e2340.html#axzz1gMOuYdcx>. “Yasuni Green Gold.” Yasuni Green Gold. Save Yasuni! Keep the Oil Underground. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://www.yasunigreengold.org/about-yasuni.php>.