LatinNews Regional Monitor: Andean Group - 30 April 2020

* The international NGO Amazon Frontlines has brought a lawsuit against the Ecuadorean state on behalf of 105 indigenous communities (comprising approximately 120,000 people) affected by a 7 April oil spill, when a rupture in the trans-Ecuadorean oil pipeline system (Sote) spilled an estimated 15,800 barrels of crude oil into Sucumbíos and Orellana provinces. Andrés Tapia, leader of the indigenous organisation Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas de la Amazonía Ecuatoriana (Confeniae), reported that the spill has caused health problems and contaminated water supplies in the area. The lawsuit, brought to the Orellana provincial judiciary, contends that state officials had been warned of instabilities in the pipeline, and attributes responsibility for the spill to the government’s energy, environment, and public health ministries, as well as the managers of state-owned oil company Petroecuador and private company Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados (OCP). The government has already taken a substantial economic hit from the spill, as operations have been halted while the pipeline is repaired.

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