 For
Immediate Release:
July 18, 2002
Contacts:
Lucy Braham,
Amazon Watch, (510) 419-0617
(310) 420- 8245 (cell)
Alexandra Almeida,
Acción
Ecologíca in Ecuador, 011 593 2-254-7516
Julia Butterfly to
arrive in Los Angeles tonight after forcible deportation from
Ecuador
Julia to hold
press conference 10.30am tomorrow outside Occidental’s LA offices.
**footage and
photos of Julia’s arrest and visit to Ecuador will be available
at the press conference**
Quito, Ecuador—Environmental
activist Julia Butterfly Hill will arrive at Los Angeles International
Airport at seven tonight, after being forcibly deported from Ecuador
at dawn. The deportation occurred just two hours before a Habeas Corpus
hearing set for Ms. Hill and the seven Ecuadorian activists with whom
she was arrested Tuesday during a peaceful protest outside Occidental
Petroleum (OXY)’s Quito offices against Ecuador’s new OCP
pipeline.
As she was dragged
through the Quito airport this morning by immigration police, peacefully
resisting deportation until the end, Julia called out to bystanders:
"I’m being
deported against my will. I was never told what I’m being charged
with. I was never once read my rights. I was shown a piece of paper
in Spanish but was refused a translator. I was refused a lawyer and
the only reason I’m being deported is because I’ve lent my
solidarity to the forests of Ecuador and the communities defending
their lands and their basic human rights."
Such was the
haste of the Ecuadorian government to deport Julia before the hearing,
that
the police car carrying her to the airport speeded, lost control and
crashed into another vehicle, leaving her with minor injuries. "The
decision to deny due process to Julia Butterfly is clearly influenced
by a desire on the part of the Ecuadorian government and OCP to avoid
the spotlight being shined on the OCP pipeline," declared Atossa
Soltani, Executive Director of Amazon Watch. "Those pushing this
destructive project know that it will not bear being exposed to international
scrutiny."
Speaking on the phone
from Panama this morning, en route to the US, Julia added, "Although
I am completely exhausted and in pain from my mistreatment at the hands
of the police, it is very important to me that people understand why
I was in Ecuador. I call upon people in the US and worldwide to support
the courageous resistance of these communities against the degradation
caused by oil development."
At the Tuesday protest
where the arrests took place, 50 community members from Mindo, Lago
Agrio, Esmeraldas and Shushufindi, who are adversely affected by the
new pipeline, rallied outside the offices of Occidental and the OCP
to demand an end to the escalating destruction of their lands. The
seven Ecuadorians arrested were all released in Quito this afternoon,
with all charges dropped.
Ms. Hill, best known
for her 738 day tree-sit 200 feet atop a 1000-year old threatened California
old-growth redwood tree has been in Ecuador since July 9, joining the
national struggle to resist Ecuador’s new OCP pipeline. On Monday
she accompanied Mindo community members to re-occupy OCP’s construction
site in the Mindo Nambillo Cloudforest Reserve. Construction has now
trespassed 200 meters inside community-owned property. A judge will
visit the site tomorrow, accompanied by local community members, to
issue a ruling on the property demarcation.
The OCP pipeline has
been mired in controversy since its inception, with hundreds of protests
over the last few months along its route, which crosses fragile ecosystems
and 11 protected areas. Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum is a
key member of the OCP consortium, and is planning significant expansion
of its Ecuador operations in pristine Amazon ecosystems, in expectation
of the pipeline’s completion.
The majority of Amazon
crude that will flow through the pipeline is destined for US West Coast
markets. The OCP Consortium includes: Alberta Energy (Canada), Occidental
Petroleum (OXY- USA), AGIP (Italy), Repsol-YPF (Spain), Perez Companc
(Argentina), and Techint (Argentina). German bank WestLB is lead financer
of the project.
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