 Updated:
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
Midnight decision to deport Julia
Butterfly. Ecuadorian Government preempts her
fair trial in oil protest
Quito, Ecuador—Immigration
police announced late last night that activist Julia Butterfly Hill
will be deported to the United States early this morning. The deportation
is set to occur just two hours before a scheduled Habeas Corpus hearing
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. Ms. Hill is scheduled to arrive in Miami, FL around
12 noon today.
Ms. Hill has been in
Ecuador since July 9, joining the national struggle to resist Ecuador’s
new OCP pipeline. Speaking after the deportation decision from Quito’s
Provisional Detention Center, where she and the other seven protesters
have been held since their arrest, she said:
"I remain deeply
committed to support the Ecuadorian communities engaged in this struggle.
I will continue to do what I can from the US to work for the release
of those arrested with me, and to fight this devastating pipeline
project."
"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."
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. 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.
Seven people were also
arrested yesterday in the Amazonian province of Sucumbios in another
show of resistance against the OCP pipeline. Members of two local farming
families near Lago Agrio were dispersed with tear gas by police. Two
children were among those detained.
On Monday Julia Butterfly,
best known for her 738 day tree sit 200 feet atop a 2000-year old threatened
California old-growth redwood tree, accompanied Mindo community members
to re-occupy OCP’s construction site in the Mindo Nambillo Cloudforest
Reserve. Construction has now illegally advanced 200 meters inside
community-owned property. A judge will visit the site Friday, accompanied
by local community members, to issue a ruling on the property demarcation.
Lead financer of the
project, German bank WestLB, has come under intense fire for syndicating
a $900 million loan to the OCP in violation of its own lending policies.
The loan, which does not meet minimum World Bank environmental guidelines
has sparked public outrage in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia
(NWR), which holds a 43 percent stake in WestLB. US bank, Citigroup
has also been highlighted as a top lender to consortium members.
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). JP Morgan Chase is financial
advisor for the project.
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