Eduardo Mendúa, an A’i Cofán Indigenous leader, was shot dead on February 26 outside his home in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Mendúa was an outspoken opponent of oil drilling in A’i Dureno, an Indigenous A’i Cofán community located on the banks of Aguarico river in the Sucumbíos province, where Ecuador’s government authorized exploration of 30 oil wells.
Mendúa helped lead the Confederation of Indigenous Nations of Ecuador (Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador, CONAIE), an association of representatives from all Indigenous nations. He organized a group of forest defenders in A’i Dureno that blocked roads to prevent personnel from EP PetroEcuador, Ecuador’s state-owned oil company, from entering A’i Cofán territory. Oil projects have divided the A’i Cofán, a nation of 1,200 people.
Oil exploration and production has caused extensive damage to the Ecuadorian Amazon and its inhabitants. Of a total of 65 oil concessions, 63 overlap with Indigenous territories. The government acknowledges a total of 1,202 oil spills over the past decade.
— source hrw.org | March 3, 2023