Leonidas Iza

Ecuador: Victory for Uncontacted Tribes as Oil Drilling Blocked in Historic Referendum

Contacted Waorani woman in the Yasuní National Park © Anka Maldonado/Yasunidos In a historic referendum, people in Ecuador have voted to block oil drilling on uncontacted tribes’ land in the Yasuní National Park. Leonidas Iza, President of Ecuador’s national Indigenous organization CONAIE, said today: The Ecuadorian people, mindful of life, in solidarity with our uncontacted […]

How the US gov’t cultivated environmental and Indigenous groups to defeat Ecuador’s leftist Correísta movement

When socialist Rafael Correa became Ecuador’s president, CIA cutouts poured money into environmental and Indigenous groups, while the US embassy cultivated opportunistic leaders to undermine his constituency. These forces helped secure victory for right-wing banker Guillermo Lasso in 2021. (Aquí puedes leer este artículo en español.) The people of Ecuador were hit by a surprise in the April 2021 presidential election: Hard-right banker Guillermo Lasso, one of the richest and most corrupt oligarchs in the country, who had unsuccessfully run […]