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Dozens of protesters supporting the removal of lighters in the Amazon arrived this morning at the ground floor of the Constitutional Court, demanding that the body quickly rule on the protections requested more than two years ago.
With songs, slogans and long speeches, they asked the judge in charge of the case, Richard Ortiz, to pay attention to their demands. The protesters who arrived were representatives from Aguarico, Sucumbios and Orellana Amazonas. But there were also some who had participated in a fast in the previous days in the facilities of the El Guirón church, demanding compliance with the ruling of the Sucumbios Provincial Court and the ruling of the Constitutional Court.
This issue has arisen since 2021, when the Sucumbios Provincial Court ruled in favor of nine Amazon girls who had asked for the elimination of flares, considering them harmful to the environment and the health of the population. However, the ruling did not clarify which flares burning associated gas from oil fields should be eliminated and within what deadline.
Regarding this issue, Pablo Fajardo, the lawyer of the plaintiff girl, explained that unfortunately, there are still certain provisions in the court’s ruling that allow the state to evade compliance. One of the main problems is that the ruling provides for the elimination of lighters close to the population, but does not specify what these lighters are, nor whether close to the rural population or the urban population. This vacuum allowed PetroEcuador to implement a regulation that states that the nearby lighters are those 100 meters from the town. These are very rare.
To this end, the Court was requested to take special protection action to examine whether the compensation measures could be implemented immediately.
The court has indicated to them that they will send the cases in the order they come in. However, considering that when such relevant issues arise and lives are at stake, exceptions can be made and dealt with expeditiously, this special request has been made.
He also explained that after the fasting to demand compliance with the judgment, PetroEcuador reported that 145 lighters had been eliminated. However, he explained that this was wrong. What happened was that they closed some lighters but redirected them to gas stations. That is why now there are giant monsters that are affecting the population.
The fast, which lasts 11 days, will be lifted today. Txarly Azcona, a Capuchin missionary working in the Aguarico vicariate, who also participated in the fast, assured that among the burners that have been extinguished there are some old ones and confirmed that the gas will flow elsewhere and continue at the giant burners. He commented that what is not understood is why it is not used if the light natural gas represents even possible economic revenue for the Ministry of Finance. He indicated that if it were possible to exploit this resource, it would cost about US$ 1.3 billion “to generate. . . The field is operated by PetroEcuador.
Ecuador’s state-run oil company has tried to launch concession procedures for private companies to exploit the gas, but those procedures have failed at least three times.
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