The Ecuadorian Constitution, oriented by guidelines of International Law, has established a multi-cultural State, and devotes one of its chapters to the collective rights of the indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian peoples. Since approval in 1998, new possibilities have arisen regarding claims of such rights before courts, as well as their development in domestic laws.In Ecuador's Amazonian regions, there are two cases in which indigenous peoples have made use of the new legal mechanisms to defend their collective rights against the oil industry. Both cases demonstrate the aggressiveness with which oil companies -allied with the government and the World Bank - impose their "public relations programs" in indigenous territories, applying the same divide-and-conquer dynamics historically used by the oil industry in the legal arena. (Original in Spanish.)
Indigenous rights; Indigenous peoples; Ecuadorian Amazon; Oil industry; Right to consultation