{"id":669,"date":"2014-02-22T23:50:39","date_gmt":"2014-02-22T23:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pueblosencamino.org\/wp\/?p=669"},"modified":"2014-02-22T23:50:39","modified_gmt":"2014-02-22T23:50:39","slug":"ecuador-pursued-china-oil-deal-while-pledging-to-protect-yasuni-papers-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pueblosencamino.org\/?p=669","title":{"rendered":"Ecuador pursued China oil deal while pledging to protect Yasuni, papers show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\tThe Guardian publica este art\u00edculo sobre el Ecuador de Correa citando documentos que demuestran c\u00f3mo Ecuador vend\u00eda el Yasun\u00ed a los Chinos mientras lo defend\u00eda en discursos. Una cosa es lo que habla, otra contraria lo que hace. \u00bfQuienes lo defienden, conf\u00edan en su palabra e ignoran los hechos? \u00bfActuar as\u00ed es ser solidarios con la izquierda y contra el capitalismo extractivista y el r\u00e9gimen de despojo? \u00bfC\u00f3mo As\u00ed? \u00abNegotiations took place while the country sought funds to forgo oil exploitation in pristine forest under the Yasuni-ITT scheme<\/em>\u00ab<\/p>\n

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\t <\/p>\n

\tEcuador pursued China oil deal while pledging to protect Yasuni, papers show<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\tA demonstrator holds a sign that reads in Spanish ‘Ecuador doesn’t love life’ during a protest outside the government palace in Ecuador, August 2013 at plans to adandon the initiative where rich countries would pay Ecuador not to drill for oil in the pristine Yasuni rainforest. Photograph: Dolores Ochoa\/AP<\/p>\n

\tThe Ecuadorian government was negotiating a secret $1bn deal with a Chinese bank to drill for oil under the Yasuni national park in the Amazon while pursuing a high-profile scheme to keep the oil under the ground in return for international donations, according to a government document seen by the Guardian.<\/p>\n

\tThe proposed behind-the-scenes deal, which traded drilling access in exchange for Chinese lending for Ecuadorian government projects, will dismay green and human rights groups who had praised Ecuador for its pioneering Yasuni-ITT Initiative to protect the forest. Yasuni is one of the most biodiverse places in the world and home to indigenous peoples \u2013 some of whom are living in what Ecuador’s constitution calls \u00abvoluntary isolation\u00bb.<\/p>\n

\tThe initiative \u2013 which was abandoned by Ecuador’s government last year \u2013 is seen as a way to protect the Amazon, biodiversity and indigenous peoples’ territories, as well as combat climate change, break Ecuador’s dependency on oil and avoid causing the kind of social and environmental problems already caused by oil operations in the Ecuadorian rainforest.<\/p>\n

\t\u00abThis raises serious doubts about whether the government was truly committed to keeping ITT oil in the ground,\u00bb said Atossa Soltani, from NGO Amazon Watch and a former ambassador for the initiative. \u00abWhile we were promoting the Yasuni initiative to donors, the government was offering ITT’s crude to China.\u00bb<\/p>\n

\tThe document, titled China Development Bank Credit Proposal, bears the name of Ecuador’s Ministry of Economic Policy Co-ordination on every page. Under the heading Results of the 1st Negotiating Round: Preliminary agreements, which took place between 13-23 May 2009, it states: \u00abLast minute clause: The Ecuadorian party has said it will do all it can to help PetroChina and Andes Petroleum explore ITT and Block 31.\u00bb<\/p>\n

\tITT refers to the Ishpingo, Tambococha and Tiputini oil fields \u2013 the first two under Yasuni, the last partially \u2013 and Block 31 is an oil concession immediately to the ITT’s west. PetroChina is a listed company controlled by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), owned by the Chinese state, and Andes Petroleum is a joint venture between CNPC and another state-run Chinese firm.
\t\"\"
\tThe objective of the Chinese negotiators was in part to \u00abguarantee the supply of crude oil for PetroChina in the medium term\u00bb, while the Ecuadorian government wanted to \u00abobtain access to a favourable line of credit to finance priority projects,\u00bb the document says.<\/p>\n

\tThe proposed deal was that the China Development Bank, would lend \u00abno less than US$1bn in the first phase\u00bb to \u00abEcuador’s Ministry of Finance or an entity designated by Ecuador’s government\u00bb.<\/p>\n

\tBut while these negotiations were taking place, Ecuador was appealing to potential donors to support the Yasuni-ITT Initiative \u2013 a scheme that emerged from civil society and was adopted by president Rafael Correa’s government in 2007, with a trust set up in 2008 to collect donations.<\/p>\n

\tThe details have changed over time, but the fundamental concept is to forgo exploiting the millions of barrels of oil in the ITT fields \u2013 estimated to be 20% of Ecuador’s total oil deposits \u2013 in return for financial compensation.<\/p>\n

\tIn August last year Correa abandoned his government’s support for the initiative and announced he wanted oil operations to go ahead \u2013 triggering protests and other opposition in Ecuador and abroad, a government backlash, and fervent speculation about why it failed.<\/p>\n

\tCorrea laid most of the blame on the lack of donations \u2013 just over US$2m in the government trust and just under US$10m in another trust set up in 2010 and administered by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), despite an ultimate target of US$3.6bn.<\/p>\n

\tHowever, others have pointed the finger at pressure from Ecuador’s oil sector and the country’s relationship with China, which has seen the former increasingly dependent on the latter for financing and Chinese companies’ obtaining a near monopoly on Ecuador’s oil and being linked to Yasuni in particular.<\/p>\n

\tCorrea himself has also been heavily criticised and accused of failing to convince potential donors he was serious about the initiative \u2013 especially given his refusal to abandon a \u00abplan B\u00bb to exploit ITT and the fact that operations were permitted in Block 31 where deposits are so small that many see it as the first phase of an eventual move into ITT.<\/p>\n

\t\u00abThe document shows that in 2009 Ecuador’s government negotiated with China to do all it could so Chinese oil companies can explore in ITT and Block 31, contradicting the Yasuni-ITT Initiative that was in effect at the time,\u00bb says Alexandra Almeida, from Ecuadorian NGO Acci\u00f3n Ecologica.<\/p>\n

\tLast October it was agreed that donors to the UNDP trust could choose between having their donations returned or reinvested in other projects in Ecuador. To date, more than US$2m has been given back.<\/p>\n

\tEcuadorians who continue to support the Yasuni-ITT Initiative are aiming to force a referendum and must collect 600,000 signatures by 12 April \u2013 a move countered by the government, that wants its own referendum in favour of oil operations.<\/p>\n

\tRafael Correa’s office declined to comment.<\/p>\n

\t        The Guardian, Wednesday 19 February 2014 15.57 GMT<\/span><\/strong><\/a>
\t        Jump to comments (163)
\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Guardian publica este art\u00edculo sobre el Ecuador de Correa citando documentos que demuestran c\u00f3mo Ecuador vend\u00eda el Yasun\u00ed a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c35-contradiciones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pueblosencamino.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pueblosencamino.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pueblosencamino.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pueblosencamino.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pueblosencamino.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pueblosencamino.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pueblosencamino.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pueblosencamino.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pueblosencamino.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pueblosencamino.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}