• Listen to this segment with Leo Cerda

• Listen to the entire program with Sonali Kolhatkar

A number of indigenous groups and farmers filed a complaint this week against oil-giant Chevron at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Their complaint cites Chevron’s refusal to cleanup part of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest, which impacts the health of communities directly, and amounts to – in their words – a “crime against humanity.” About 80 groups and organizations, representing tens of thousands of affected people, accused Chevron CEO John Watson of deliberately contributing to pollution of their environment. Ecuador’s government has demanded that Chevron pay nearly $10 billion in cleanup fines, which the company has so far ignored.

The Amazon rainforest is the largest such forest in the world and covers roughly the same area as the 48 contiguous United States. Parts of the Amazon lie in 8 different South American countries including Ecuador.

Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa in 2007 asked the global community to contribute to a fund to preserve the Yasuni National Park, a significant portion of Ecuador’s Amazon forest. The initiative, called Yasuni ITT, was eventually shelved and now plans are underway to drill for oil in one of the most bio-diverse places on the planet.

Tired of waiting for compensation or cleanup, groups like the ones taking Chevron to the ICC are taking matters into their own hands. Also refusing to wait any longer is a youth-led organization called Yasunidos, whose mission is to protect and preserve the Yasuni National Park and keep the oil where it belongs – in the ground.

GUEST: Leo Cerda is an indigenous activist (Kichwa), and a native of the city of Tena in the Ecuadorian Amazon and a member of Yasunidos Collective

Visit Yasunidos online at yasunidosinternational.wordpress.com