By Blood and Fire
Before dawn on the Dec. 21, 2016, dozens of police raided the headquarters of the Shuar Federation (FISCH) in the Ecuadorian Amazon and arbitrarily detained its president, Agustin Wachapá. The indigenous leader was thrown to the ground and repeatedly stamped on and ridiculed beneath the boots of police in front of his wife. The police then razed the Shuar Federation’s office—turning
The American Borderlands and the Rights of the Child
Published on Esperanza Project: On Christmas Eve, 2018, in a remote corner of the Texan desert, Esperanza Project editor Tracy Barnett interviewed activists organizing a creative resistance against the detainment of thousands of youths at the now defunct Tornillo Child Detention Center. It was deep in winter and the wind bit at the chain-link fence as she spoke with El
War, Petroleum, and Profit
This is the final installment of “The Guardians of Mother Earth,” an exclusive four-part series examining the Indigenous U’wa struggle for peace in Colombia. The vast wetland savanna called Los Llanos stretches thousands of miles into Venezuela but it begins on the U’wa’s traditional territory at the base of the foothills below the cloud forests and paramos surrounding the sacred mountain
The legacy of Berito Cobaria
Published on IC Magazine: This is the third installment of “The Guardians of Mother Earth,” an exclusive four-part series examining the Indigenous U’wa struggle for peace in Colombia. In the cloud forests on the eastern cordillera of the Colombian Andes there is no internet, and phone reception is limited to a few lookouts on the craggy cliffs above the tree line.
They say the land is dead, but it lives yet
Published on IC Magazine: This is the second installment of “The Guardians of Mother Earth,” an exclusive four-part series examining the Indigenous U’wa struggle for peace in Colombia. Nestled below the snow-capped mountains on the eastern cordillera of the Colombian Andes is the town of Güicán, known internationally to hikers as the gateway to Colombia’s magnificent Cocuy National Park. To the
The Guardians of Mother Earth
Published on IC Magazine: This is the first installment of “The Guardians of Mother Earth,” an exclusive four-part series examining the Indigenous U’wa struggle for peace in Colombia. On September 23, 2015, in the Palace of Conventions in Havana, Cuba, his excellency Juan Manuel Santos, the President of the Republic of Colombia, and Commander Timoleon Jimenez, Chief of General Staff of
Pedro Canché: the Maya journalist running circles around Mexican media
Published on IC Magazine: Five days ago, the tropical island of Holbox, off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, caught fire. Reports of smoke billowing over the uninhabited southern tip of the island were first shared over social media on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 17, while Pedro Canché, known across the Yucatan as "the Maya journalist", prepared to interview Carlos Joaquin, the Governor-Elect of the
Ecuador’s Indigenous Uprising
Published on IC Magazine: As Andean winds carry mild amounts of ash from the mouth of the Cotopaxi volcano toward the Ecuadorian capital city of Quito, 500 kilometers away, a State of Emergency is in full effect. The government declared the State of Emergency last week purportedly in response to Cotopaxi’s eruption. However, many indigenous protesters, currently mobilized in an ongoing
A Massacre, An Oil Multinational and Chief Ompore’s Last Smile
Chief Ompore smiles at the animals projected on a PowerPoint presentation (click to enlarge) Chief Ompore couldn't stop smiling as he watched photos of Amazonian animals get projected across the Town Hall wall of Yarentaro - a remote village in Ecuador's Yasuní National Park inside what oil companies call "Block 16." It was the 14th of December 2012 and the Spanish oil
A Hidden Tragedy Translated: The Censored Book That Broke Ecuador’s Heart
Published on Chekhov's Kalashnikov: "At the end of march this year, 2013, in the jungles of Ecuador's northern orient, a great massacre of uncontacted indigenous was committed." opens the book A Hidden Tragedy. "Accomplished in a way that was abusive and cruel. Those eliminated, above all, where women and children." Seventeen minutes before the book was due to be presented to the
How Colombian Farmers Sparked a Movement that Brought the Government to its Knees
Published on Chekhovs Kalashnikov: Citizen Journalist Aida Castro in front of the hashtag she coined "Thankyou for believing in the #RevolutionOfTheRuanas" Its not every Sunday that the priest of a rural Colombian city called Tunja begins his sermon with a story of an illiterate Indian girl who grew up in the shadow of the British Empire. The 8th of September was not a
Vilma Vargas Uncensored: the Caricaturist drawing circles around Ecuador´s attacks on freedom of expression
Published on Chekhov's Kalashnikov: What happens to a democracy when its journalists and artists are too afraid to criticise those in power and express themselves freely? This is one of the questions we ask Vilma Vargas - a rising talent in the Ecuadorian art scene who was twice selected for the "World Press Cartoon" in Portugal and awarded first prize at RESET
Luis Xavier Solis on the 55,140 refugees in Ecuador less famous than Julian Assange
Today on Chekhov's Kalashnikov we are going to talk with Luis Xavier Solis Tenesaca who works for the Comittee of Human Rights of Orellana in the Ecuadorian Amazon. This organization which works closely with UNHCR is in charge of protecting and defending some of the worlds most vulnerable and forgotten people - refugees that have fled Colombians civil war in