In the Amazon, the Coca region is the gateway to the Ecuadorian forest and the Waorani lands, one of the thirteen indigenous peoples recognized by Ecuador.
These people are today strongly threatened by the resurgence of oil exploitation which is at the origin of deforestation, the creation of oil retention pools and massive pollution of water, land and air on their territory.
The endangerment of this indigenous people and the biodiversity on which they live is the sad consequence of the intensification of the petroleum industry in Ecuador which currently represents about a third of the revenue of the public sector and is positioned as the main product of export with 7.731 billion dollars in 2019.
In a country so strongly dependent economically on "Black Gold", the political response to the environmental threat hanging over the Amazon and its inhabitants remains vague and uncertain.
"This jungle is natural, we have always been here living with animals in the forest, our territory was free, it was immense. These songs that we sing today are the same songs that our grandparents sang in our home territory. We sing to retake and conserve our territory."
Weya Cahuiya, activist Waorani from Nuneno village.
This decades-long conflict situation has returned to the forefront of public debate after the recent oil spills and the alarming report by the NGO Amazon Watch.
For two years, the northern region of the Ecuadorian Amazon has experienced a major crisis that remains under-documented and little publicized.
Locally, the UDAPT (Union of People Affected by Texaco Oil Operations) conducted a study and concluded that out of 5,000 people interviewed in villages in the region, 251 are victims of cancer diagnosed by a specialist doctor.
Iralda Zurita, 53, is in stage 4 of breast cancer.
Her daughter, Yaraira Macias, says the tumor was discovered 8 months ago because Iralda was in a lot of pain.
Unable to get treatment at the hospital in the region, the family went to Guayaquil in search of specialized treatments. In a few months the cancer evolved and contaminated other organs, forcing the family to go to Quito for treatment.
In an ultrasound, it was discovered that the cancer could already be in the liver. Iralda and her family live on a small farm 10 kilometers from the city of San Carlos, in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Near their lands, there are extraction fields and oil treatment facilities.
Iralda died 3 days after this photograph was made.
"I discovered my cancer 5 years ago, when I was playing volleyball, I looked to the sky, and I started to have seizures.
I got surgery, did chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
All oil exploration companies in this region are responsible for contamination and for the diseases of our people.
The contamination happens because no one
has ever done anything to prevent it. "
"The same situation has been going on for decades.
If it continues as it is, we will all die.
I am afraid for my children and for everyone
who lives in the Amazon.
There is only one way to end this suffering:
we need to end this exploitation. "
Edgar Bravo, 33, patient of cancer in the cerebellum.
Cancer patients, with cases attributed to pollution, were protagonists in denouncing the situation in the northern region of the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Their report subsequently resulted in a sentence by the provincial court for the Ecuadorian state to carry out remedial measures for the region.
"Jennifer had to amputate her leg after a domestic
accident and was already suffering a lot
from the pain of recovery.
A few months after the amputation, Jennifer did not improve, she was weak, she did not eat...
we took her to the doctor and we realized that
the platelets were lowering in the blood and
that I needed to take her to an oncologist.
On February 4, 2019, we discovered her leukemia
and spent 32 days with her in Quito.
During treatment, we spent months
together in the hospital "
Andrea Carolina Flores, 29, mother of Jennifer Camila Flores,
a 12-year-old leukemia patient.
"In 2016 I discovered my cancer, the doctor told me that I was already leaving stage 3 and entering the stage 4.
In 2018 I was operated and went back to
surgery the following year.
There is an oil well 400 meters from my house and many acquaintances say that the diseases we have come
from the contamination of these structures.
At home I started to raise my own animals for consumption because I cannot eat food with hormones, due to my illness.
So I live, I survive on my own things. "
Mery Ayala Lopez, 50, resident of Sushufindi, Sucumbíos
"It is very difficult to live near the pipes, in the region we
have already had hundreds of leaks, more than
ten pipes pass through my land.
To get down in my yard I have to go under the pipe.
The structures are very hot during the day, when the
rain falls over the pipelines it gets evaporated by the heat. "
Nicola Chinkim, indigenous Shuar ethnicity, lives with his wife Maribbel Wanpotsar and his daughter on the edge of Via Auca.
"I have lived in this region for 50 years and a few years, I worked at Texaco, I worked a year at Petroamazonas, from 2008 to 2010 I worked for Petroecuador and from 2012 to 2020
I returned to work with Petroamazonas.
I lost 3 children to different diseases.
My 32-year-old son died of tuberculosis and my two
daughters, 12 and 24 years old died of cancer.
The river that flows at the back of my land was pure oil.
I did everything to report what happened to me.
Last year I retired and started to receive 900 dollars a month, which is a good remuneration for a peasant, but at what price? "
José Mashumar, lives on the edge of Via Auca, the road
that connects Coca to the interior of the Amazon.