BILLY Clarke McIntire (72) lives alone in a small wooden house in Misahuali on the banks of the Napo River in Ecuador. The tiny nondescript village is mainly noted for the capuchin monkeys that roam unchecked creating mayhem and mischief.
I first met Billy in 1983 in the Andean city of Quito selling exotic butterflies on Avenida Rio Amazonas. The following week I made the six-hour bus journey to Mishuali. Over several cups of tea I listened to the story of her Scottish and Irish ancestry that began with the building of the Panama Canal. Add some indigenous blood and you have the DNA of this fascinating woman of the Amazon.
Since that first meeting her village has always been on my agenda whenever I travel to Ecuador. Through the years I have watched as the butterflies gave way to guided tours in the Amazon rainforest. Earlier this year I travelled with Billy by canoe up her beloved Yanamani river to visit her tourist lodges perched on a buff overlooking a wide bend in the river.
As darkness descended howler monkeys screamed their presence above in the tree canopy, the acoustic talents of the cicadas never ceased and far to the west bursts of lightning lit the sky above the tree line. Also to the west between the Napo And Curaray rivers lived several communities of the feared Huaorani people. Often known by the derogatory name of Aucas, many of these forest dwellers continue a hunter gatherer existence using blowpipes and curare coated darts to paralyse their prey and tough chonta spears to kill their enemies.
Due, however, to several decades of pacification and aggressive evangelisation, only the Tagaeri branch of the family remain on a war footing.
The pacification of the Huaorani began in the early 1950s when Shell began oil exploration in Ecuador’s pristine rainforest. The oil company, unprepared for the aggression shown by the Huaorani, encouraged the controversial United States missionary group, Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) to establish themselves in the area. Thus began a symbiotic relationship with oil companies that lasted until the government expelled the fundamentalists in 1980. The religious dependence created by the missionaries enabled the oil companies to take over Huaorani land without having to “resort to a high level of violence”. Though the indigenous had legal title to the land, anything below the soil belonged to the government. In 1956 the pacification strategy had its first setback when five missionaries were speared to death at a church settlement in Curaray.
BY THE MID 1960s Texaco had begun its oil exploration and by now the booming oil industry was operating with virtually no environmental or public health controls. The indigenous people began to show the effects of many diseases including unprecedented levels of cancer. Luis Yanza, of the Frente de Defensa de Amazonia, said “this was an environmental crime of epic proportions that has created a black plague through the Amazon”.
Shortly after The Irish Timesreported the killings by chonto spears of the Capuchins Bishop Alejandra Labaca and Sister Ines Arango in July 1987 I travelled to the area and visited Lago Agrio, the oil capital of Ecuador.
The town, hot as an outdoor furnace, reeked from the smell of oil, giant Bunsen type burners burned off surplus gas above untreated pools of waste. Emancipated indigenous men lay drunk in the streets and young tribal women acted as prostitutes to the oil workers.
Roads, that had controversially opened up indigenous land to colonists, were regularly sprayed with heavy crude oil for road maintenance and dust control. It was no surprise to learn that all drinking water was heavily contaminated. Farc guerrillas, from across the Columbian border, made regular kidnapping forays to collect a cash crop of oil workers giving this ugly town another dimension.
At no time did Texaco abide by international rules on oil exploration, saving themselves billions in a conscious decision to choose profit over lives. Between 1970 and 1992 the oil company had dumped in excess of 18.5 billion gallons of toxic waste in more than 600 unlined pits that continue to seep into the rivers of the Amazon. To put it into perspective it was the equivalent of 30 Exxon Valdez. In 1990 Robert F Kennedy Jr, visited the area and, appalled at the pollution and destruction left behind by Texaco said "Like most United States citizens I like to believe when American companies go abroad American values go with them, this hasn't happened in Ecuador. Today American-owned companies are leaving an ugly legacy of poverty and contamination in one of the most important forests on earth".
A SEISMIC CHANGE occurred in March 1992 when Ecuador celebrated the 500th anniversary of the “discovery” of South America, and thousands of indigenous people, including Huaorani, Shuar, Siona Secoya, Ashuar, Cofan and Quichua made the long journey to Quito to protest over the celebrations and the oil industry.
From informal meetings that week several indigenous organisations were formed and have remained active in a positive way ever since.
In 1993 a small group, dressed in traditional attire and representing the indigenous people of the Ecuadorian rainforest, made their way to a law office in Manhattan, New York, and began the legal battle against Chevron. Chevron had bought Texaco in 2001 and were therefore liable for the destruction of the rainforest.
In 2003, at Chevron’s request, the case was transferred to Ecuador. Recently the trial judge, sitting in Lago Agrio, completed the last of 102 field inspections and listened intently as the court-appointed expert, working with 14 scientists, estimated the damage at a record $27 billion. Judgment, probably before the end of the year, is expected to send a strong message to all multinationals working in the developing world.