Robinson Yumbo, President of the National Indigenous Federation of the Cofan People on the multi-billion dollar woes of Chevron in Ecuador Story Transcript PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay, coming to you from Baltimore. As we reported in a conversation with Antonia Juhasz—and if you haven’t seen […]
Author Archives: Robinson Yumbo
Robinson Yumbo is the President of the National Indigenous Federation of the Cofan Tribe (FEINCE) in Ecuador. Born in Lago Agrio, the oil town founded by Texaco, Robinson has lived his entire life in the community of Cofan Dureno along the shores of the AguaRico river. As a child, he witnessed firsthand the environmental devastation caused by Texaco’s (now Chevron’s) operations in the ancestral territory of the Cofan people. What was once the Cofan people’s ancestral territory was transformed by Texaco (Chevron) into a massive oil field, characterized by continuous spills, the deliberate dumping of toxic wastewater into rivers and streams, and 24-hour flaring of natural gas. Robinson witnessed the onset of a public health crisis within the Cofan community, including spontaneous miscarriages, birth defects and cancer. Texaco’s oil operations also opened up the Cofan territory to uncontrolled migration, in the form of homesteading colonists, a phenomenon which led to large scale deforestation (illegal mining and logging operations), the reduction of ancestral territory, the loss of game, and severe cultural threats.
