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“What's wrong with them!” was heard in the Ecuadorian National Assembly on February 21.
The cry, directed at the current Minister of Energy and Mines of Ecuador, Andrea Arrobo, was more than a claim.
It was the expression of frustration of someone who feels mocked.
Jamileth Jurado took the microphone and interrupted.
She didn't ask permission.
“The lady from Energy and Mines spoke nonsense, she doesn't know what she is talking about,” said the 16-year-old teenager before the astonished gaze of the authorities.
That day, the Legislative Biodiversity Commission had convened ministers, community leaders and organizations of peoples and nationalities to find out the progress in compliance with the sentence of the 'Lighters Case', regarding the lawsuit of nine girls affected by gas burning. natural in the Amazon.
“Let the death of so many people remain on your conscience,” Jamileth said before leaving the legislative palace, pointing her finger at the central table of the assembly.
In July 2021, the court ruled in favor of nine minors under 15 years of age who sued the Ecuadorian State.
Jamileth is one of them.
The ruling forces oil companies to turn off the 447 metal tubes distributed in the Amazon that burn natural gas, as part of crude oil extraction, and whose contamination has a harmful impact on health.
But little has been done.
The Union of People Affected by Texaco's Oil Operations (Udapt), which sponsors the young activists, denounces that 486 lighters are currently operating.
What until a while ago felt like a victory was the beginning of a process where Jamileth and her eight companions have become one of the most uncomfortable pieces on the political board, when it comes to climate justice.
This has made them a target of persecution and even violence, as they have reported.
Jamileth Jurado, 16, takes the microphone in front of the Ecuadorian National Assembly.
MULLU TV
Toxic extractivism
Jamileth was born in Shushufindi, in the Amazonian province of Sucumbíos and home of the Kichwa, Shuar and Siekopai peoples.
There is the Limoncocha Biological Reserve, considered one of the most biodiverse territories in the world that in 1998 was declared a Ramsar site, which means that its water sources can be decisive for the functioning of ecosystems.
It is also an area where thousands of barrels of oil are processed daily and more than 200 burners operate, according to Udapt.
As already explained in América Futura, these metal 'torches' were initially installed in the jungle by the multinational Chevron-Texaco in the 1960s and, since then, they have multiplied, mainly in the area of Sucumbíos and Orellana, 275 kilometers away. northeast of Quito.
The flame they expel vomits gases such as carbon dioxide and monoxide, sulfur and nitrogen oxides, methane, propane, butane and benzene.
Jamileth lives about 200 meters from a 24/7 cigarette lighter.
“He is nauseating because the smells are too strong and with the sound he makes you can't even sleep,” he describes.
Gas combustion emits millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere and is one of the largest contributors to climate change.
Furthermore, the health effects are devastating, especially for women.
A study by Udapt and the Environmental Clinic indicates that the incidence of cancer is 2.6 times more frequent in women than in men.
Jamileth's mother is a survivor of this disease.
Jamileth (16), Leonela Moncayo (13), Rosa Valladolid (13), Skarlett Naranjo (11), Kerly Herrera (11), Denisse Núñez (16), Dannya Bravo (11), Mishell Mora (19) and Jeyner Tejena ( 17) met years ago through the Environmental Clinic, an NGO that promotes the right to health and life of communities.
“There they fight for the well-being of the environment and also for our health.
Doctors come and treat people with oncological diseases,” explains Jamileth.
In the Amazon there is no specialized hospital, despite the level of exposure to the effects of oil extraction.
And that is another of her complaints.
Jamileth, Leonela Moncayo, Rosa Valladolid, Skarlett Naranjo, Kerly Herrera, Denisse Núñez, Dannya Bravo, Mishell Mora and Jeyner Tejena traveled from Sucumbíos to Quito to hold a sit-in in front of the Constitutional Court.
UDAPT
An adult-centred state
When she was younger, Jamileth dreamed of having “a body made of oak.”
That's why, at the age of seven, she entered a
boxing
ring for the first time.
She is the youngest of the seven Jurado Silva siblings and the only woman.
A decade ago she did not imagine that her training in martial arts and boxing would also prepare her mentally to fight a fight that would last years.
That's not over yet.
The chronology begins on February 20, 2020, when the nine girls presented a Protection Action against the Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources and the Ministry of the Environment, Water and Ecological Transition for the burning of associated gas in more than 447 lighters. of the oil industry.
In July 2021, the court declared that “the Ecuadorian State violates the rights to live in a healthy and ecologically balanced environment, to health, to water and the rights of Nature.”
The judges ordered the elimination of all flares that affect populations and the corresponding studies to determine contaminated water sources and the impact of toxic hydrocarbons on human health.
Jamileth was 11 years old when the process began and some of her classmates had barely learned to read and write, but they were clear about how pollution marked their lives.
Several of them have seen her family get sick and die.
“Together we made a single force and that's how we have been fighting against it,” says Jamileth.
Now, the eloquence of her messages, the strength of her words and the clarity of her objectives demonstrate the preparation they have undergone.
They don't improvise.
There is a team that supports them.
They have law classes to understand the scope of the law and the viability of its demands.
That's why they don't settle.
Since they won the lawsuit, what they have received are public apologies.
It happened in April 2022, when a group of spokespersons from the then Government of Guillermo Lasso met with them.
Jamileth remembers that no ministers or secretaries came to the meeting, but rather substitute officials.
Not only has the sentence been ignored, but today they denounce retaliation.
Five days after the
impasse
in the Assembly, on February 26, an explosive device made of guadua cane, paper and a cardboard tube exploded in front of the house of Leonela Moncayo, another of the plaintiffs.
Organizations such as Amnesty International spoke out against what they described as “intimidation” of climate justice activism.
Leonela is 13 years old.
Then, five of the nine girls were detained in the early hours of March 12 when they were traveling from Sucumbíos to Quito to hold a sit-in in front of the Constitutional Court.
“The National Police and the military did not allow us passage to get to Quito, where we were going to hold a press conference, a forum and several marches,” Leonela denounced in a video.
The Armed Forces justified the retention of the bus that transported them by alleging that, due to the state of emergency in force in Ecuador, the uniformed officers had to inspect the vehicle.
Finally they reached the outside of the Court.
That day they led a march in the capital in which dozens of protesters joined to demand that the cigarette lighters be turned off and that they be allowed “a dignified life without pollution.”
According to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, children and young activists frequently receive “degrading and degrading comments, which call into question their experience, specialized knowledge and motivation.”
This is aggravated by “political discourses that use the age of girls and young human rights defenders to imply that they are being manipulated, recruited or indoctrinated.”
When Jamileth is asked if she is afraid, she does not hesitate to answer.
Her mahogany eyes light up and her hands reaffirm her response.
“I am going to raise my voice until the last cigarette lighter is eliminated from the Amazon.”