They urge the Constitutional Court to uphold a landmark decision ordering the titling of part of their territory.

On Tuesday, a delegation of 160 members of the Amazonian Siekopaai community arrived in the Ecuadorian capital Quito to demand that their territorial rights be guaranteed.

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They seek that authorities comply with a court ruling ordering the titling of Pë’këya, part of the ancestral lands inhabited by the Indigenous nation.

In 2023, after more than 85 years of struggle, the Siekopaai nation secured the first court ruling on the recovery of ancestral territories located within protected areas in Ecuador.

The Environment Ministry, however, “refuses to comply with the ruling and sent the case to the Constitutional Court, further prolonging the wait for the elders who dream of returning to their ancestral territory and reconnecting with it,” Amazon Frontlines said.

Nine months ago, lawyer Jorge Acero filed an action for noncompliance before the Constitutional Court “because the Environment Ministry has failed for more than two and a half years to comply with a ruling issued by the Provincial Court of Sucumbios.”

The Siekopaai nation is asking that the case be resolved “promptly, urgently,” because it is unacceptable for the situation to remain as it is, Acero said, adding that the intervention of the Court is required given the lack of will and compliance by the institutions that are bound by the lower court’s ruling, which was final.

“The ruling was a historic precedent in Ecuador. It is the first time that judges, and hopefully soon the Constitutional Court, have been absolutely clear that this right must be fulfilled, guaranteed and respected,” Acero said, adding that without territory, “Indigenous peoples are condemned to cultural and even physical disappearance.”

In 2017, the Siekopaai nation asked the Environment Ministry to begin the process of granting title to part of its ancestral territory. This came after communities, with the support of anthropologists, had already carried out mapping, field visits, cultural continuity and territorial recovery activities. The Ecuadorian state, however, has failed to comply with the ruling, attorney Acero noted.

Consuelo Piaguaje, a young leader of the Siekopaai nation, stressed that the territory represents identity, worldview, and culture.

She also highlighted the importance for young people of returning to live in areas where their grandparents connected with the forest spirit. “For young people, this territory is important because we want to reconnect, we want to live again as Siekopaai. Title it now!” she stressed.

Recalling the Indigenous nation’s more than 80 years of struggle “to return to its territory,” Justino Piyaguaje said the Siekopaai are a cross-border people because they were “divided by policies and conflicts that had nothing to do with us.”

“Our families were left in both countries. In Ecuador we are 800 people, and in Peru around 1,200,” the Indigenous leader said, recalling that in 2023 they obtained a court ruling “to restore at least 42,360 hectares of the Siekopaai nation’s territory.”

“We cannot live amid social, cultural and economic divides. We are all called to live together in peace. The state has a historic debt to us,” Piyaguaje added.

The idea that Elon Musk’s new partnership with the Brazilian gov. and the environmentally destructive mining corporation, Vale, will help the Amazon in any way is highly unlikely, but will it help his ideological ally Bolsonaro stay in power? My report for @telesurenglish pic.twitter.com/789la0H2z2

— BrianMier (@BrianMteleSUR) May 21, 2022

teleSUR/ JF

Sources: EFE – Amazon frontlines

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