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- Elena Gálvezcoordinator of the climate caravan and a member of Yasunidos, a group opposing the Ecuadorean government’s plans to drill for oil in Yasuní National Park.
- Ariel Goodmanjournalist traveling with the climate caravan in Ecuador.
A caravan of environmental activists traveling to the United Nations climate summit in Lima, Peru, has been stopped by authorities in Ecuador and had their bus seized. Activists with the group Yasunidos departed from Quito on Monday to denounce the extraction of oil from Yasuní National Park, an area of the Amazon renowned for its biological diversity. The group says they were subjected to seven or eight stops in the first 24 hours of their trip, and ultimately stranded by the side of a highway last night, when authorities seized their bus. We go to Cuenca, Ecuador, where we’re joined by two guests: Elena Gálvez, coordinator of the climate caravan and a member of Yasunidos, a group that opposes oil drilling in Yasuní National Park; and Ariel Goodman, a journalist traveling with the caravan.
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AMY GOODMAN: As we end in Latin America, we turn to a caravan. Juan?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, a caravan of 17 environmental activists traveling to the United Nations climate summit in Lima, Peru, has been stopped by authorities in Ecuador, and their bus has been seized. Activists with the group Yasunidos departed from Quito on Monday to denounce the extraction of oil from Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park, an area of the Amazon renowned for its biological diversity. The group says they were subjected to seven stops in the first 24 hours of their trip and ultimately stranded by the side of a highway last night when authorities seized their refurbished school bus.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go to Cuenca, Ecuador, where we’re joined by two guests. Elena Gálvez is coordinator of the climate caravan, a member of Yasunidos. And Ariel Goodman is a journalist reporting from—for Wambra community radio in Ecuador as well as other outlets. She’s traveling with the climate caravan.
We’ll start with Ariel. We have just one minute for the two of you. Explain what happened, how you ended up at a police base last night.
ARIEL GOODMAN: Hi, Amy. Thanks for having us on. Basically, what happened last night is the result of the police having stalked our trip for the last 24 hours. Like Juan said, we’ve been stopped about eight times in the last 24 hours, all of this resulting in last night being taken to an unknown location. It was a police station on the side of a highway with no lights. There were no lights from about half a mile out either way on the highway, and were stranded there until 4:00 in the morning to find our own transportation.
AMY GOODMAN: Elena, why do you think you are being stopped like this and your school bus seized?
ELENA GÁLVEZ: Well, we think that maybe it’s because the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, doesn’t want that the world know what is happening with the national park, Yasuní, that is one of the most biodiverse places in the world, and what is happening with the right—politics right of the Yasunidos collective that was denied our right of referendum popular that we proposed to the government of Ecuador.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we’ll continue to follow your journey. We’ll be in Lima, [Peru], covering the U.N. climate summit all next week. Elena Gálvez, Ariel Goodman, thanks so much for joining us. Elena with the group Yasunidos.
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