ECUADOR: Environmental campaigner assassinated

On November 4, just days after a Ecuador court began hearing a lawsuit against ChevronTexaco for damages caused in the Amazon rainforest since the 1970s, Angel Shingre, a well-known peasant leader and human rights campaigner, was assassinated in the city of Coca. Shingre played a key role in bringing to light the severity of the environmental problems caused by irresponsible oil exploration and production operations in Ecuador's Amazon region.

For more than 20 years, Shingre worked tirelessly to promote environmental rights and defend communities affected by the abuses of oil companies. At the time of his murder, he served as coordinator of the Office of Environmental Law in Ecuador's Orellana province. During his final weeks, he helped and advised communities that are organising to vindicate their rights against ChevronTexaco.

[From the Office of Environmental Law (Ecuador), via Friends of the Earth, Melbourne.]

From Green Left Weekly, November 12, 2003.

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From GLW issue 561