Lago Agrio, in the Ecuadorian Amazon forest, is the capital city of the northern province of Sucumbíos. An ancestral land of the Cofan and Siona Secoya indians, where, in the mid Sixties, large oil reserves have been discovered and soon exploited by oil companies such as Chevron and, later on, Texaco. Since the 1970’s, the impact of oil wells and extensive drilling has been devastating: heavy pollution of rivers and land, a strong increase of cancer rate, natives uprooted from their villages. Following a long class action, on February 15th, 2011, Texaco was obliged to compensate 30 thousand inhabitants of the Sucumbíos province – who called themselves Los Afectados, the Sick Ones - with 8.6 billion U.S. dollars. Pablo Fajardo, thier attorney, estimates that more than 2,000 people have died of tumors caused by oil waste-related pollution.
