Indigenous groups criticize Ecuador’s $47 billion oil expansion plan in Amazon

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Seven Indigenous groups in Ecuador’s Amazon have denounced a government plan to offer dozens of blocks of land for oil exploration, saying it threatens their ancestral lands and violates constitutional protections.

The criticism targets a plan from the Ministry of Energy and Mines in August to auction the rights for 49 oil and gas projects worth more than $47 billion.

Officials say the “hydrocarbon roadmap” is a strategy to modernize Ecuador’s oil industry, attract foreign capital and boost production. Their plan includes contract renegotiations and new licensing rounds that the government says comply with existing legal frameworks.

Indigenous groups say 18 of the proposed oil blocks overlap their territories — an area roughly the size of Belgium.

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