In August 2023, millions of Ecuadorians made history. The country became the first to keep fossil fuels in the ground by popular vote, with an overwhelming 60% choosing to keep over 700 million barrels of crude permanently in the ground underneath Yasuní National Park. It was a major victory for Indigenous peoples, biodiversity, and the climate in a country that is the largest producer of Amazon crude and which has seen decades of contamination and rights abuses at the hands of the oil industry.

But now, the government seeks to upend the will of voters and continue drilling in Yasuní under the pretense of funding the country’s escalating conflict with organized crime.

President Daniel Noboa announced his support this week for a “moratorium” on implementing the referendum results for at least a year, backing away from a campaign promise and declarations he made that the referendum results would be respected. At the time, he said that the country didn’t have to keep drilling like “back in the stone age” and questioned the economic logic of continuing to drill in Yasuní, saying, “If I were to make any money, it would be very little.”

Ecuador's highest court has already ruled that state-run oil company Petroecuador only has until August – one year after the vote – to end drilling, remove all infrastructure, and remediate the damage already done to Yasuní. 

Despite all of this, the president now claims that continued drilling is needed to help finance the country’s state of emergency and restore order following a surge of violence from drug cartels.