"Enough is enough! Oil extraction has only brought us misery. We need to put an end to this destruction and start protecting our rights, territories, and cultures."

Hundreds of Ecuadorian Indigenous people took to the streets of the Amazonian town of Coca yesterday to demand justice for the ongoing impacts of the country’s largest oil spill in recent history.

A full year after 672,000 gallons of crude oil and fuel spilled from the country’s two major pipelines into the Coca and Napo rivers, there is still no comprehensive remediation nor redress for the 27,000 Kichwa Indigenous peoples affected.

Yesterday’s march for justice is a new beginning for an area ravaged by oil extraction. There has never been greater unity among Indigenous peoples across the Ecuadorian Amazon in demanding justice for spills and rights violations, and in rejecting any new plans for expanded resource extraction.