Ecuador's national indigenous organization announced last week that is filing a legal complaint against the government, including President Rafael Correa, for complicity with "genocide" against indigenous people in the Amazon. The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) argues that expanding oil exploration and mining is imperiling the lives of "uncontacted" indigenous groups that have chosen voluntary isolation. Especially named are the Tagaeri, Taromenane, Oñamenane and Iwene ethnicities, all sub-groups of the Waorani nationality who are believed to live in the area of Yasuni National Park. The legal complaint argues that industrial exploitation of the Amazonian rainforest in Ecuador is causing a "cultural and physical disappearance" of these indigenous peoples, "which amounts to the crime of ethnocide or genocide." The move by CONAIE is unprecedented in Ecuador. (Mongabay, April 6; AFP, March 30; CONAIE, March 29)

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