Ecuadorians protest proposed rainforest land sale to China.
The government of Ecuador is in talks with China to auction away three million hectares of untouched Amazonian rainforest.
Chinese oil companies are the expected buyers of the land, which is being disputed by indigenous people.
Meetings about bidding contracts that have been held in Ecuador’s capital of Quito, as well as in Houston, Texas, and Paris, France have all been protested by groups advocating for the land rights of the indigenous people of the Amazon.
An organization that includes various indigenous groups issued a statement saying: “We demand that public and private oil companies across the world not participate in the bidding process that systematically violates the rights of seven indigenous nationalities by imposing oil projects in their ancestral territories.”
The government of Ecuador is facing financial pressure from China, that is now giving them more foreign aid than any other country.
Ecuador has taken out a 2 billion dollar loan from the China Development Bank.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the loan agreement was negotiated at the same time as the sale of oil to China.
