Climate Litigation Cases in Latin America and the Caribbean

On December 10, 2020, members of the Waorani Nation and non-governmental organizations promoted a protection action before the Judicial Unit in the Amazon region, because the Chinese oil company PetroOriental SA was contaminating ancestral territories and violating their constitutional rights, due to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) that cause climate change.

This landmark case was first filed in 1993. The lawsuit alleged that from 1964 to 1992, Texaco (acquired by Chevron in 2001) operated in the Ecuadorian Amazon, dumping more than 16 billion gallons of toxic waste and affecting approximately 30,000 people, including indigenous communities. It was one of the first rulings in Ecuador's history in which affected communities took on an oil company and won a court judgment.

In 2018, with the support and solidarity of other Indigenous nations and organizations aligned with the struggle, representatives of the A'i Cofán Sinangoe people filed a writ of amparo (a constitutional protection action) against five ministries and government agencies, seeking the suspension of several mining concessions granted in the riverine areas of the Aguarico, Chingual, and Cofanes rivers.