1995-10-01a- CIA Conference Report: THE CHALLENGE OF ETHNIC CONFLICT TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORDER IN THE 1990S GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES 01-Oct-95

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I would like to reiterate a point that Professor Elbow Ecuador has, according to the latest reports, something
made, which is that virtually all the conflicts today in on the order of about 20 years worth of oil left, and,
Central America and also in South America are over as far as I can determine, industry and government are
land and resources. Indian populations inhabit rich trying to get it out in 15 years. The government has
forested areas, and there is a push-not necessarily by allowed the oil companies to move into areas that are
the state but often by a combination of corrupt and supposedly reserved for Indians and are not supposed
greedy government officials, landless peasants, and to be exploited. The oil companies can pretty much go
multinationals-to resettle the Indians and to take wherever they want to. Now, because of bad press, the
resources away from them. government and the oil companies as well have had to
do a little bit to clean up their act. So pollution has per-
In Central America the problem areas will be the low- haps been reduced, but the real problem is that where
lands. An examination of the remaining forestry oil companies go, others follow. The development of
resources of the region shows the correspondence roads by the oil companies has led to the opening up of
between the forests and the lands currently inhabited the region to colonization. When oil companies clear a
by the region's Indian populations. Although there are little stretch of road that is 10 meters or more wide, the
incipient indigenous group organizations throughout colonists come in and take out the rest.
the areas, they are not strong enough to present any
real opposition to outside forces. These organizations MR. CHAPIN: Initially, when the oil development
will need to be nurtured if they are going to be helpful started down in the Amazon area, CONOCO and an
in protecting the region's remaining natural endow- Indian group was involved. Then the National
ment. Resources Defense Counsel and others became
engaged. The theory behind the outside involvement
was that negative publicity would pressure CONOCO
General Discussion to act responsibly. A lot of NGOs then got involved,
Indian groups protested CONOCO actions, and
QUESTION: Would either of you like to comment on CONOCO pulled out. When CONOCO left, a number
the possibility of racial strife in Cuba? of small wildcat groups, who could not be pressured
on anything, went in and started taking it over. So that
MR. CHAPIN: I don't think that's an issue. is the current situation.
DR. ELBOW: Most of the whites are living in Miami. QUESTION: The UN working group on the rights of
What's left, from my understanding, is a fairly pre- indigenous people has been developing a declaration
dominantly mulatto and black population. that will eventually work its way up in the UN system.
This declaration addresses the issue of rights and con-
QUESTION: Would either or both speakers comment trol of resources by indigenous peoples. Do you see
further on the role of nonstate actors such as NGOs much of a chance for this declaration being passed by
and industry in conflicts in the region? I'm thinking in the UN, and, if so, how would that impact upon the
particular of attempts to develop oil in Ecuador. relationship between indigenous peoples and the
state? Would it tend to lessen friction or increase it?
DR. ELBOW: Yes, I am quite familiar with the case of
Ecuador. Both industry-in particular, but not exclu- MR. CHAPIN: I don't think it will have much effect
sively, the oil industry-and NGOs are active. They are at all simply because any resolution passed by the
engaged in a sort of holy war, if you want to think of it UN has no legal status in any of these countries. If
that way, over the Amazon. The NGOs are trying to
preserve what's left of the resources, and the oil compa-
nies and the government are attempting to mine them.
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