Latin American Struggles| Extractive Politics, Media Power, and New Waves of Resistance Against Oil Drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon: The Case of Yasunidos

Authors

  • Diana Coryat Universidad de las Américas (UDLA) Quito, Ecuador

Keywords:

batalla mediática (media battle), journalistic field, social movements, Yasunidos, extractivism, Amazon, eco-territorial conflict, Yasuní ITT, media power, cultural politics.

Abstract

This essay examines a highly mediated socioenvironmental conflict between the Ecuadoran government and a social movement called Yasunidos. The dispute focuses on the government’s proposal to drill for oil in the Yasuní, one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet, located in the Ecuadoran Amazon. Whereas the government has argued that oil drilling is necessary to reduce poverty and develop the region, Yasunidos has argued that such policies lead to environmental damage, increased poverty, and the extinction of indigenous peoples. I chart the emergence of this movement, examining how Yasunidos has contested not only the decision to drill for oil but the notion of development deployed by the government. It has done so in the streets, plazas, political institutions, and diverse media platforms. 

Author Biography

Diana Coryat, Universidad de las Américas (UDLA) Quito, Ecuador

Diana Coryat is a communications scholar and community media producer.  Her work is situated at the intersection of media and communications research, social movement studies, and cultural politics. She is a co-founder of Global Action Project, an acclaimed youth media organization in NYC and has worked with media collectives across the Americas. She lives in Quito, Ecuador, and conducts research on social movement-state relations from a communication perspective. She is Director of Research in the Faculty of Communication and professor in the film school, at the Universidad de las Américas in Quito, Ecuador. She is a doctoral candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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Published

2015-11-16

Issue

Vol. 9 (2015)

Section

Special Sections

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