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Crude Reflections 1

Maria Aguinda, of the Kichwa indigenous group, with her family on the oil-soaked Via Auca in the family’s village of Rumipamba in 1993. Aguinda is the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit against Chevron (formerly Texaco) seeking a clean up of petroleum contamination in the Amazon rainforest.

Maria Aguinda, of the Kichwa indigenous group, with her family on the oil-soaked Via Auca in the family’s village of Rumipamba in 1993. Aguinda is the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit against Chevron (formerly Texaco) seeking a clean up of petroleum contamination in the Amazon rainforest.

A boy stands on an oil pipeline built in the jungle near Lago Agrio. Secoya elder Esteban Lucitante prays for peace before a march against Chevron (formerly Texaco). Traveling by canoe with the Achuar on the Pastaza River to the village of Sharamentza. Kapawi Lagoon in the rainforest in Achuar territory in the southern Amazon. An Achuar guide looks at a giant Cebu tree in the rainforest near the village of Kapawi. A traditional dance in the Achuar village of Sharamentza. A view of the Pastaza River, a major tributary of the Amazon River, in the Achuar territory of the southern Amazon. Oil waste pit fire in Shushufindi in 1993. Oil rises to the surface from a waste pit covered with dirt near Coca in 1993. Flor Valarezo with her daughter Liliana Cecilia in Sacha, shows the skin problems on her leg which doctors say could be cancer. Maria Aguinda, of the Kichwa indigenous group, with her family on the oil-soaked Via Auca in the family’s village of Rumipamba in 1993. Aguinda is the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit against Chevron (formerly Texaco) seeking a clean up of petroleum contamination in the Amazon rainforest. A waste pit filled with crude oil left by Texaco lies in a rainforest clearing near the town of Sacha. A worker siphons crude oil in 1993 from a waste pit left by Texaco near Dureno. This oil was later used to spread on roads in the area to keep the dust down. Cofan leader Emergildo Criollo stands in front of the flares of a separation plant in the Guanta oil fields. The plant was built by Texaco on Cofan ancestral territory. A family washes clothes and bathes under an oil pipeline in a polluted river near Lago Agrio. Highly toxic production water pours into a waste pit in Dureno in 1993. Nine-year-old Jairo Yumbo shows his deformed hand on the Via Auca in front of his home in Rumipamba. Maria Villacis shows the scars from four operations on her liver and gallbladder at her farm near Guanta Oil Well #8. Maria Villacis sweeps in front of her barn on her farm near Guanta oil well #8. Villacis is sick from drinking contaminated water. Modesta Briones in her house near Parahuaco Oil Well #2. Doctors amputated her lower leg because of a cancerous tumor. Dolores Morales, at her home in Sacha, holds a photo of her nineteen-year-old son Pedro who died of cancerous tumors. Dolores Morales with her fifteen-year-old son Jose who suffers from leukemia at their home in Sacha. Juana Apolo walks out of a cemetary in La Andina where her father, brother and sister are buried, all of whom died of cancer. At her home in La Andina, Amanda Armijos, sister-in-law of Juana Apolo, stands in front of a photo of herself and husband Saul Apolo who died of stomach cancer. At her home in La Andina, Amanda Armijos holds the death certificate of her husband Saul Apolo which lists stomach cancer as the cause of death. Uterine cancer victim Rosana Sisalima with her granddaughter at their home in San Carlos in 2004. Rosana died in 2006. Highly toxic formation water pours into a waste pit near Dureno in 1993. Miguel Mashumar and Maria Claudia Antuash sit with a portrait of their deceased daughters Rosa and Maria Graciela at their home on the Via Auca. Carmen Guaman (L) with her fourteen-year-old daughter Veronica, who suffers from birth defects, at their home in La Primavera. A mother holds her ten-month old daughter with a skin rash likely caused by bathing in oil-polluted water in Rumipamba in 1993. Oil waste pit fire in Shushufindi in 1993. Fifteen-year-old Myra Chicaiza sits with her mother Rosa Mercedes on the floor of their home in Dureno. With her eight-year-old sister Alexandra Raquel at left, fifteen-year-old Myra Chicaiza sits on the floor of her home in Dureno. Fresh crude oil covers a road leading to the Cuyabeno Wildlife Preserve in 1993. Angel Toala lies in his home in Shushufindi one day before he died of stomach cancer. Luz Maria Marin holds the head of her husband Angel Toala one day before he died of stomach cancer in his home in Shushufindi.