Watch news footage from tour of the Gulf

Mariana Jiminez, a 71-year-old grandmother from the Ecuadorean Amazon, dips her hand into the oil-black water in the precious marshlands off Louisiana’s Gulf coast and holds a dying, oil-drenched crab in her hand. She warns of the petroleum-laced water, “This is very very dangerous. This is a poison that kills. Not instantly, but it will kill slowly.”

This week, four Indigenous and community leaders from Ecuador (Mariana, Emergildo, Humberto and Luis), as well as advocates from Rainforest Action Network and Amazon Watch, are deep in Louisiana’s sweltering Bayou witnessing the depth of BP’s oil disaster.

The Ecuadorean delegation has come to share the hard-won lessons from Chevron’s Amazon oil disaster with the United Houma Nation and Atakapa-Ishak tribes, American Indian communities dependent on a healthy Bayou for their very survival.

Every Indigenous person we meet expresses fear and anxiety about losing their ability to feed themselves and their families, and to continue their way of life on the water…all because of BP’s greed-driven failures.

These fears are by no means misplaced, as this is exactly what happened to the Indigenous peoples of Ecuador’s rainforest, at the hands of Chevron Corporation. They too used to fish, but had to start farming to sustain themselves. They spoke of the family members they’ve lost from oil-related birth defects and illnesses, and warned the Houma of the long-term health problems they will be facing long after BP and the TV cameras have left their shores.

As we walked along the deserted, oil-stained beach in Grand Isle, Brenda Dardar Robichaux, former Principal Chief of the United Houma Nation, explained how struck she was by the similarity of her story to the story of Indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorean Amazon.

From Louisiana’s Bayou to Ecuador’s rainforest, you see the same oil-sheened waterways and dying animals. You smell the same toxic stench in the air. Families nurse their loved ones through oil-related illnesses, respiratory diseases, and cancers while being told the same lie by oil companies and politicians alike- “the oil won’t hurt you.”

In the heart of Houma territory, these communities have come together to find ways to hold reckless, criminal oil companies like BP and Chevron accountable.

Check out news footage of their first days touring the Gulf, as well as the incredible photos on Flickr.

Thanks so much to all of you who donated to make this very special journey possible. You can follow the rest of the tour through the Gulf on We Can Change Chevron’s Facebook page and @ChangeChevron on Twitter.

		In solidarity,
		Maria Ramos Change Chevron Campaign Director

P.S.Donate now to support Rainforest Action Network’s critical work to hold oil companies accountable and to support frontline communities from the Amazon to the Gulf.