The Huaorani is group that is threatened by oil companies which intrude into their lands. This group of Hunter-gathers which totals one thousand three hundred has been isolated so long they speak a language related to no other language on earth. Today there are still clans that have had no communication with the industrialized world. In the past they have driven off or speared people who have made an effort to contact them.
The Huaorani occupy two million acres of primary forest. Their culture is based on the forest; they rely on it for food, shelter clothing and spiritual sustenance. Their survival depends on the survival of the forest. Drilling in Huaorani territory would provide oil that would be consumed in just thirteen days in the United States.
Moi is a Huaorani man who tried to save the Huaorani land by speaking out. In 1990, Moi and some other Huaorani leaders founded the Organization Nation of the Ecuadorian Amazon. In March of that year, hundreds of Huaorani gathered to hold the first elections. Moi was elected vice president. He and the other officers spent the next three years trying to organize the people. This strenuous work shattered the hopes of the president, Nanto, who decided not to run again in the election of 1993. Moi also retired because he believed that power should be passed on. His dream was destroyed when the Oil Company bought the elections. On Election Day the company gave the Huaorani people helicopter rides. Moi's friend Enqeri was fitted with dentures when he became president.
Enqeri staged a ceremony for the signing of an agreement that authorized the oil companys to be on Huaorani land. After the ceremony dozens fell sick with disease. Many Huaorani were opposed to the agreement but weren't allowed to attend the ceremony. Others had no knowledge that this was taking place.
Moi was brought to Washington, in 1993 by a team of lawyers from the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, in hope of saving the Huaorani territory. An oil company had planned to extract two hundred million barrels of crude from Huaorani land. "In its quest to exploit that oil, it had revealed itself to be an enemy far more powerful than any the Huaorani had ever known: an enemy that, as Moi saw it, killed by destroying the source of all life, the forest itself." (Kane, Joe. Savages. pp 6-7) The SCLDF had filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in behalf of the Huaorani. The Commission has no powers of enforcement, but it does have a considerable moral authority. The lawyers anticipated that Moi's testimony would convince the commission to take action.
Days before Moi was scheduled to testify, the American Embassy in Quito refused his request for a visa. The Embassy has a history of cooperating with the petroleum industry. They argued that because he did not have any tangible assets in Ecuador, he may never return. They feared that he would disappear in the United States as an illegal immigrant. Finally, after the right question arose, he was granted a visa.
In Washington Moi attended the commission hearing. He told the commission that the Huaorani protect the forest for the whole world and that they could not be conquered. The following day the commission said that even though it was extremely interested in the Huaorani petition it could not conduct an investigation unless invited by the host country, Ecuador.
On his last day in Washington, Moi visited the Ecuadorian Embassy. He suggested to the Ambassador that he invite the commission to perform an investigation. If problems were found, then a memorandum on oil development would be imposed until they could be resolved. When Moi finished, the Ambassador said that the Huaorani were not a sovereign nation and therefor, not Ecuadorian citizens. He questioned how Moi could speak for the Huaorani when just two weeks before Enqueri, their elected leader had visited the Ambassadors office. He appeared to be happy with the agreement that he had made with them. As far as the Ambassador was concerned, the oil companies were doing a good job. Moi made a good point; no harm could be done by an investigation if the companies were doing a good job.
A call finally came from Washington to inform Moi that the ambassador had invited the commission to Ecuador and the commission had accepted. Though the invitation had not yet been put in writing, and thus was not official, the commission believed that would just be a matter of time.
Two weeks after Moi's return home, the Ecuadorian government sent a letter in which it stated that there had been a misunderstanding. That it would not extend a formal invitation and that it saw no reason for an investigation. The government was after Moi, they were angry about what he had said in Washington. Finally in 1994, the Organization on American States' Inter-American Commission on Human Rights obtained an invitation from the Ecuadorian government. In November it sent a team to the Oriente. The commission did not enter Huaorani territory; they stopped at Coca where they spent two days. Fifty Huaorani traveled to Coca to meet them. Huaorani people stood up and spoke about the oil companies and colonists on there land. As of 1996, a report still had not been issued.