Indigenous women tour Ecuador oil field as warning against Amazon drilling expansion

NUEVA LOJA, Ecuador (AP) — Standing beside a stream stained dark with oil in Ecuador’s northern Amazon, an Indigenous woman shook her head in disbelief as she stared at the oily sheen drifting across the water and broken pipes cutting through the forest. Nearby, gas flares burned above the treetops.

Julia Catalina Chumbi, a 76-year-old leader from the Shuar ethnic group in the southern Amazon province of Pastaza, had traveled hundreds of miles to see the damage for herself — the legacy of decades of oil and gas production in the northeastern province of Sucumbios.

“Everything is contaminated, even the air,” she said quietly.

Moments earlier, she had learned something that shocked her. In communities near the oil fields in Sucumbios, residents can no longer safely drink from local rivers and instead must buy water because of contamination and health fears.

“Seeing this makes me want to cry,” she said, adding that in her territory rivers are still drinkable.

Chumbi was among about 30 Indigenous women from across Ecuador’s Amazon who traveled to the region on what activists call a toxitour, visiting oil fields, pipelines and gas flaring sites to see firsthand the environmental and health impacts of extraction. Organizers said the trip aimed to connect women from areas facing proposed oil projects with communities that have lived alongside the industry for decades. Because many oil blocks overlap Indigenous territories, communities are often among the first to experience contamination of rivers, forests and food sources.

The women — representing seven Indigenous communities — gathered for several days in the city of Nueva Loja for workshops to share experiences and discuss the growing threat of oil expansion in their territories.

Nueva Loja is widely known as Lago Agrio, a name workers from U.S. oil company Texaco gave the settlement in the 1960s after the Texas oil town of Sour Lake. The city later became the center of Ecuador’s early Amazon oil boom.

The women traveled by bus, passing seemingly endless oil pipelines that snake along the roadside. Their destination was the Libertador oil field, operated by Ecuador’s state oil company Petroecuador. Once there, they made banners to carry during the walk, including one that read: “Amazon free from oil and mining.” The Associated Press was present as they quietly entered parts of the oil-producing area to witness the impacts firsthand. Polluted streams ran near pipelines and well sites, vegetation appeared contaminated and wildlife was notably absent.

Standing nearby in front of a roaring gas flare, Salome Aranda, 43, from the Kichwa community of Morete Cocha in Ecuador’s central Amazon province of Pastaza, wore elaborate face paint across her cheeks and forehead.

Aranda said the visit allowed her to see impacts she is rarely able to observe near oil operations in her own territory.

“In our area we are not allowed to enter,” she said.

Seeing the contamination up close confirmed concerns she already had about oil activity near her community.

“The animals are disappearing and the crops no longer grow the same,” she said.

After the tour, the women returned to Nueva Loja, where they spent hours in workshops and group discussions reflecting on what they had seen and sharing experiences from their own territories. By the end of the meetings, they had begun outlining strategies to s trengthen resistance to potential new oil concessions in their regions.

“Women in the north have already lived through more than 50 years of oil exploitation,” Natalia Yepes, a legal adviser for Amazon Watch in Ecuador, told AP at the workshop. “The idea is that those experiences and lessons can be shared with women from the center and south who are now facing these new threats.”

Last year, Ecuador’s government unveiled a sweeping “hydrocarbon road map” proposing a major expansion of the country’s oil and gas sector, worth about $47 billion and new licensing rounds for exploration blocks in the Amazon and other regions. Many of them are located in the provinces of Pastaza and Napo, where Indigenous communities live.

Officials say the plan is designed to modernize the industry, attract foreign investment and boost oil production.

But environmental groups and Indigenous leaders say the projects could open large areas of rainforest to drilling, pipelines and gas flaring. They also warn that many communities have not given the free, prior and informed consent required under Ecuador’s constitution and international human rights agreements.

Ecuador’s Ministry of Energy and Mines did not respond to a request for comment.

The debate over fossil fuel expansion in the Amazon is also expected to feature at an international conference in Santa Marta, Colombia, in April. The meeting will bring together governments, Indigenous leaders and civil society groups to discuss pathways to transition away from oil, gas and coal following last year’s U.N. climate summit in Belem, Brazil.

For some women on the tour, the visit reinforced battles they are already fighting at home.

Dayuma Nango, 39, vice president of the Association of Waorani Women of Ecuador, said the contamination she saw strengthened her determination to keep oil companies out of Waorani territory.

“Our forest is our mother,” said Nango, who has received death threats for her advocacy. “That's why we protect it.”

The Waorani have already fought major oil developments in Ecuador’s Amazon. In 2019, Indigenous leaders won a landmark court ruling that blocked oil drilling in Block 22 in Pastaza after judges found the government had failed to properly consult communities as required under Ecuadorian law. In a separate decision in 2023, Ecuadorian voters approved a referendum to halt oil drilling in Block 43 inside Yasuní National Park, an area that overlaps with Waorani ancestral territory.

After seeing the pollution in Sucumbios, Nango said she fears her community could face similar consequences if new projects move forward.

“We don’t want to live the same story that our brothers and sisters are living here,” she said.

Toa Alvarado, 30, a Kichwa leader from the Pastaza province, said the visit also strengthened her determination to protect her territory. She recalled how her late father, a longtime community leader, once stood in the middle of a road holding a spear to stop a group of gold miners from entering their land.

“He told me our generation may be the last with the chance to protect our territories from contamination,” she said.

The following day, many of the women who joined the toxitour gathered in the Amazon city of Puyo for International Women’s Day demonstrations.

“Today is about reporting to the world about the violation of rights that us Indigenous women have to endure — specifically the rights of nature,” said Ruth Peñafiel, 59, from a Kichwa community in Ecuador’s northern Amazon.

“We want to live in a healthy environment and in harmony with the forest,” she said.

For Chumbi, the visit to Sucumbios reinforced the message she plans to bring home to her Shuar community, deep in the Amazon.

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Indigenous women take part in a march marking International Women's Day in Puyo, Ecuador, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa).

A group of Indigenous women from across Ecuador's Amazon talk after what they call a toxitour where they visited oil fields in Nueva Loja, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A group of Indigenous women from across Ecuador’s Amazon look at a map showing potential new oil drilling locations during a meeting in Nueva Loja, Ecuador, Saturday, March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Flora Cadena, from the Andwa community, poses for a photo in Nueva Loja, Ecuador, Saturday, March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Tamya Dahua, from the Indigenous Kichwa community, poses for a photo in Nueva Loja, Ecuador, Saturday , March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa).

Salome Aranda, from the Indigenous Kichwa community, poses for a photo in Nueva Loja, Ecuador, Saturday, March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Toa Alvarado, a Kichwa leader, poses for a photo in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Saturday, March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Salomé Aranda walks as a gas flare burns in the background in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Waorani leader Dayuma Nango picks up a palm frond after wading into a darkened stream tainted by oil waste during a tour through Ecuador's Amazon in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A group of Indigenous women from across Ecuador's Amazon carry signs as they travel through the region on what they call call a toxitour, visiting oil fields in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Toa Alvarado, a Kichwa leader, listens as activists explain the environmental damage caused by oil extraction while visiting the contaminated areas in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A group of Indigenous women from across Ecuador's Amazon walk near a support beam for an oil pipeline as they travel through the region on what activists call a toxitour visiting oil fields in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa).

Julia Catalina Chumbi, a Shuar leader from Ecuador's Amazon province of Pastaza, traveled to witness firsthand the environmental damage linked to oil extraction in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Toa Alvarado, left, and Ene Nenquimo walk near an oil pipeline that cuts through the rainforest in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A combined missile and drone attack on the Kyiv region killed at least four people and wounded at least 15 overnight into Saturday, according to the head of the regional administration.

Three of the wounded were in critical condition, of whom two were undergoing surgery, Mykola Kalashnyk reported on Saturday. The attack hit four districts, damaging residential buildings, educational institutions, enterprises and critical infrastructure, Kalashnyk added in a social media post.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the main target for the overnight strikes was "the energy infrastructure of the Kyiv region.” He said Russia launched around 430 drones of various types during the night, as well as 68 missiles.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday said the nighttime strikes targeted energy and industrial facilities serving Ukraine's armed forces, as well as military airfields.

The strikes came days after the U.S. postponed peace talks between Russia and Ukraine scheduled for this week, citing the war in the Middle East.

As U.S. and Israeli missiles and bombs rain on Iran, Russia has responded with words of indignation but no action to support its ally. Moscow’s failure to help another ally, after the 2024 ouster of former Syrian ruler Bashar Assad and January’s U.S. arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, highlighted the limits of its influence — but the Kremlin expects to reap benefits from the Iran war.

Russia is already profiting from a surge in global energy prices, and could hope that the Mideast war will detract attention from Ukraine, deplete Western arsenals and force NATO allies to reduce military support for Kyiv.

Zelenskyy on Saturday called on Kyiv's Western partners to pay “one hundred percent attention” to the need to boost the production of air defense missiles.

“Russia will try to exploit the war in the Middle East to cause even greater destruction here in Europe, in Ukraine," he said in a post on social media.

"We must be fully aware of the real level of the threat and prepare accordingly, namely: in Europe, we need to develop the production of air defense missiles — especially those capable of countering ballistic threats — as well as all other systems necessary to truly protect lives,” he said.

Kyiv is also awaiting White House approval for a major drone production agreement proposed by Ukraine last year, Zelenskyy said Thursday, as countries scramble to modernize their air defenses after the Iran war exposed shortcomings.

Also on Thursday, Zelenskyy criticized the 30-day U.S. waiver on Russian oil sanctions amid the war in the Middle East, saying it is “not the right decision” and won’t help bring a stop to Russia’s more than 4-year-old invasion of Ukraine.

“This easing alone by the United States could provide Russia with about $10 billion for the war,” Zelenskyy said. “This certainly does not help peace.”

Overnight into Saturday, Ukrainian drones hit an oil refinery and port in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, local Russian officials reported.

Krasnodar authorities said three people were hurt in a strike on Port Kavkaz, a port opposite Crimea used to ship liquefied natural gas and grains. A service vessel and pier infrastructure were damaged, they said in a social media post. One person was hospitalized, they added in a separate post later.

Falling drone debris also sparked a fire at the region’s Afipsky oil refinery, authorities said in a separate Telegram post. They said no one was hurt, but did not immediately comment on damage.

Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 87 Ukrainian drones during the night, including 16 over the Krasnodar region and 31 over the nearby Sea of Azov.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that 16 drones had been downed on the approach to the Russian capital as of early afternoon on Saturday.

Earlier this week, Russian and Ukrainian officials both claimed front-line progress, with Ukraine saying it pushed Moscow’s forces back across places on the front line and the Kremlin insisting Russia’s invasion of its neighbor is making progress.

Firefighters put out the fire at railway workshops following a Russia missile and drone attack, in Brovary close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Firefighters put out the fire at railway workshops following a Russia missile and drone attack, in Brovary, close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Firefighters put out the fire at a residential neighbourhood following a Russia missile and drone attack, in Brovary, close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a joint presser with France's President Emmanuel Macron, not pictured, following a bilateral meeting at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris, Friday March 13, 2026. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP)