600 indigenous would have been subjected to blood draws

U.S. scientists extracted without authorization at least 3,500 blood samples from 600 indigenous of Ecuador with unique genetic characteristics. Parts of the samples were sold, according to a research made by the Ecuadorian government.

Rene Ramirez, head of Senescyt, told state television EcuadorTV, that about 600 Waorani existed at then, which “means that some pints of blood were taken from a single person more than once.”

According to testimonies of indigenous to Ombudsman of Ecuador, two U.S. citizens misled them proposing examinations that were never delivered. The incident occurred between 1990 and 1991, according to the same sources, AFP informs.

Meanwhile,  Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa, said last Friday that the samples had been taken in the 70´s “in complicity with an oil company operating in these territories (Maxus).”