In the official results, with 95.58% scrutinized, the Yes prevails in the Yasuní consultation.
Referential image of Block 43.
Along with the presidential and legislative elections, Ecuadorians voted in the popular consultation that seeks to leave the oil from block 43 underground, located in the Yasuní national park.
The question was:
“Do you agree that the Ecuadorian government keep ITT crude, known as block 43, indefinitely underground?”
The option for ‘Yes’ leads the official count:
The Minister of Energy, Fernando Santos, in an interview with PRIMICIAS, announced that the state oil company Petroecuador, which is in charge of the ITT, will have to prepare a plan to close activities.
Just designing that plan could take three months, the official said. And he reiterated, however, that stopping oil extraction “constitutes a severe blow to the economy, which will be difficult to compensate.”
While the social organizations that promoted the popular consultation, among them Yasunidos, announced that they are working on the creation of a monitoring network to prevent the departure of the oil companies from causing environmental damage.
In addition, they asked the State to create a protection policy for the Yasuní and for the communities that inhabit it.
