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Firmaste. Votaste. Dijiste que el crudo se quede bajo tierra. Y ganamos.
Esa victoria no cayó del cielo. Detrás hubo un colectivo ciudadano que durante más de una década puso el cuerpo, los recursos y la terquedad necesaria para que esa consulta popular existiera. Ese colectivo es YASunidos.
En 2023, junto a miles de personas, logramos algo sin precedentes en Ecuador: una consulta popular vinculante para decidir sobre la explotación petrolera en el bloque 43-ITT, en el corazón del Yasuní, uno de los territorios con mayor biodiversidad del planeta y hogar de pueblos indígenas en aislamiento voluntario. La ciudadanía habló claro: el petróleo se queda bajo tierra.
Pero ejercer la democracia tiene un precio. El Tribunal Contencioso Electoral sancionó a YASunidos con una multa de 18.000 dólares por observaciones formales que no afectan en nada la transparencia del proceso. No hay daño comprobado, no hay uso indebido de recursos. Hay una multa absurda y desproporcionada con claros tintes de persecución política contra quienes hicieron posible que tú pudieras votar.
Esta campaña busca cubrir ese monto. Pero va más allá del dinero: se trata de demostrar que organizarse, participar y defender el interés colectivo no es un delito.
Si el Yasuní sigue en pie, es también por ti. Ahora es momento de respaldar a quienes mantienen viva esta lucha.
Son 18 mil razones. Y miles de voces que no van a callarse.
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ENGLISH VERSION
18.000 reasons to stand with YASunidos
In 2023, something happened in Ecuador that had never happened anywhere in the world: the citizens of a country voted to leave oil underground. Not a government decision. Not a corporate pledge. A binding popular vote (the first of its kind on the planet) where people chose to keep fossil fuels in the ground to protect life.
That vote took place to save Yasuní, a region in the Ecuadorian Amazon recognized as one of the most biodiverse places on Earth and home to Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation. And it didn't happen by accident. It was the result of over a decade of relentless organizing by YASunidos, a citizen-led collective that gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures, survived political obstruction, and pushed for a constitutional mechanism that had never been used before: a direct popular consultation on oil extraction in Block 43-ITT.
The result was overwhelming. Ecuadorians chose nature over extraction.
At a time when the world talks endlessly about climate action, it was a small country in the Global South, one that contributes a fraction of global emissions, that actually did something about it. Not with billion-dollar green funds or corporate carbon credits, but with democracy. Meanwhile, the nations most responsible for the climate crisis continue to extract, consume, and delay. The Yasuní vote stands as proof that the most radical climate solutions are already coming from the communities that have the least and risk the most.
But democracy came with a price tag. Ecuador's Electoral Tribunal fined YASunidos 18.000 dollars over minor procedural observations — not fraud, not misuse of funds, not any proven harm. Just bureaucratic technicalities weaponized against a citizens' movement that dared to challenge the oil industry through legal, democratic means.
This campaign is raising funds to cover that fine. But it's about more than money. It's about defending the right of citizens everywhere to organize, to participate, and to hold power accountable, especially when the fight is for something that belongs to all of us.
The Yasuní is still standing. The people who made that possible need your support now.
18,000 reasons. Thousands of voices that refuse to be silenced.
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