"Indigenous leaders challenge IMF’s Georgieva over extractive policies and financial repression in Ecuador", 17 October 2025

...Indigenous organizations in Ecuador delivered an open letter today to International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, directly challenging the financial institution’s promotion of oil and mining expansion in the Amazon and accusing the Ecuadorian government of freezing their bank accounts to silence resistance to extraction. “They had to freeze our money before they could open our lands,” states the letter, released as the IMF holds its Annual Meetings in Washington DC.

The letter, signed by the Waorani Nation of Ecuador (NAWE), the Waorani organization of Pastaza (OWAP), the Kichwa People of Pastaza (PAKKIRU), Alianza Ceibo, and the Union of People Affected by Chevron-Texaco (UDAPT), warns that “a government desperate enough to financially erase us to attract oil investment is a government that cannot guarantee investor security.” The Indigenous leaders cite their 20-year track record of successfully blocking extraction, including court victories in 2012 and 2019, mass mobilizations in 2022, and the 2023 Yasuní referendum, as evidence that IMF-backed extractive expansion cannot succeed without systematic repression.

The letter, issued during the IMF fall meetings, comes as nationwide protests against President Daniel Noboa’s IMF-aligned policies enter their fourth week. The government has responded with heavy police and military repression, leaving at least one dead, over 282 injured, and over 170 arrested. Thirteen Indigenous and human rights defenders face terrorism charges.

In late September and early October, the government froze bank accounts of prominent Indigenous leaders and organizations without warning, charges, or legal justification...The account freezes came two months after the government announced new oil licensing rounds in Indigenous territories.

The IMF’s July 2025 Second Review explicitly promotes “high potential sectors such as mining, hydrocarbons, and energy,” requiring Ecuador to reopen its mining cadaster (closed since 2018), develop a new fiscal regime for mining, and implement an “ambitious multi-year plan to mobilize investments in the hydrocarbon sector.” These are formal structural benchmarks Ecuador must meet to continue receiving loan disbursements, with deadlines in December 2025 and June 2026...

The Indigenous organizations are calling on the IMF to publicly respond to the concerns raised in the open letter, reconsider structural benchmarks that promote extractive industries in Indigenous territories, assess human rights impacts of its loan conditions, and acknowledge the connection between its policies and financial repression of civil society...