[3] In 1975 Escobar helped create the Provincial Union of Peasant Organizations of Manabi (Unión Provincial de Organizaciones Campesinas de Manabí), which was significant in the recovering the rural lands of several families in Manabí Province.
[2] On 13 August 2015, Escobar was beaten and arrested following a general strike and demonstration in Puyo, which had been organized by the union of trade workers and indigenous organizations including Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador – Conaie (Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador).
The demonstrations called for agrarian reform, better access to health services, opposition to mining development, a free trade agreement with the European Union, and opposition to a proposed amendment of the Constitution of Ecuador that would have allowed President Rafael Correa to be re-elected indefinitely.
[5] Also known as Colectivo de Mujeres Amazonicas,[6] the largely indigenous group defends the Ecuadorian Amazon.
[5] Other Mujeres Amazónicas members Nema Grefa, Patricia Gualinga, and Salomé Aranda, had also been attacked and threatened,[7] and the group, in conjunction with Amnesty International, collected and delivered over 250,000 signatures to the Attorney General of Ecuador demanding progress in the stalled investigations.