Patricia Gualinga

Patricia Gualinga, (or Patricia Gualinga Montalvo)[1] is a women human rights defender and indigenous rights defender of the Pueblo Kichwa de Sarayaku (Kichwa People of Sarayaku), an indigenous community in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

[2][9] The Ecuadorian government authorized oil exploration by Argentinian oil company Compañía General de Combustibles (CGC), also known as the Argentinean General Fuel Company, on territory held by the Sarayaku, exploration which the community resisted through local protests and a court case.

[11] The appropriation of community land for extractive industries without free, prior, and informed consent was found to have been illegal.

[12] In 2018, Gualinga joined the Climate Change Summit of COP23, where had the opportunity to speak about Amazonian communities in Germany, expanding her connections and cause.

[12] Gualinga was the victim of a home invasion[6] on 5 January 2018 by an unidentified man who entered by breaking a window with a thrown rock and shouted death threats at her, saying "the next time I will kill you".