Category Archives: Life Amid Oil Politics

Life Amid Oil Politics in Ecuador: Public Works Wars

IMG_4296February 2014 was election time in Ecuador. Months earlier, the roads of Esmeraldas illustrated the upcoming election wars vividly: large signs announcing the arrival of the Citizen’s Revolution peppered major highways and city streets. Sewage, potable water, garbage collection, highways, schools, clinics: everything public became the terrain of political reform. Except the refinery. Overwhelmed by the signs, I could not stop photographing them–seeking to capture a hidden meaning beyond aggressive visual colonization. By March 2014, the vivid signs of regional and national campaigns were fading, bleached by the sun and overtaken by the local vegetation. A poignant (and fleeting) reminder of the ebbs and flows of political life. The Revolution didn’t just arrive–it already moved on. To Muisne, I think. The political battle continues there.