Jane Fonda delivered a letter to the Ecuadorian consulate in Los Angeles, urging Ecuador’s top court to uphold the rights of the Waorani people. Wiña Omaca Boyotai, whom Jane met in the Amazon, has traveled from her rainforest homeland to Quito to defend her people’s right to be heard in a landmark court case.
QUITO / LOS ANGELES, May 13, 2025.— In a rare and moving parallel act of resistance, two respected elders from opposite sides of the world, Academy Award-winning actor and activist Jane Fonda and Waorani warrior Wiña Omaca Boyotai, are delivering the same urgent message to the highest authorities in Ecuador: Listen and respond to the Indigenous Peoples protecting the Amazon.
Jane Fonda, 87, delivered a letter today to the Ecuadorian consulate in Los Angeles on behalf of Amazon Frontlines and dozens of global supporters. The letter demands that Ecuador’s Constitutional Court hear the Waorani delegation, who traveled days from the rainforest to the capital, Quito, to make sure the highest court in their country listens to them. At nearly the same moment, Wiña Boyotai, a spiritual leader of the Waorani people, also in her late 80s, led over 120 members of her community on a march through the streets of Quito to the Court’s doorstep, determined to make their voices heard.
This moment is more than a legal appeal, it’s a turning point in a continent-wide struggle for climate justice and Indigenous sovereignty. Across the Amazon Basin, enshrining Indigenous Peoples’ right to decide what happens in their territories in national constitutions could be a game-changer for the future of the rainforest and the planet. Scientific studies consistently show that Indigenous-managed lands are the most effective barriers against deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate breakdown.
Yet these very same communities now face an all-out assault from powerful oil and mining interests, aided by complicit governments and legal loopholes. Ecuador’s Constitutional Court has a chance to set a historic precedent that echoes far beyond its borders, recognizing that the frontline defenders of the Amazon are also its rightful stewards. As the climate crisis deepens and extractive industries push into ever more remote areas, listening to Indigenous voices is not only a legal obligation, it’s a planetary imperative.
The letter they carry is signed by more than 80 global figures, including renowned artists, human rights defenders, and international organizations. It calls on Ecuador’s Constitutional Court to uphold the right of Indigenous Peoples to free, prior, and informed consent over any extractive projects in their ancestral land, rights enshrined in law but routinely ignored in practice.
“Jane was moved to tears when she met Wiña in the Ecuadorian Amazon last March,” says Mitch Anderson, Executive Director of Amazon Frontlines. “Two women, both elders, both warriors in their own way, coming together for the same cause. Different lives, but the same fight.”
Photos and video of both Jane and Wiña delivering the letter are a powerful visual statement of cross-continental solidarity. In a world too often divided by politics and geography, these two women show what shared purpose and moral clarity look like.
“This is not just about Ecuador,” Fonda says. “It’s about protecting the lungs of the planet, and respecting the people who have safeguarded it for millennia.”
The Waorani and their allies are calling on the Court to issue a precedent-setting ruling regarding 1296-19JP, a case with wide-reaching implications for Indigenous sovereignty and ecological protection, especially as the Ecuadorian government pushes forward with a controversial new oil auction in the South Amazon.
As Wiña walks toward the Court in Quito, and Jane toward the consulate in LA, the message is clear: the world is watching, the elders are leading, and Indigenous rights must be respected.
