Beloved Organizer of Global Exchange’s Ecuador Reality Tours.
Organizador, maestro, compañero en la lucha por justicia.
We are heartbroken to share the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Yury Guerra, who led Global Exchange’s Ecuador Reality Tours program for nearly two decades.
Yury was more than a tour director. He was a powerful educator, a bridge-builder, and a relentless advocate for justice. From the oil-contaminated communities of the Amazon to the grassroots movements of the Andes, Yury introduced hundreds of people to the lived realities of resistance in Ecuador. He helped people not just to witness injustice, but to understand it, and to act on it.
He worked closely with Indigenous communities, frontline defenders, and local organizations to ensure that their stories were heard, always with respect, humility, and solidarity.
Yury helped illuminate the human cost of corporate greed and environmental destruction by guiding participants deep into the Ecuadorian Amazon, to the community of Sarayaku, home of the Kichwa people and the Children of the Jaguar. Nestled in a vast and pristine rainforest, Sarayaku has become a powerful symbol of Indigenous resistance.
There, participants learned directly from community leaders who stood up to Big Oil and the Ecuadorian government, refusing to allow oil drilling on their ancestral lands. Against tremendous odds, the people of Sarayaku won a landmark case at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, affirming their right to self-determination, cultural survival, and a healthy environment.
“He brought history, politics, and the voices of local people together in a way that made you see the world, and your place in it, differently.”
—Ginger Ying, Ecuador Reality Tour participant.
Yury’s deep roots in the struggle for Latin American sovereignty began long before his time with Global Exchange. From solidarity work in the U.S. to humanitarian aid caravans across Central America and Cuba, Yury embodied solidarity not as an idea, but as a daily practice rooted in justice and love. He believed that justice wasn’t something to admire from afar, it was something we had to build together.
We will miss his laughter, his knowledge, and his unwavering sense of purpose. We will miss the way he made strangers feel like compañeros—and the way he moved people to care, to question, and to act.
If you traveled with Yury, worked alongside him, or were moved by his work, we invite you to share a memory or tribute below. Your reflections will help us celebrate his life and carry his legacy forward. Share Your Tribute
¡Presente, Yury! Your spirit lives on in the movements, the memories, and the many lives you changed.