SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Indigenous activists have long risen up against Big Oil in the Amazon. (Photo: LaRepublica.pe)
Seizing Wells and Going on Strike, Peruvian Protesters Stand Up to Big Oil
The Indigenous activists want clean water, compensation for oil pollution, and more pay for the use of native land
Sep 02, 2015
Demanding reparations for industrial pollution and adequate compensation for use of native lands, Indigenous activists in Peru shut down 11 wells in an Amazonian oil block on Tuesday.
According to the Spanish EFE news agency, native protesters led by the Federation of the Achuar and Urarina Indigenous Peoples of the Corrientes River (FECONACO) occupied 11 oil installations and seized control of the Trompeteros airport and three storage tanks in Lot 8, which is operated by Argentine energy firm Pluspetrol.
The protesters want clean water, compensation for oil pollution, and more pay for the use of native land, said Carlos Sandi, FECONACO chief.
Reporting in February for Fusion, journalist Manuel Rueda wrote:
Over the past 15 years, dozens of villages located near oil wells in the Northwest of Peru have had to deal with similar oil spills that have poisoned rivers with dangerous levels of cadmium, lead and other toxic materials.
Pollution along the Maranon, Tigre, Corrientes and Pastaza rivers has reached such levels of toxicity that Peru's Environment Ministry has declared all of them environmental emergency zones over the past two years.
"Many of our brothers have already died from poisoning," Carlos Sandi, a leader of the Achuar tribe said during a recent visit to the capital city to meet with government officials. "In the 21st century, we cannot allow the Peruvian state to condemn indigenous people to death."
Lot 8 is located in Peru's northern region of Loreto, near Lot 192--the nation's largest oil block.
Sandi told Reuters that the Achuar in and around Lot 192 would soon seize wells there following a dispute with the government over a failure to provide sufficient proceeds for communities in a new contract awarded to Canada's Pacific Exploration and Production Corporation.
Furthermore, an assembly of social organizations in Loreto voted last week to carry out another 48-hour strike starting Friday to protest the government's move to privatizate Lot 192 for two years instead of allocating it to the country's state-owned company.
According to TeleSUR, Indigenous activists are calling for the creation of a fund to compensate for 40 years of exploitation of this oil block and an increase on the 0.75 percent of profits currently offered by the government to tribal members.
As Miguel Levano Munoz, Oxfam's Peru-based program officer for extractive industries, explained last month: "For more than 40 years, Indigenous peoples in this region of northern Peru have lived on territories where petroleum is being extracted--resulting in serious environmental, health, social, economic, and cultural consequences. The Kichwas, Quechuas, Achuar and Urarinas, whose community territories overlap with the boundaries of Block 192 have already decided to allow oil exploitation on their land, but what they're calling for now is the right to benefit from what is being taken."
For more on how Peru's Indigenous people are fighting Big Oil, watch this six-minute documentary from filmmaker Gregory Kershaw:
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
Demanding reparations for industrial pollution and adequate compensation for use of native lands, Indigenous activists in Peru shut down 11 wells in an Amazonian oil block on Tuesday.
According to the Spanish EFE news agency, native protesters led by the Federation of the Achuar and Urarina Indigenous Peoples of the Corrientes River (FECONACO) occupied 11 oil installations and seized control of the Trompeteros airport and three storage tanks in Lot 8, which is operated by Argentine energy firm Pluspetrol.
The protesters want clean water, compensation for oil pollution, and more pay for the use of native land, said Carlos Sandi, FECONACO chief.
Reporting in February for Fusion, journalist Manuel Rueda wrote:
Over the past 15 years, dozens of villages located near oil wells in the Northwest of Peru have had to deal with similar oil spills that have poisoned rivers with dangerous levels of cadmium, lead and other toxic materials.
Pollution along the Maranon, Tigre, Corrientes and Pastaza rivers has reached such levels of toxicity that Peru's Environment Ministry has declared all of them environmental emergency zones over the past two years.
"Many of our brothers have already died from poisoning," Carlos Sandi, a leader of the Achuar tribe said during a recent visit to the capital city to meet with government officials. "In the 21st century, we cannot allow the Peruvian state to condemn indigenous people to death."
Lot 8 is located in Peru's northern region of Loreto, near Lot 192--the nation's largest oil block.
Sandi told Reuters that the Achuar in and around Lot 192 would soon seize wells there following a dispute with the government over a failure to provide sufficient proceeds for communities in a new contract awarded to Canada's Pacific Exploration and Production Corporation.
Furthermore, an assembly of social organizations in Loreto voted last week to carry out another 48-hour strike starting Friday to protest the government's move to privatizate Lot 192 for two years instead of allocating it to the country's state-owned company.
According to TeleSUR, Indigenous activists are calling for the creation of a fund to compensate for 40 years of exploitation of this oil block and an increase on the 0.75 percent of profits currently offered by the government to tribal members.
As Miguel Levano Munoz, Oxfam's Peru-based program officer for extractive industries, explained last month: "For more than 40 years, Indigenous peoples in this region of northern Peru have lived on territories where petroleum is being extracted--resulting in serious environmental, health, social, economic, and cultural consequences. The Kichwas, Quechuas, Achuar and Urarinas, whose community territories overlap with the boundaries of Block 192 have already decided to allow oil exploitation on their land, but what they're calling for now is the right to benefit from what is being taken."
For more on how Peru's Indigenous people are fighting Big Oil, watch this six-minute documentary from filmmaker Gregory Kershaw:
Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
Demanding reparations for industrial pollution and adequate compensation for use of native lands, Indigenous activists in Peru shut down 11 wells in an Amazonian oil block on Tuesday.
According to the Spanish EFE news agency, native protesters led by the Federation of the Achuar and Urarina Indigenous Peoples of the Corrientes River (FECONACO) occupied 11 oil installations and seized control of the Trompeteros airport and three storage tanks in Lot 8, which is operated by Argentine energy firm Pluspetrol.
The protesters want clean water, compensation for oil pollution, and more pay for the use of native land, said Carlos Sandi, FECONACO chief.
Reporting in February for Fusion, journalist Manuel Rueda wrote:
Over the past 15 years, dozens of villages located near oil wells in the Northwest of Peru have had to deal with similar oil spills that have poisoned rivers with dangerous levels of cadmium, lead and other toxic materials.
Pollution along the Maranon, Tigre, Corrientes and Pastaza rivers has reached such levels of toxicity that Peru's Environment Ministry has declared all of them environmental emergency zones over the past two years.
"Many of our brothers have already died from poisoning," Carlos Sandi, a leader of the Achuar tribe said during a recent visit to the capital city to meet with government officials. "In the 21st century, we cannot allow the Peruvian state to condemn indigenous people to death."
Lot 8 is located in Peru's northern region of Loreto, near Lot 192--the nation's largest oil block.
Sandi told Reuters that the Achuar in and around Lot 192 would soon seize wells there following a dispute with the government over a failure to provide sufficient proceeds for communities in a new contract awarded to Canada's Pacific Exploration and Production Corporation.
Furthermore, an assembly of social organizations in Loreto voted last week to carry out another 48-hour strike starting Friday to protest the government's move to privatizate Lot 192 for two years instead of allocating it to the country's state-owned company.
According to TeleSUR, Indigenous activists are calling for the creation of a fund to compensate for 40 years of exploitation of this oil block and an increase on the 0.75 percent of profits currently offered by the government to tribal members.
As Miguel Levano Munoz, Oxfam's Peru-based program officer for extractive industries, explained last month: "For more than 40 years, Indigenous peoples in this region of northern Peru have lived on territories where petroleum is being extracted--resulting in serious environmental, health, social, economic, and cultural consequences. The Kichwas, Quechuas, Achuar and Urarinas, whose community territories overlap with the boundaries of Block 192 have already decided to allow oil exploitation on their land, but what they're calling for now is the right to benefit from what is being taken."
For more on how Peru's Indigenous people are fighting Big Oil, watch this six-minute documentary from filmmaker Gregory Kershaw:
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.