Justice After 40 years of Oil Contamination!

Hi there,

We are happy you are with us!

Together with the indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon, we have been through a few challenging months. We have been participating in many meetings between the indigenous organizations and the Peruvian government in the framework of the prior consultation process on oil lot 192. The government reached an agreement with only two indigenous federations and ended unilaterally the dialogue with other two federations, amongst them FEDIQUEP representing the Quechua of Pastaza river, without reaching any agreement.

In a revealing report published in the midst of the prior consultation process, Alianza Arkana, together with their partner organizations the Chaikuni Insitute and the indigenous federation FECONAT, shed light on the shameful attitudes of oil company Pluspetrol Norte S.A. who had a free playground in the Amazon for the last 15 years. You can read the report here. One of the objectives was to not allow the Peruvian government to renew the licence to Pluspetrol for the next 30 years. This was achieved, despites the impressive media campaign run by Pluspetrol on national and local television.

Problems are not over, though. A new 2-year licence was given to oil company Pacific Stratus Energy, a company that is also severely questioned for human rights violations in Colombia. The company has now been operating since August 30^th in the Loreto region. Huge protests have occurred against the non-transparent decisions of the national government. Civil society questions the procedures and conditions that have led to this contract and, taking into account the very low oil price, claims there are other solutions that would have benefited regional and local governments more, such as engaging state company Petroperu.

A the same time, on September 13^th, the Quechua of Pastaza started a peaceful demonstration in Andoas, an indigenous community at the heart of the Northern Peruvian Amazon and the pulsing heart of that land’s most important oil production, as a reaction to the lack of respect for their right on prior consultation and to once again call global attention to the non-existing reparation of the damages of 45 years of oil destruction on their territories.

The Amazon is heating up again whilst extractive companies are causing more havoc in both the Loreto and Ucayali region and the State uses criminalization of social protest as one of its most important strategies to dampen down resistance.

In the midst of this challenging time, we think it is important to support long-term solutions and to exchange experiences between leaders and organizations in the different region - that is, in short, support civil society building. That is why we now will:

-       Continue to work in the Loreto region through the Sui Sui Program of our partner, Chaikuni, which is a program that supports FEDIQUEP Quechua university students who, in their turn for receiving help with their studies, support their people.

-       Continue to work in the Loreto region with our partner, the Chaikuni Institute, to stand with the indigenous federations and leaders that face persecution for defending their rights.

Spread and share the experiences of resistance and peaceful defense used in the Loreto region to Shipibo communities