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The Latin American Herald Tribune reports the oil companies that are working in the Amazon region of Chile are being asked by Survival International to suspend their operations while Peru comes to terms with the worst political violence since the Shining Path insurgency in the 1980s. Energy companies with operations in Peru’s Amazon region include Anglo-French Perenco, Argentina’s PlusPetrol, Canada’s Petrolifera, Repsol YPF of Spain and Brazil’s Petrobras.
The Indians have been protesting for two months against a series of laws which open up their communal rainforests to oil and gas companies. In the last few years more than 70% of the Amazon has been parcelled out to oil and gas companies for exploration, and a series of large-scale finds threaten to transform much of the Indians’ virgin forests. Similar schemes in neighbouring Ecuador have had a devastating effect on the rainforest, and led to chronic pollution and ill-health amongst the Indians who live there.
Survival International is the only international organization supporting tribal peoples worldwide. On their website, www.survival-international.org they have supporters in 82 countries. They work for tribal peoples' rights in three complementary ways: education, advocacy and campaigns. They also offer tribal people themselves a platform to address the world and work closely with local indigenous organizations, and focus on tribal peoples who have the most to lose, usually those most recently in contact with the outside world. It is their belief that public opinion is the most effective force for change. Its power will make it harder, and eventually impossible, for governments and companies to oppress tribal peoples. If you want to send a letter to the Peruvian government, you can do this at http://www.survival-international.org/actnow/writealetter/isolatedperu Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, "Peruvian Indians are being driven to desperate measures to try and save their lands which have been stolen from them for five centuries. Oil companies operating in Peru should suspend their operations until calm is restored and the Indians’ communal land rights are properly respected – only then can they negotiate as equals." Canadians only have to go back a year or two in Regina when Aboriginal people protested actions of an oil company. Or when Aboriginal people won the right to be consulted when it comes to natural resource extraction or any major government policy change. Or go back to Oka.
According to the company's website, "Petrolifera Petroleum Limited is a Calgary-based crude oil and natural gas exploration, development and production company active in South America. Petrolifera holds interests in approximately eight million acres of petroleum and natural gas rights in ten onshore concessions or licenses in Argentina, Colombia and Peru." If you wish to send the company a letter of concern, they can be reached at www.petrolifera.ca. Only registered users can write comments.
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