Hunt Oil, a Texas-based private oil company with close ties to the Bush family, is operating in the territories of uncontacted indigenous peoples in one of the remotest regions of the Peruvian Amazon. The Peruvian Ministry of Energy and Mines has given Hunt Oil, a major donor to the George W. Bush presidential election campaign, permission to conduct technical studies in a vast rainforest heartland now named Area IV to find out if gas development is feasible there. Amazon Watch recently discovered that Hunt workers have already encountered isolated peoples.
Hunt Oil Flouts Indigenous Rights
Area IV is situated in Ucayali and Madre de Dios provinces along the Brazilian border in the traditional territories of the Mashco-Piro and Curanjeños peoples who shun all contact with the outside world. Other smaller uncontacted groups with no known name are also thought to use Area IV. Isolated peoples are highly nomadic and rely entirely on forest resources spread across the area’s untouched pristine forests.
Hunt Oil work parties spread within Area IV pose a direct threat to the health and cultures of peoples living in voluntary isolation. Already Hunt workers have had sightings of uncontacted groups, as confirmed in interview with the Peruvian NGO Shinai Serjali. These peoples are vulnerable to introduced diseases such as influenza and gastrointestinal illnesses to which they have no immunity. In the 1980’s, when Shell Oil explored the nearby Camisea region over 40% of the isolated Nahua people died from introduced diseases in the Nahua-Kugapakori Reserve. In January 2003, the Peruvian government will announce whether Area IV will be opened up for gas exploration.
Hunt Oil is also a lead part of a Camisea gas project consortium that has forcibly contacted peoples living in voluntary isolation within the Nahua-Kugapakori Reserve. As such, Hunt Oil has contravened ILO Convention 169, and flouted the right of indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation to choose when and if they contact outsiders. Area IV is even more remote than the Camisea region, placing its peoples in even greater jeopardy from Hunt Oil’s quest for fossil fuels.
Defending Sacred Territory
The Hunt Oil operating zone contains ecologically sensitive and highly biodiverse headwater regions, the source of several Amazonian tributaries. These headwaters hold great sacred meaning for isolated indigenous peoples. Ironically, most of the Hunt zone falls within ‘Upper Purús Reserved Zone’ (UPRZ), a 5 million hectare area set aside by the government in 2000 to safeguard the territory of indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation from encroachment by logging companies. Indigenous peoples including the Sharanahua, Amahuaca and Cashinahua who have different levels of contact with non-indigenous society also live there.
In Area IV, forced encounters with Hunt Oil work parties could bring permanent changes and irreparable trauma for uncontacted peoples. While little is known about their language and ethnicity, it is clear that the Mashco-Piro and Curanjeños peoples reject contact with outsiders – they defend their territories by firing warning arrow shots to keep out invaders, including other indigenous peoples.
Until recently, uncontacted peoples in the area had no history of aggression. Yet, pressures caused by the unwanted presence of illegal loggers and missionaries have resulted in increasing conflict over natural resources. Violence erupted in February 2001, when the Mashco-Piro attacked a logging party with arrows, the loggers returned fire shooting and killing an unknown number of Mashco-Piro.
Hunt Oil and the Bush Administration
Hunt Oil has numerous ties to the Bush administration. In May 2000, Ray Hunt, chairman and CEO of Hunt Oil Co., was named finance chairman of the Republican National Committee’s Victory 2000 Committee. The Vice President of Hunt Oil Company, Hunter Hunt, took a leave of absence in September 1999 to work for the ‘Bush for President’ Campaign. Hunt worked served as primary Policy Advisor on energy issues. He was also a member of the Bush Energy Transition team.
Far removed from Washington, Hunt Oil is now operating in uncontacted peoples’ territories in a remote and inaccessible region of Peru visited by very few outsiders where government or independent oversight is almost impossible. Given the grave risks to peoples living in voluntary isolation posed by Hunt operations, Amazon Watch calls on Hunt Oil to withdraw from Area IV and respect the territories of indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation as ‘no-go zones’ for fossil fuel development.
