Press Release
From the Coordinating Office of the Achuar Federation of the Corrientes River Basin:
Iquitos, October 12, 2006
Report at 17:00 pm
Up to now the communities have closed the Trompeteros airport, paralyzed the highways in both blocks, and closed river traffic on the Corrientes river. They have stopped five production batteries: Huayuri, Dorissa, Shiviyacu, Rustic and Jibarito in block 1AB, including 115 oil wells that produce more than 30,000 barrels daily.
The communities decided to paralyze the oil activities on their lands that began in 1970, given the Vice-Minister of Energy and Mines’ failure to execute the actions agreed on September 7th, 2006 that included among others:
– Immediate 100% re-injection of production waters: about 60 million gallons of these toxic and carcinogenic substances, with heavy metals, oils, high temperatures, and even 6 times saltier than water from the sea, which equals to 10,000 tons of salt per day, are dumped to the rivers and river streams daily.
– Financing the Central Health Plan; to take care of the decontamination of leads, cadmium and other heavy metals accumulated in the blood of the people affected, as well as to take care of the recurrent illnesses that cause the death with blood vomiting in the population.
– The cleaning of large contaminated areas, river beds and lagoons should be under indigenous monitoring;
– Financing the Education Plan, land titling, production activities approved by the Regional Government of Loreto;
– Temporary emergency food stocks and potable water to address serious nutritional deficiencies given the contamination of small farms, flight of hunting animals and contaminated fish, which are part of the daily diet of the population.
– No more oil concessions, nor beginning of operations in blocks 104 and 106, recently offered by the government to Burlington Resources (ConocoPhillips) and Petrolífera oil companies in our territory, such operations will affect the few areas not yet contaminated by oil activity in the Corrientes river basin.
Yesterday, the police attacked the population of Pampa Hermosa with tear gas. They were peacefully assembling. There were no injuries, and subsequently the communities managed to persuade the police to keep the order and to do their job without using force.
The native communities have not held any of Pluspetrol’s workers hostage, as some managers and the media are saying. They have also note engaged in any violent action, though they are willing to fight to the last consequences until they find solution to their problems. They would like the Peruvian people to know that the actions taken to paralyze the oil operations are based on the fulfillment of the constitutional duty to the defend human rights and to legitimately defend the right to avoid continuing contamination of drinking water, food and making our families sick.
At this time the meeting of Apus, parents and mothers of the communities has culminated and they have agreed to wait in the field until Dr. Alan Garcia Pérez, President of the Republic; Dr. Juan Vallejos, Minister of Health, and Juan Valdivia, Minister of Energy and Mines, arrive in the Corrientes with the solution to our rights, which have been violated for over 35 years.
We thank all the people of Peru and the international communities that are sending us messages of hope and encouragement; to the worthy and brave mass media that are reporting objectively from Iquitos, Lima and abroad in accordance with their informative duty. We also thank the generous people of the community Iquiteña who have initiated an act of solidarity with the donation of food for the children of the Corrientes, giving the example to many whose obligation they break.
Respectfully, please distribute widely. We will continue reporting
*(translated from original in Spanish by Amazon Watch)
