Perupetro’s promotion in Houston Friday of an upcoming auction of 18 oil
blocks drew a protest by leaders of Peruvian indigenous organizations, flanked by Washington, DC-based environmental and human rights activists, who sought to dissuade prospective drillers from pursuing the blocks.
The indigenous leaders said no new oil concessions should be drilled in
the Amazon region where they live and 11 of the new blocks are drawn. They
said that oil exploration in the country has spoiled the environment and that
the government should redress existing grievances before encouraging more
drilling.
“They are killing very slowly the indigenous people of our land,” said
Washington Bolivar, president of FENACOCA, a Central Amazon organization that is promoting the Cashibo Territorial Reserve proposal, a plan that seeks to set up reserve in the Amazon where the indigenous can live.
Bolivar and Robert Guimaraes, vice president of the Association of
Indigenous Peoples of the Peruvian Amazon [AIDESEP] said they listened to a
two-hour presentation earlier Friday at the Petroleum Club of Houston by
Perupetro and that their issues were not mentioned. Their remarks at a
sidewalk press conference were translated by Trevor Stevenson, co-director of Amazon Alliance, a Washington-based organization.
Daniel Saba, president of Perupetro, was in meetings Friday afternoon in
Houston and could not be immediately reached for comment. Saba said on January 22 that the bidding period for the blocks would open January 23 and close in June. He expected contracts to be signed in the second half of the year.
The indigenous leaders said that after the Perupetro presentation, they
addressed prospective bidders to inform them they will resist further oil
development in the Amazon, and handed out maps showing how the 11 onshore blocks in the Amazon overlay where indigenous people live.
“We’re not criminals. We’re here to make sure that the oil executives
hear our voices. Supposedly, the Amazon rainforest is a place of peace and
tranquility, but unfortunately that’s not the way it is,” Bolivar said. “We,
the indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon, have not been exterminated. We continue to make our voices heard by spreading it to the four winds.”
Their environmental concerns over the years have not been addressed by
the Peruvian government, Guimaraes said. “We will not be having dialogue with the government of Peru until they resolve the existing problems,” he said. “We have declared a state of emergency” and hope oil companies are put off by their concerns, Guimaraes added.
In that vein, Alberto Barandiaran, an attorney and president of Derecho
Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, a Peruvian group involved in environmental and social issues, said that oil company representatives at the Perupetro
presentation were “surprised to find they have a major conflict on their
hands” when they saw and heard the indigenous leaders. “We did not come here to make problems,” but “to make sure our voices are heard,” he said.
Barandiaran and the others at the press conference said the Peruvian
government has not properly sought consent from indigenous people ahead of offering blocks. “They’ve been tricking the oil companies by saying they are
complying with existing laws,” he said.
– Katharine Fraser, katharine_fraser@platts.com
