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Los Angeles, CA – Indigenous leaders from the Peruvian Amazon and environmentalists today donned hazmat suits and staged a major “clean-up operation” outside the global headquarters of Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) to urge the company to remediate a toxic disaster it created in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest.
Approximately 50 people, including the actress Daryl Hannah participated in the demonstration outside the Oxy offices in Westwood, scrubbing the sidewalk and holding banners, reading: OXY: Clean Up Your Toxic Waste in the Amazon”.
Oxy dumped nine billion barrels of toxic wastewater into virgin tropical rainforest belonging to the indigenous Achuar people when it drilled for oil in Peru from 1971 to 2000. The company then fled the country, leaving local communities with lead and cadmium poisoning and living in a devastated environment.
Amazon Watch Executive Director Atossa Soltani. “Oxy knowingly poisoned the rainforest homeland of the Achuar people and has refused to clean up its toxic contamination. It appears we now need to resort to public demonstrations and lawsuits to get Oxy to do the right thing.”
The event comes two days before Oxy’s annual general meeting for shareholders on Friday, May 2nd, which Achuar leaders will attend as proxy voters. The Achuar are expected to address the meeting, telling Oxy executives, directors and shareholders directly about their plight and demanding that Oxy fund a full environmental remediation. Supporters will hold a rally outside.
The Achuar are also pursuing legal redress against Oxy. A Los Angeles superior court judge recently ruled that a class-action lawsuit filed by the Achuar and Amazon Watch belonged in Peruvian rather than U.S. jurisdiction. The plaintiff’s lawyers are now considering whether to appeal that decision or whether to launch a new lawsuit in Peru. “Whether it is here in Los Angeles or back in Peru, we will get justice. Oxy will clean up,” said Henderson Rengifo, an Achuar leader who has traveled to LA this week.
Also on Friday May 2, Press Briefing and Rally at 9.45am at Oxy’s Annual shareholders’ meeting with Achuar leaders and celebrities outside Fairmont Miramar Hotel, 101 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica CA 90401.
