SANTA MONICA, Calif. – A group of Amazon Indians and their supporters dressed in white hazmat suits demonstrated outside a hotel Friday to demand that Occidental Petroleum Corp. clean up the toxic waste created by 30 years of drilling in the Peruvian rain forest.
About 40 protesters including actress Daryl Hannah gathered in front of the Fairmont Miramar Hotel where the company holds its annual shareholders meeting. Some picketers carried black signs in the shape of oil barrels while others pretended to mop up an “oil spill” on the sidewalk created out of black trash bags.
“Who would go into somebody’s house, decimate it, poison it and just because they’ve left say they’re no longer responsible?” said Hannah. “That’s what Oxy did.”
Los Angeles-based Occidental pumped oil in Peru from 1970 to 1999 when its operations were bought up by the Argentine-run company Pluspetrol. Occidental signed an agreement with the Peruvian government to stop dumping contaminated oil waste, but conservationists argue the company should contribute to the cleanup efforts.
Occidental spokesman Richard S. Kline said that responsibility falls to the new owners and said the Peruvian government had published a report about the area and found “no issue” with Occidental.
Kline disagreed with protester claims the land had been poisoned.
“To our knowledge, there’s no credible data indicating negative community health impacts resulting from our operation,” Kline said.
Health studies have revealed that the Achuar Indians living in the contaminated areas suffer from high blood concentrations of cadmium and lead.
Last year, a group of Indians filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles against the company but a judge decided the case should have been taken up in Peru, said Atossa Soltani, executive director of Amazon Watch. They are considering an appeal, she said.
