State-run Petroperú, local authorities, and national entities seek to overwrite the history of opposition against Amazon oil drilling just weeks after an Indigenous-led movement deterred new bids for Block 64.
On June 18, 2025, Petroperú announced that it met with Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM), Perupetro, local authorities, and Indigenous federations to “ensure the success of the Block 64 reactivation process” in a desperate attempt to manufacture a social license to operate.
The Federation of the Achuar Nationality (FENAP), an organization representing 65 communities, sternly criticized the event during their assembly. In this assembly, FENAP released a statement addressed to government authorities, oil companies, associated financiers, and the public. According to FENAP, the gathering sought to “confuse public opinion” by fronting illegitimate Indigenous representatives. The pronouncement reads:
“These informal meetings and all publicity surrounding them have no validity as a mechanism for Indigenous peoples’ participation. The truth cannot be hidden. This block [64] is rejected by the vast majority of the Achuar people, which is why no legal proceedings have been undertaken to obtain consent.”
The meeting attempts to obscure three decades of resistance and existing legal challenges against Block 64, which may render it void. FENAP stressed that this move undermines their collective rights such as the right to self-determination as guaranteed by ILO Convention 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and poses risks to the Amazon biome.
Block 64 covers over 760,000 hectares of the Peruvian Amazon and overlaps with 100% of Achuar territory. Drilling in the block will threaten Achuar ancestral territories and impact neighboring nations such as the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampís Nation (GTANW) and the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Chapra Nation (GTANCH), endangering the rainforest.
State-run Petroperú, the block’s current operator, aggressively pushes for more Amazon crude to recoup massive debts from the build-out of its Talara Refinery, budgeted at $6.5 billion. The refinery build-out, financed by commercial banks, has put the company in a precarious financial position as it continues to rely on unsustainable government bailouts. As a result, Peru is stuck in a perpetual cycle of oil debt and reliance on fossil fuels, rendering critical and mega-biodiverse areas such as the Amazon and coastal areas into sacrificial zones.
In response to threats by the fossil fuel industry and financiers in their respective homes, the Achuar, Wampís, and Chapra nations banded together with artisanal fishing communities in a coalition called the MarAmazonía alliance. Since 2022, Amazon Watch has accompanied the alliance in taking on the largest fossil financiers such as JPMorgan Chase and Citi, warning of the existential risks of financing oil expansion.
Amazon Watch remains vigilant and deeply committed to amplifying the demands of frontline communities to end Amazon crude.
