Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Achuar native people. Photo: Gap Adventures

By Niko Kyriakou

(LIP-nk) - A group of native Amazonians has seized parts of Peru's largest oil facility without violence.

The Native Federation of the Corrientes River trapped 40 workers inside three of Pluspetrol's facilities Wednesday, complaining that the company is polluting local water supplies.

"There are about 40 Pluspetrol employees being detained in the Jibarito, Huaylluri, and Dorissa camps," Roberto Ramallo, the company's local director, told Radioprogramas radio late Wednesday night.

"They are not being held hostage. They are simply inside their offices of the Pluspetrol camps. They do not have the possibility to leave because the entrances are blocked," he said.

Ramallo said his company, the government, and the indigenous group were in negotiations to end the blockade, which is near the Ecuadorian border, in the province of Loreto.

Pluspetrol has shut down its second biggest oil field as a result of the protest.

The Peruvian army has been sent to the area to break up the siege and has orders to use force, according to Amazon Watch, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California.

The group, which works to protect the environment and the rights of indigenous peoples, urged the government not to use force.

"This is a very volatile situation. We urge the Peruvian government to resolve this matter peacefully and meet the Achuar's demands, which are entirely reasonable," said Amazon Watch executive director, Atossa Soltani, in a statement Thursday.

The sequestering is a "desperate" move that is being carried out by some 700 members of the Achuar ethnic group, Amazon Watch said. The Achuar have been protesting oil drilling in their rainforest territories for some 30 years.

Protesters claim that oil extraction procedures are polluting local waters with lead, arsenic, mercury, and cadmium, which they say are poisoning the native population and endangering the local ecosystem.

Pluspetrol said it was abandoned oil wells that were polluting waters, and not its current operations. The Argentine company produces an average of 28,000 barrels a day, according to government data.

A survey done earlier this year by Peru's Health Ministry found that more than 98% of local Achuar people had unsafe levels of cadmium in their blood.

Unsafe levels of lead were also detected in more than 66% of Achuar children. Indigenous groups have also reported developing rashes from bathing in rivers near the oil facilities.

The Native Federation of the Corrientes River claims that for every barrel of oil extracted there are nine barrels of contaminated water produced as a by-product.

In a statement, the Achuar demanded "a serious dialogue of equals between the government and our indigenous authorities," so as to end contamination and "attend to our population which is sick from poisoning."

The event follows the submission of a report to the International Labor Organization Tuesday on the condition of Indigenous people in Peru.

The report, drafted by 20 human rights organizations and indigenous communities, says government censuses ignore native peoples, masking the gravity of their problems.

The most recent statistics on Peru's indigenous population date back to a 1993 census, according to which the country was home to just under nine million indigenous people, nearly all of whom lived in the highlands. Some indigenous groups claim natives actually represent the majority of Peru's 28 million people.

The report also states that the government has favored mining and oil extraction by private companies over the protection of the environment and indigenous communities.

More than 50 percent of the 8,000 indigenous people who live in the Achuar's region have been affected by the activities of oil companies, the report states.