Oil Company Under Fire in Amazon: New Inquiries, Exposés and Penalties Fuel Indigenous Movement

By Darrin Mortenson July 30, 2012

Courtesy Debbie Rivet, Alianza Arkana

 

IQUITOS, Peru—The world that PlusPetrol has built in Peru’s Amazon over the last 16 years seems to be crumbling under the weight of the company’s alleged crimes.

The Argentinian oil company – notorious for allegedly spilling oil, dumping toxic petro-chemicals and production waters into streams used by indigenous communities – is finally getting the attention it deserves.

On the pleading of indigenous leaders whose people have suffered four decades under the oil regime in the region of Loreto, a congressional investigation finally led to the arrival of four members of Congress who, in late June, had to see for themselves the contamination that officials at all levels of government have ignored for years.

In one visit, a congresswoman slipped into an oil-filled pond that the company allegedly denied even existed. In another, legislators arrived on the scene as PlusPetrol workers were bulldozing dirt and trees on top an oil-filled lake to hide potential contamination.

“This is how it is. This is what we live with out there,” said Adolfo Rengifo Hualinga, vice president of the Federation of Native Communities of the Corrientes (FECONACO).

In recent testimony before Peru’s Congress, PlusPetrol officials blamed indigenous “vandalism” for a majority of their spills, claiming that the Natives were responsible for poisoning themselves.

Rashes and fevers are common among villagers on the Pastaza and other nearby rivers where oil spills are frequent. (Courtesy Debbie Rivet, Alianza Arkana)

After Quechua communities on the Pastaza River rose up to protest PlusPetrol in June, threatening to add to Peruvian President Ollanta Humala’s many woes, a cabinet-level commission was mobilized and dispatched to the community of Alianza Topal…
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