19 June 2009
Climate change activists have blocked the entrance to the Peruvian Embassy today in protest the country’s killing of indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest.
Up to 100 people have been killed in recent clashes over attempts to extract oil, gas, minerals and timber from the forest where indigenous people have lived for centuries. On June 5, the government’s security forces attacked a peaceful blockade, leading to bloodshed on both sides with 30-100 estimated deaths, over 100 injuries and numerous disappearances.
Since the clashes, the Peruvian government has suspended some exploitation in the area, but it is unclear whether some companies will be allowed to continue.
Protesters from London Camp for Climate Action are demanding to deliver a letter of protest to Peruvian Ambassador Ricardo Luna. The calls for oil and gas companies in the Amazon to suspend their operations until the government agrees to peaceful negotiations with local representatives; for an independent and impartial inquiry into the violence; and for the lifting of all charges against Alberto Pizango (the President of Peru’s Amazon Indian organisation, AIDESEP)
Protester Sam Gardener said: “This protest is to show solidarity with the thousands of indigenous people that are risking, and sometimes losing, their lives to protect their homes in the Amazon.
“By destroying the Amazon rainforest to extract fossil fuels, we are accelerating catastrophic climate change. The Amazon removes vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. By cutting it down to remove yet more fossil fuels we are speeding towards a worldwide catastrophe.”
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15.6.09: Lively and well attended demo at the Embassy by Colectivo Peruano, together with the Coordinadora Latinoamericana, and was supported by Latin American Youth Against Violence
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Some of the companies with new contracts in the Amazon and elsewhere in Peru (signed April 2009, some individually and some as part of a consortium with Perupetro) that I can find (but unable to secure direct links/locations in the UK) are:
Pluspetrol – http://www.pluspetrol.net/
Reliance – http://www.reliancepetroleum.com/
CNPC – http://www.cnpc.com.cn/eng/
Petroperu – http://www.cnpc.com.cn/eng/
Faulkner Suits Exploration (US)
Olympic (US or Canadian)
Petrolifera – http://www.petrolifera.ca/
Pan Andean Resources (Dublin based) – http://www.panandeanresources.com/contact/
Kei (Australia)
PetroVietnam (Vietnam)
Golden Oil – http://www.goldenoilcorp.com/new/english/company/company01_4.php
However, some of these companies DO have UK based offices and trading:
EMERALD ENERGY PLC
http://www.emeraldenergy.com/contact.htm
With a registered office in London.
CONOCO PHILLIPS
http://www.conocophillips.co.uk/ContactUs/index.htm
An American company that is reported to have a new “mega concession” of 10.5 million hectares in the Amazon for oil exploration.
Offices and activities in London, Aberdeen, Teesside, Humber, Theddlethorpe, Warwick
There’s a report on their activities in Peru here: http://www.amazonwatch.org/conoco2009.pdf
The situation in Peru currently is dire…. the indigenous communities have been mobilizing and resisting since April and at this time when their leaders are threatened with arrest and there are widespread murders and disappearances occurring it is key that those of us benefitting from these explorations (in the Global North) do what we can to show solidarity and to put the pressure directly on the companies that are treating Peru as a smorgasboard of ways out of the current economic crisis…