In light of what has been transpiring in the region, I’m writing about a particular area of the Peruvian Amazon which I visited in the month of October. Puerto Maldonado is a city in Southeastern Peru in the Amazon forest 55 kilometers west of the Bolivian border on the confluence of the Tambopata and Madre de Dios River, a tributary of the Amazon River. It is the capital of the Madre de Dios Region. Manú National Park, Tambopata National Reserve, and Bahuaja-Sonene National Park, which remain some of the most pristine primary rain forests in the world, are found in this region.
The main industries in Puerto Maldonado are logging, gold dredging, Brazil nut collecting, boat building and eco-tourism. This region is virtually logged out; where only one mill remains. There is no more rubber collection. Recent legislation in the European Union put hundreds of Brazil nut collectors out of work. Gold is the next target in the local resource boom where legal placer and dredge mining concessions operate on the region’s rivers. Illegal and highly destructive hydraulic mining also takes place in pirate operations. On November 11, 2009 – Living in Peru.com reported on the mercury poisoning which is also destroying the Madre de Dios jungle region in Peru. Flying over the region of Puno and Madre de Dios, one sees thousands of tonnes of missing soil and forest, after years of intensive and illegal gold mining that has occurred in this region. Experts say that mercury is the cause of this damage, which is necessary for gold exploitation. It is also a poison that quietly goes unnoticed and damages progressively. Mercury is sold without any control on populations that are located around mining areas of Puno and Madre de Dios. In the last four years the imports of mercury doubled from 75,000 kilos to 132,000 last year.
There’s more. The Interoceanic Highway or Trans-oceanic highway, now under construction, is intended to link the river ports of Brazil with the Pacific coast ports of Peru. The highway is planned to pass through Puerto Maldonado, crossing the Rio Madre de Dios on a 722 meter viaduct. In the greater area around Puerto Maldonado the highway’s route cuts through primary rain forest. Some groups, including the Peruvian NGO Asociación Civil Labor, fear that the road will initiate illegal logging, hunting and settlement in areas not easily reached at present.
Madre de Dios has experienced tremendous challenges in the past two years. In early July 2008, regional government offices in Puerto Maldonado, the regional capital of Madre de Dios, were occupied for three days. Puerto Maldonado was completely paralyzed as FENAMAD, the indigenous Amazonian organization, joined the regional campesino union in launching a strike. Campesino demands for land titles partnered with indigenous demands for territorial rights, along with small miners, Brazil-nut harvesters, Puerto Maldonado moto-taxi drivers in an Alliance of Federations.
Almost the entire Madre de Dios region is divided into hydrocarbon exploration lots. Sapet, a Peruvian venture of China National Petroleum, has a license for Lots 113 and 111. Shell Oil explorations in the mid-1980s took a grave toll in disease on the Yaminahua people in the north of Madre de Dios, who now have a titled community in neighboring Ucuyali region. A decade later, ExxonMobil and Elf began exploration in Lot 78. In addition to hydrocarbons, timber is being massively exploited in Madre de Dios, mostly by Peruvian firms for export to the United States and China. A hydroelectric project is pending on the Río Inambari, with the Brazilian firm Odebrecht likely to get the contract. The Madre de Dios could be a very different place in the years to come, and the indigenous groups fear what all this development will bring to their lands. For more information, go to this article.
So what is transpiring at this moment? According to Peruanista, as of November 6, 2009, there has been an alert that there may be a repeat of Bagua with possible attacks against indigenous peoples in Peru as the Police forces prepare to protect the Hunt Oil project in Peru in the Madre de Dios region.
Bagua largely breezed under the radar of mass media, where in June 2009; Indigenous peoples in Peru went into strike for almost two months protesting free-trade policies that would allow multinational corporations to take over their territories. These decrees, granted to President García by Peru’s congress in 2008 opened the doors for a U.S. free trade agreement that would undo years of previous work in protecting indigenous territorial rights in the rainforest. This free trade agreement would allow indigenous lands to be excavated for oil drilling, logging, and other forms of resource extraction as never previously seen before.
In June 2009, the government of Peru ordered the National Police to attack the Amazonian Indigenous peoples fighting to protect their land rights from the consequences of this free trade agreement. As a result, civilians were shot from buildings roofs and helicopters, and the casualties from this genocidal attack remain unclear. This protest brought together indigenous leaders from the rainforest, with the highland campesinos, and urban workers, who joined in the protest campaign.
The Peruvian Police is currently preparing to protect the interests of U.S. corporation Hunt Oil and Spain’s Repsol-YPF. The proposed (Camisea) project is to explore and extract oil and natural gas in the state-created Lot 76 concession which includes the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, and other lands of the Yine, Matsigenka or Amarakaeri and Harakmbut Indigenous communities. Hunt Oil is working on several oil projects around the world. Hunt Oil initially obtained the lease for this project in Peru when former U.S. president George W. Bush visited Lima and met with former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo. There is great concern of what the implications of this project will be in Peru.
Brazilian state-run energy giant Petrobras confirmed recently that the company has discovered natural gas at a field in the Cusco province. Petrobras has completed drilling the first well in Peru’s Block 58 (Urubamba 1X). There has been drilling to a depth of 4,000 meters. Petrobas holds 100% of this Block 58 concession. Peruvian President Alan Garcia announced recently that Petrobras had made a natural gas discovery containing approximately 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The company plans on drilling second well at Block 58, (Picha 1X), in 2010, where the Urubamba region will be explored even further. President Alan Garcia also announced that more natural gas was found in the Camisea region, and that this discovery will benefit the people of Peru. Really?
All the while, Indigenous protests in Salvacion are currently being ignored in the same way they were ignored in Bagua before the massacre (which occurred on June 5, 2009) where hundreds of Indigenous people died, including Indigenous police officers. Peruvian labor and Indigenous groups are currently demanding the government to fire its minister of Environment Antonio Brack. Also, the Mining Federation of Peru (FEDEMIN) and the Federación Nativa de Madre de Dios (FENAMAD) have called for a 48 hour national strike on November 16-17, to demand that Minister Brack, who is a strong supporter of mining, oil and natural gas corporations, to step down.
Furthermore, President Garcia and the government tried unsuccessfully to dissolve AIDESEP, the biggest Indigenous organization of the Amazonian communities on Peru. AIDESEP was the main organizer of the Bagua protests, and they recently made it clear that they would also support Indigenous protests in Salvacion.
We cannot allow what happened in June 2009 to take place again. We cannot allow these multinational corporations to devour these lands for their own benefit. We know what happened in Ecuador, and the public is becoming more and more aware of the consequences of decades of oil drilling in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon (just watch the movie “Crude”). It is my hope that we can set a worldwide intention to support the people in this region in their efforts to protect their lands. Enough is enough. Too many people have suffered, too much land has been destroyed, too many people have been killed, too many indigenous groups have faced almost extinction, and too much pristine rainforest areas are now cesspools of toxic waste.
For more information on what can be done in taking action, please visit Peruanista’s blog. For a very comprehensive resource of articles relating to the Bagua massacre, please visit Ray Beckerman’s weblink. For information on how important it is that we keep the heart of the Earth (the Amazon) protected, please visit my previous blog post. Awareness and unity is important, and we need to spread the message that what is taking place is an unexamined assumption that must be examined.
The following are more related articles:
Democracy Now – Video – Bagua Massacre
Video: Visiting Oil Contamination in Peru’s Amazon
Pachamama Ayni
dewimailelim
jana1840
tehuti3
raybeckerman
A very informative article covering all aspects of past and pending destruction of the Peruvian rainforest and the indigenous people living in the regions concerned. This blog site offers the reader information on other important issues covered by Pachamama-ayni and other concerned people.
I also spent some time in and around Puerto Maldonado. We must stay aware and do whatever we can to express our concern.
report on the horrible goings on in bagua and much links etc at http://itsafunnyoldworld.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/bagua/