Peru
and Ecuador:
The last Free Peoples besieged by oil and logging companies
At
the end of 2007, the Peruvian government opened the way to the
exploitation of new oil plots in the Province of Loreto, on the
frontier with Ecuador: plots 67 and 121 to the US Barrett
Resources Corporation and plot 39 to the Spanish company Repsol
YPF.
These
plots, according to evidence submitted by the Inter-Ethnic Association
for the Development of the Peruvian Forest (AIDESEP) in 2003 and
2005, are the territory of the Tagaeri and Taromenane “Free People” who live in voluntary isolation. The evidence gathered
includes information on various ocular encounters by soldiers
and inhabitants of the region, as well as trails, sounds and physical
evidence including crossed lances and ceramics.
The Barrett
oil company plans to open up 8,000 Km. of seismic lines over a
relatively small space, which implies an incredibly intense level,
so far unprecedented in the whole Peruvian Amazon. It also
plans to establish 5 logistic bases, 61 encampments, 61 heliports
and to bring in over 1,000 workers, all this in the heart of the
proposed Napo Tigre Territorial Reserve. All this movement, noise,
deforestation and destruction will doubtlessly threaten the existence
of the indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, as it implies
the possibility of the indigenous people being frightened off
by the oil workers from their traditional hunting areas. This
forced displacement of the indigenous people in isolation would
constitute a violation of their territorial rights, according
to articles 16 and 18 of Convention 169 of the International Labour
Organization.
It is very
obvious that the seismic programme was not designed to take these
people into account. The oil exploration phase implies covering
the forest with paths to detonate seismic charges over small stretches.
“These explorations convert the forest into squared paper, at
each of the vertexes they bore a hole and fill it with dynamite.
The explosion serves to draw a sort of subsurface scan”... “for
the inhabitants of the forest this becomes a sort of cobweb, impossible
to avoid.”
Furthermore,
Barrett plans to hire interpreters to communicate with the indigenous
peoples in voluntary isolation and for this purpose intends “using”
members of the Ecuadorian Waorani people in this plan as interpreters.
The proposal is to take them to Peru, “train” them and through
them, establish contact with the Taromenane. This action would
evidently violate article 3 of ILO Convention 169.
The Environmental
Impact Assessment shows that no precautions have been taken to
avoid encounters with the indigenous people. On the contrary,
there is only a plan of action following a “non-forced” encounter.
These encounters expose these peoples to a very serious situation
due to their extreme vulnerability, as they lack any biological
defence against common diseases that could be introduced by the
oil workers, such as measles or flue. Epidemics of such diseases
could quickly decimate entire populations, as has happened on
previous occasions.
The 1955
story in Ecuador is being repeated, when a group of US evangelists
from the Summer Linguistic Centre sent presents from a basket
suspended from an aeroplane in flight to the Waorani indigenous
groups. With this method they made friends with them and finally
relegated them to a space of approximately 10 percent of their
original territory, so that Texaco could come in and exploit their
land with impunity, while the population was decimated by the
diseases that had been introduced. Now Barrett’s plan is to make
presents of necklaces, blankets, matches, combs, etc., while Repsol
plans communication using megaphones, in the event of attacks,
using sentences such as “Is something bothering you?”, “We have
not come for your women, we have our own women in our own villages.”
The Spanish
oil company has a dire track record in Peru: violation of worker’s
rights and mass dismissals, contamination at the La Pampila refinery.
Under the name of Pluspetrol, it spilt 5,500 barrels of oil from
a launch into the River Marañon, in the North Peruvian forest,
affecting the Pacaya Samiria Reserve and the Cocamas-Cocamillas
people. During the development of the Camisea project complaints
were made about aggression towards the Machiguenga community,
also affecting indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, in addition
to the Nahua and Kugapakori Reserve, sacred sites such as the
Pongo de Mainique canyon and the Community reserve “Pavilk Nikitine”
in Vilcabamba (Oilwatch
2002).
Furthermore,
there are considerable numbers of Tagaeri and Taromenane people
in voluntary isolation on the other side of the frontier.
The Ecuadorian State has established an intangible zone covering
650,000 hectares between the rivers Curaray and Nashiño for their
survival. Despite the creation of this area, where any type of
activity is banned, the members of this clan continue to suffer
from pressure generated by the extraction of natural resources
from within their territories. The reports of sightings,
tracks and utensils and other objects of anthropological value
along the length of the Nashiño River and the middle and upper
Curaray (on the Peruvian side, lead us to suppose that members
of this group are fleeing from the harassment they are suffering
due to hunting and illegal logging within their territory on the
Ecuadorian side.
The Inter-American
Human Rights Commission has ordered preventive measures that Ecuador
must implement for the protection of the Free
Peoples. So
far these have resulted in action plans that are still on paper,
while the threats are very real in the forest. However this scenario
has been further complicated by the presence of these two oil
companies at the frontier and more so with the declarations of
the Peruvian government stating that there is no reliable proof
of the presence of isolated peoples in this region of the country.
Allowing the granting of plots 67 and 121 to the Barrett Company
and plot 39 to Repsol is placing at risk the already fragile Intangible
Zone established in Ecuador to protect the Tagaeri and Taromenane
peoples.
Finally it
should be noted that no mechanism has managed to avoid outsiders
from contacting peoples such as these and leading to their extinction
because of the propagation of diseases or violent contacts that
have been well-documented. Therefore the only efficient measure
to ensure the survival of these cultures is to avoid contact,
to respect their territory and the use these peoples make of their
resources and their right to their self-determination to remain
in voluntary isolation.
By Nathalia
Bonilla, Campaña de Bosques, Acción Ecológica, Ecuador,
foresta@accionecologica.org
[1]
Name
whereby the Waorani Nationality of Ecuador recognize their
brethren.
[2]
Cabo de Villa Miguel Ángel 1997
LA SELVA DE LOS FANTASMAS ERRANTES. Cicame, Pompeya,
Ecuador (pages 33-34)
