US oil company threatened with eviction from Amazon

30 Octo­ber 2009

Indige­nous peo­ple have threat­ened to evict a US com­pa­ny, Hunt Oil, explor­ing for oil on their ances­tral land in the Peru­vian Ama­zon.

30 Octo­ber 2009

Indige­nous peo­ple have threat­ened to evict a US com­pa­ny, Hunt Oil, explor­ing for oil on their ances­tral land in the Peru­vian Ama­zon.

Accord­ing to FENAMAD, an indige­nous organ­i­sa­tion in south-east Peru, at least two hun­dred peo­ple have gath­ered in a small town called Sal­vación, which acts as Hunt’s base in the region.

A meet­ing between com­pa­ny rep­re­sen­ta­tives, local indige­nous peo­ple and high-rank­ing gov­ern­ment min­is­ters, includ­ing the prime min­is­ter, was sched­uled to take place on Wednes­day. Fifty police­men have been sent to Sal­vación – a move con­demned by Peru’s nation­al indige­nous peo­ples’ organ­i­sa­tion, AIDESEP.

FENAMAD says local peo­ple have not giv­en Hunt con­sent to work on their land, and they are will­ing to put their ‘lives on the line’ to stop them from doing so. They said they would evict the com­pa­ny if it con­tin­ued to vio­late their rights.

FENAMAD says that local peo­ple have also asked to speak direct­ly to Hunt’s own­ers. Hunt is a pri­vate com­pa­ny whose CEO, Ray Hunt, is a long-stand­ing asso­ciate of for­mer US pres­i­dents George Bush and George W. Bush.

Hunt owns the rights to explore in the region, which includes land belong­ing to the Yine, Mat­si­gen­ka and Harakm­but tribes, with Rep­sol-YPF. Last month, FENAMAD announced it was suing both com­pa­nies.

At the heart of the region is the Ama­rakaeri Com­mu­nal Reserve, used by many indige­nous vil­lages for hunt­ing and fish­ing and the source of six rivers that are the only fresh water sup­ply for an esti­mat­ed ten thou­sand peo­ple.