Peru - Brazil indigenous people pledge to fight Amazon oil exploration
Peru - Brazil indigenous people pledge to fight Amazon oil exploration
Peru is facing rebellion by a 3,500 strong indigenous people deep in the Amazon committed to fighting oil exploration in their forest territory, following the government's failure to consult Matsés communities or respect their rights.
by David Hill
Sunday, 21 December 2014
Members of an indigenous people living on both sides of the Brazil-Peru border in the remote Amazon say they are prepared to fight with spears, bows and arrows if companies enter their territories to explore for oil.
The Matsés have publicly opposed operations by Canada-based firm Pacific Rubiales Energy for at least five years, but they say that neither the company nor Perupetro, the government body which granted the licences to two oil concessions in Peru, are taking any notice.
"It seems that the [Peruvian] state is a child", says Dora Canë from the most remote Matsés village on the Peruvian side of the border, Puerto Alegre. "It doesn't listen. We say no, but it just carries on. It wants to extinguish us."
"We have told the company no, but it isn't listening", says Nestor Binan Waki, another Puerto Alegre resident.
"Our patience is running out. We have nothing more to say. The only thing we have is our spears."
More:
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2014/12/21/imp04.asp