Canadian oil firm hit by occupation as Peru faces warning of wider Indigenous uprising

Photo: APTN National News

by Jorge Barrera, APTN National news, August 23, 2017

Hundreds of Indigenous people have reportedly seized oil facilities operated by the subsidiary of a Canadian company in Peru’s Amazon region amid warnings of a wider uprising over the Peruvian government’s failure to consult with communities before allowing extraction on their traditional territories.

Indigenous group seizes Peru oil field facilities

Achuar indigenous people during a similar action in 2015. Photo: Reuters

Japan Times, August 23, 2017

LIMA – Indigenous people living on Peru’s largest oil field concession have seized some facilities operated by Frontera Energy Corp. demanding that the government apply an indigenous rights law before signing a new contract with the Canadian company, a tribal chieftain said on Tuesday.

Shuar tribe face government in Amazon mining protests

Ecuador’s Shuar say mining project in Cordillera del Condor threatens their livelihood and encroaches upon their land.

By Bryan van Hulst Miranda, Al Jazeera, December 29, 2016

Morona-Santiago, Ecuador – The death of a police officer during a standoff between military and indigenous Shuar people in a takeover attempt of a mining camp in Ecuador’s southern Amazon on December 14, catalysed a government mobilisation of armed forces in the region.

Amazon tribe blockade railroad in protest against Brazilian mining giant

Warriors of the Awa tribe in the Amazonian region of Brazil blockade train tracks used by mining corporation, June 2016. Photo: Survival International.

Survival International, June 17,  2016

Members of Brazil’s Awá tribe have blockaded a railroad owned by Vale mining company in the eastern Amazon.

The company has moved to expand the railroad, but the Awá say the expansion will increase the number and size of trains which transport iron ore from the Carajás mine to the port of São Luis – and that this will make it harder for them to hunt for food.

Brazil Suspends License for Controversial Amazon Dam

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Brasilia, Brazil: In a surprising move, IBAMA, the administrative arm of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, suspended the process of environmental licensing for the controversial São Luiz do Tapajós Dam in the Brazilian Amazon yesterday. International Rivers welcomes this decision as an important breakthrough for the protection of rivers and indigenous rights in the Amazon.

Video: Beneath the Canopy: Achuar Fight Against Big Oil and Climate Change

by Fusion, posted to Youtube on Aug 26, 2015

The Achuar of the Peruvian Amazon fight back against big oil and climate change.

Amazon Assembly Unifies Resistance to Dams on Brazil’s Tapajós River

Meeting of Native peoples of the Amazon region opposed to massive dam projects proposed for their territories, Sept 2014.

Historic gathering builds opposition to government’s plans for new mega-dam complex

Amazon Watch, December 1, 2014

Santarém, Brazil – Tensions are building over the Brazilian government’s polemic plans to circumvent the law in order to dam the Tapajós River. On November 27th, representatives of a diverse coalition of threatened indigenous peoples and other traditional communities assembled with religious leaders and activists to challenge a new Amazon mega-dam complex. The “Caravan to Resist Dams in the Amazon” unified forces among the indigenous Munduruku, riverbank communities, social movements and NGOs, with three bishops from the Brazilian Amazon including Erwin Krautler of the Xingu River, winner of the 2010 Right Livelihood Award. The protest marked the largest resistance action to date in the region and was held at in the remote São Luiz do Tapajós community, threatened with a mega-dam of the same name.

PHOTO REPORT: Amazon Indian Warriors Beat and Strip Illegal Loggers in Battle for Jungle’s Future

Ka’apor warriors stand guard over illegal loggers they tied up during a jungle expedition to search for and expel them from the Alto Turiacu Indian territory.

By David Sim, International Business Times, September 4, 2014

A group of warriors from Brazil’s indigenous Ka’apor tribe tracked down illegal loggers in the Amazon, tied them up, stripped them and beat them with sticks.

Photographer Lunae Parracho followed the Ka’apor warriors during their jungle expedition to search for and expel illegal loggers from the Alto Turiacu Indian territory in the Amazon basin.

Indigenous protesters occupy Peru’s biggest Amazon oil field

Achuar protest against oil companies, May 2013.

Dan Collyns, The Guardian, April 25, 2014

Around 500 Achuar indigenous protesters have occupied Peru’s biggest oil field in the Amazon rainforest near Ecuador to demand the clean-up of decades of contamination from spilled crude oil.

The oilfield operator, Argentine Pluspetrol, said output had fallen by 70% since the protesters occupied its facilities on Monday – a production drop of around 11,000 barrels per day.

Brazil: land disputes spread as Indians take on wildcat miners

Munduruku Indian warriors stand guard over an illegal gold miner who was detained by a group of warriors searching out illegal gold mines and miners in their territory near the Caburua river, a tributary of the Tapajos and Amazon rivers in western Para state January 20, 2014.

By Lunae Parracho and Caroline Stauffer, Reuters, Feb 17, 2014

As Brazil struggles to solve land disputes between Indians and farmers on the expanding frontier of its agricultural heartland, more tensions over forest and mineral resources are brewing in the remote Amazon.