Indigenous Peoples in Peru Decry New Oil Concessions in their Amazon Territories http://www.amazonwatch.org/newsroom/view_news.php?id=2094

This week Perupetro is traveling to Houston and London to promote 25 new oil concessions which open the last vestiges of the Peruvian Amazon to oil drilling. Affected indigenous peoples across the country have declared their opposition to new oil drilling and condemn Perupetro's attempts at consultation as divisive and manipulative. The International Labor Organization of the UN has called on the Peruvian Government to suspend new contracts until an adequate consultation process is in place. 

Perupetro, the oil and gas licensing arm of the Peruvian government, launched the new bidding round last week after previous bidding rounds were cancelled due to conflicts with indigenous peoples and corruption scandals that resulted in the resignation of the entire cabinet. With this new bidding round, over three-quarters of the Peruvian Amazon is now targeted for oil and gas drilling and exploration. 

"Peru is opening some of the most remote regions of the Amazon to oil drilling, threatening some of the most biodiverse forests on the planet and the lives of the indigenous peoples who depend on this forest for their livelihoods." said Atossa Soltani, Amazon Watch Executive Director, "The current disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is a clear demonstration of the risks involved. An oil spill in the Amazon would create an ecological disaster."