Amazonians Unite against Canadian Oil Giant
Indigenous Amazonians Unite against Canadian Oil Giant
by Survival International / March 16th, 2013
Indigenous Amazonians from Peru and Brazil have joined together
to stop a Canadian oil company destroying their land and threatening the lives of uncontacted tribes.
Hundreds of Matsés gathered on the border of Peru and Brazil last Saturday and called on
their governments to stop the exploration, warning that the work will
devastate their forest home.
The oil giant Pacific Rubiales is headquartered in Canada and has
already started oil exploration in ‘Block 135’ in Peru, which lies
directly over an area proposed as an uncontacted tribes reserve.
In a rare interview with Survival, a Matsés woman said, ‘Oil will
destroy the place where our rivers are born. What will happen to the
fish? What will the animals drink?’
The Matsés number around 2,200 and live along the Peru-Brazil border. Together with the closely-related Matis tribe, they were known as the
‘Jaguar people’ for their facial decorations and tattoos, which
resembled the jaguar’s whiskers and teeth.
The Matsés were first contacted in the 1960s, and have since suffered from diseases introduced by outsiders. Uncontacted tribes are also at extreme risk from contact with outsiders through the
introduction of diseases to which they have little or no immunity.
Despite promising to protect the rights of its indigenous citizens,
the Peruvian government has allowed the $36 million project to go ahead. Contractors will cut hundreds of miles of seismic testing lines through the forest home of the uncontacted tribes, and drill exploratory wells.
The government has also granted a license for oil explorations to go
ahead in ‘Block 137’, just north of ‘Block 135’, which lies directly on
Matsés land. Despite massive pressure from the company, the tribe is firmly resisting the oil company’s activities in their forest.
The effects of oil work are also likely to be felt across the border in Brazil’s Javari Valley, home to several other uncontacted tribes, as seismic testing and the construction of wells threaten to pollute
the headwaters of several rivers on which the tribes depend.
Survival International, founded in 1969 after an article by Norman Lewis in the UK’s Sunday Times highlighted the massacres, land thefts and genocide taking place in
Brazilian Amazonia, is the only international organization supporting
tribal peoples worldwide. Contact Survival International at: info@survival-international.org. Read other articles by Survival International, or visit Survival International’s website.
This article was posted on Saturday, March 16th, 2013 at 7:59am and is filed under Canada, Corporate Globalization, Mining, Oil, Gas, Coal, Pipelines, Original Peoples, Peru, Resistance, Solidarity.
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