Trade campaigner Stuart Trew has noted that the Latin American Herald Tribune reports, “The London-based group (Survival International) called on oil companies operating in the region to suspend activity while Peru ‘comes to terms with the worst political violence since the Shining Path insurgency in the 1980s.’ Energy Firms with operations in Peru’s Amazon region include Anglo-French Perenco, Argentina’s PlusPetrol, Canada’s Petrolifera, Repsol YPF of Spain and Brazil’s Petrobras.”
As noted on their website, “Survival is the only international organization supporting tribal peoples worldwide. …Today, Survival has supporters in 82 countries. We work for tribal peoples’ rights in three complementary ways: education, advocacy and campaigns. We also offer tribal people themselves a platform to address the world. We work closely with local indigenous organizations, and focus on tribal peoples who have the most to lose, usually those most recently in contact with the outside world. We believe that public opinion is the most effective force for change. Its power will make it harder, and eventually impossible, for governments and companies to oppress tribal peoples.”
According to the company’s website, “Petrolifera Petroleum Limited is a Calgary-based crude oil and natural gas exploration, development and production company active in South America. Petrolifera holds interests in approximately eight million acres of petroleum and natural gas rights in ten onshore concessions or licenses in Argentina, Colombia and Peru.”
The Latin American Herald Tribune report is at www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=336792&CategoryId=14095. Survival International is at www.survival-international.org/home. Petrolifera Petroleum is at www.petrolifera.ca.
You can read more about Petrolifera in Peru in Stuart’s trade blog at www.canadians.org/tradeblog/?p=60. Our ‘action alert: oppose free trade repression in Peru’ is at www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=677.
