Furious protest in Amazon V Peru's biggest gas project

By David Hill*

22th, september, 2014.- Reports from the Peruvian Amazon suggest that a group of indigenous people – the Nahua – have recently entered a gas project camp established in what they consider their territory, removed equipment, and set fire to a tractor in protest at the operations.

The camp has been set up as part of the expansion of the Camisea gas project – Peru’s biggest energy development – which is run by Pluspetrol. ‘The company says it [the camp] is not in our territory.

There were tractors, machines, gasoline and tents there,’ one Nahua man tells me. ‘Our people were furious,’ says another. ‘The company has entered without previously consulting us. It’s a huge problem.’ According to reports, some or all of the Nahua who entered the camp were subsequently taken by Pluspetrol in helicopter to Malvinas, the company’s base, to the south-west of Nahua territory. One Nahua man says that they have written to the Culture Ministry – the ministry responsible for indigenous peoples – insisting it visit them to resolve the issue.

‘Culture has to come,’ he says. ‘The Ministry has to come. The company has not consulted us.’ Most of Nahua territory lies in the Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti and Others Reserve – which one Peruvian NGO believes now stands to be dissolved in order to facilitate gas expansion and Christian evangelization.

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*David Hill es periodista. Puede seguirlo en su página web: www.hilldavid.com y en su cuenta de Twitter: @DavidHillTweets