Alfonso López, presidente de la Acodecospat: Foto: Servindi.

By Jonathan Hurtado

Servindi, 6 May, 2014.- After years of struggle he is not alone, as the government would like. Alfonso López Tejada is the president of the indigenous organization Cocama Association of Development and Conservation of San Pablo Tipishca (Asociación Cocama de Desarrollo y Conservación de San Pablo Tipishca, ACODECOSPAT), which brings together more than fifty indigenous communities of the Marañón river basin in the Loreto region, in Peru´s Amazon.

He and two other leaders from neighboring basins came to Lima to demand the Executive Power take immediate measures to address the fact that the drinking water of the people living in the Marañón is contaminated with hydrocarbons and heavy metals. ACODECOSPAT affiliates alone total about fifteen thousand people.

Argentine company Pluspetrol has been operating in Block 8 for more than a decade, in the territory of the Kukama people within the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve. It also operates the Block 1AB (now known as 192) whose license expires in over a year. Before Pluspetrol, Occidental Petroleum was the operator, a company that left environmental harms that continues to affect the communities.

In January 2013 the Assessment and Environmental Control Agency (Organismo de Evaluación y Fiscalización Ambiental, OEFA) imposed a S/. 29 million fine to Pluspetrol (around US$10 million) for "failing to complete on time the environmental remediation activities in the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve." In March 2013, MINAM declared the Pastaza River Basin in environmental emergency, in September the Corrientes River and in December the Tigre River were also declared in environmental emergency. However, the Marañón basin has not.

Alfonso is from the community of Dos de Mayo, in the Nauta district, Loreto region. He took on the defense of the territory of the communities living on the reserve area long ago. For the 57 year old leader, it takes four days to travel to Lima to talk with the government. "Despite the obvious pollution, the authorities do nothing, the National Service of State Protected Natural Areas (Servicio Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas por el Estado, SENARP) does not answer our requests for assistance nor fulfills its obligation to protect biodiversity" he claims.

If there is any good oil company, it is surely not Pluspetrol, reflects Alfonso. Ever since they took over operations, spills became more frequent, even though they are unknown to urban populations who assume that oil comes from the gas stations.

On Monday and Tuesday this week, Alfonso held a series of meetings with representatives of the Ministries of Energy and Mines, Environment, Health and Development and Social Inclusion. Then he visited members of Congress, with whom he works to expose the damage caused by the oil industry.

The Supreme Resolution 119-2014-PCM issued on March 2014 created the Multisectoral Development Commission of the Pastaza, Tigre, Corrientes and Marañón River Basins (Comisión Multisectorial de Desarrollo de las Cuencas del Pastaza, Tigre, Corrientes y Marañón), overriding a previous dialogue table created in mid-2012.

Under those previous agreements, two working groups were formed: one about environmental issues and the other on social issues. The environmental group documented high levels of contamination from oil activities in waters, soils and sediments of the four basins.

There is no language the State can use to deny the watershed pollution, which has been thoroughly demonstrated. However, the resolution that created the new commission, under the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM), does not mention a single specific action aimed at resolving the disaster produced from more than forty years of oil extraction.

Among other omissions, the resolution does not take into account the district of Nauta, which is part of the Marañón River basin. Another critical point is participation, which seems to be reduced to two representatives per federation.

Alfonso agrees with Aurelio Chino, leader of the Quechua Indian Federation of Pastaza (Federación Indígena Quechua del Pastaza, FEDIQUEP) and Emerson Sandi of the Alto Tigre Native Communities Federation (Federación de Comunidades Nativas del Alto Tigre, Feconat), in that this new commission will be as the previous one: words without action.

It has been a long time since Alfonso and the leaders from the other three basins began the struggle to defend their rights. "Patience comes to an end when the government has no political will to implement concrete actions to solve the problems," he concludes.

Those who did lose their patience are the indigenous organizations of the Corrientes River basin: last week they took over the Huayurí Power Station and blocked some access roads to Block 1AB, to demand remediation of the damages cause by Pluspetrol.

The presidents of the three associations released a document with comments and proposals to the 119-2014-PCM resolution, which establishes the new multispectral commission. A key focus is the development of an action plan, managed by the federations, to process the claims of provision for drinking water, food security, health, remediation, compensation and land titling.

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Translated from Spanish to IWGIA and Servindi by Luis Manuel Claps.