Peru suspends rights in jungle protest regions

[Judi Lynn]

Peru suspends rights in jungle protest regions
Posted on Tue, Aug. 19, 2008
By CARLA SALAZAR
Associated Press Writer

LIMA, Peru -- Peru's government declared a state of emergency Monday in remote jungle regions where Indian groups are blocking highways and oil and gas installations to protest a law that makes it easier to sell their lands.

The 30-day decree published in the official gazette suspends rights to public gatherings and free transit in three northern provinces.

It follows nine days of protests by members of 65 Indian tribes and a clash Saturday in northern Peru between police and hundreds of spear-carrying Indians with painted faces. Lima newspaper El Comercio reported eight officers and four protesters were injured.

Environment Minister Antonio Brack said protesters have closed a bridge and highway "and threatened to cut the supply of oil via the oil pipeline and gas through the Camisea gas pipeline."

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/AP/story/647654.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. You remember H. L. Hunt, super wacko right-winger, don't you?

It's his company which is involved in taking the only home they know from these people. Too bad he won't be here to wallow in his triumph.

Hunt Family Rushes In
Where Big Oil Fears to Tread
Lacking Prime Projects,
Texas Firm Bets on Peru;
A Bad 20 Years for Shell
By BOB DAVIS
December 20, 2007

PAMPA MELCHORITA, Peru -- Seven decades ago, Texas wildcatter H.L. Hunt used poker winnings to build an oil company. Juggling three wives and 15 children, he headed a legendary family whose soap-opera quality rivaled the one on TV's "Dallas."

Now Dallas-based Hunt Oil Co., the family-run company he founded, is playing another high-stakes hand -- betting it can make money on projects in Iraq and other spots that big oil companies won't touch.

The company's biggest wager is on Peru. Royal Dutch Shell spent nearly 20 years and $450 million to develop a natural-gas project in the Amazon before pulling out empty-handed in 1998. Hunt took Shell's place in this volatile country two years later. Amid protests from international environmental groups and local Indian activists, Hunt soon plans to pump gas from Amazon wells and pipe it over 14,000-foot Andean peaks where alpacas graze. The company is building a massive plant overlooking the Pacific Ocean to export liquefied natural gas.

Yesterday, an LNG consortium led by Hunt won approval of a $400 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank for the project, part of $2 billion in financing it is seeking from export and multilateral agencies. Today it faces its toughest financing hurdle when the U.S. Export-Import Bank decides on another $400 million loan. In 2003, the Ex-Im turned down financing for a companion natural-gas project in Peru, in which Hunt has a minority stake, over environmental concerns.

"The things that have worked out well for us are often the things that on Day One, people said, 'You must have lost your mind,'" says Ray Hunt, the company's 64-year-old chief executive officer.

Hunt's scrappiness, pedigree and political savvy have made the company an outsized presence in an oil world dominated by giants. The company's $3 billion or so in annual revenue is just a few days work for Shell or Exxon Mobil. Because Hunt doesn't have the cash or technological prowess to compete with the major oil firms for the largest projects, it must troll for profits in regions marked by dicey politics.

More:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119808938080039931.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

[Judi Lynn]

2. Hunt was a Bush family friend, bless his right-wing extremist heart!

Hunt Oil Company
From SourceWatch

The privately-held Hunt Oil Company—"one of the big money Texas donors behind the Bush family political empire"<1>—and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced September 8, 2007, that "they've signed a production-sharing contract for petroleum exploration in northern Iraq, the first such deal since the Kurds passed their own oil and gas law in August.

"A Hunt subsidiary, Hunt Oil Co. of the Kurdistan Region, will begin geological survey and seismic work by the end of 2007 and hopes to drill an exploration well in 2008, the parties said in a news release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed."<2>

~~~~~~~~~

Visits by a Hunt-owned plane to the CIA's Camp Peary facility

Between November 27 and November 28, 2006, a civil aircraft registered to Hunt Oil's holding company, Hunt Consolidated, Inc., made two visits to the CIA's Camp Peary training facility. Prior to flying into Camp Peary it made an overnight stop at Washington Dulles airport. It also made a briefer stop at Washington Dulles at the end of its visit.<6> The aircraft's registration number is N46F.

This is not the company's only connection to the espionage community: CEO Ray L. Hunt is a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

~~~~~~~~~
Hunt Oil's operations in Peru

According to a November, 2005 article in Salon,

"Among Hunt's biggest projects is the controversial $2.6 billion Camisea liquefied natural gas project in Peru, which will soon begin delivering gas to markets on the West Coast of the U.S."

Amazon Watch has this to say about the project:

"Peru's Camisea Gas Project is arguably the most damaging project in the Amazon Basin at the time of writing. Located in the remote Lower Urubamba Basin in the south-eastern Peruvian Amazon, the $1.6 billion project includes two pipelines to the Peruvian coast, cutting through an Amazon biodiversity hotspot described by scientists as "the last place on earth" to drill for fossil fuels... In the first 18 months after it became operational in August 2004, the Camisea pipeline, which runs from the Amazon, over the Andes, to the Pacific Coast, has ruptured four times, with at least three major spills. This appalling record is highly unusual for such a pipeline and comes despite repeated assurances from the downstream consortium and the Inter-American Development Bank that no such problems would occur. According to a February 2006 independent report by non-profit engineering consultancy E-Tech International, the pipeline was constructed by unqualified and untrained welders using corroded piping and rushing to avoid onerous late completion fees that would have totalled $90 million."<9><10>

The frequent spills led Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines and the country's energy regulator to conduct an emergency technical review of the pipeline in December 2005. And indigenous groups responded to the spills by blockading the Urubamba River.<11>http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Hunt_Oil_Company#Resources



H. L. Hunt, founder





Lamar Hunt
Late Owner of the Kansas City Chiefs,
inherited recently by his son.

(My emphasis.)

More on Hunt's "Project:"

Nearly 75 percent of gas extraction operations for "Block 88", as the original Camisea concession is known, are located inside a state reserve for indigenous peoples living in isolation. In violation of both stated company policy and international laws such as ILO Convention 169 and the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, employees of Veritas, a contractor working for consortia member Pluspetrol have made contact with these communities, pressuring them to abandon their ancestral lands. Pluspetrol also facilitated helicopter transport of missionaries to remote areas to contact isolated indigenous groups.

Additionally, another 22 indigenous communities living in intermittent contact with outsiders, as well as dozens of farming communities have suffered a range of direct and "indirect" impacts, from the loss of local fish and game populations on which they depend for their subsistence to landslides, infectious diseases and STD outbreaks. A May 2004 report, published by the Peruvian health ministry's General Office of Epidemiology confirmed that that incidences of infectious diseases had increased in the reserve among one isolated group, the Nanti, to such an alarming extent that only one in four now reaches adolescence. These serious environmental and social impacts now affecting the entire local population were predicted by environmental and human rights campaigners.

In the first 18 months after it became operational in August 2004, the Camisea pipeline, which runs from the Amazon, over the Andes, to the Pacific Coast, has ruptured four times, with at least three major spills. This appalling record is highly unusual for such a pipeline and comes despite repeated assurances from the downstream consortium and the Inter-American Development Bank that no such problems would occur. According to a February 2006 independent report by non-profit engineering consultancy E-Tech International, the pipeline was constructed by unqualified and untrained welders using corroded piping and rushing to avoid onerous late completion fees that would have totalled $90 million.

The project also has upset many in Peru given the gas processing facility on the Peruvian coast was built within the buffer zone of the Paracas Marine Reserve, an internationally important wetland area recognised by the RAMSAR convention and Peru's only marine reserve. Despite repeated appeals by Peruvian civil society, the consortium refused to choose an alternative site.

In January 2006, Hunt Oil broke ground on a $1 billion plant to liquefy natural gas for export to planned markets in mainland Mexico and Western United States.

Hunt Oil Stands to Gain

The Camisea Project is owned by two consortia of small companies with poor environmental records led by Hunt Oil - a Dallas-based company with close ties to the Bush administration. Chief Executive Ray L. Hunt contributed to President Bush's presidential campaign and also sits on the board of Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice-President Dick Cheney.

More:
http://www.amazonwatch.org/amazon/PE/camisea/index.php?page_number=99

~~~~~~~~~
There actually is no way you can justify this ####. None. Sorry, don't even try.

Published on Friday, June 8, 2007 by Inter Press Service
Chronically Leaky Pipeline Given The Greenlight - Again
by Emad Mekay
WASHINGTON, Jun 7 (IPS) - A controversial gas pipeline in the pristine heart of the Amazon forest that has ruptured six times since its inception received a clean bill of health this week from the main financial backer, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), drawing scepticism from indigenous groups and international environmentalists.

The results of the two IDB audits contradict a study conducted last year by E-Tech, a California-based non-profit technical research firm, which found that the quality of materials and construction procedures used in the Camisea gas pipeline was substandard and caused the pipeline to repeatedly leak into the ecologically sensitive area.

The author of the E-Tech report, Carlos Salazar Tirado, is a certified pipeline welding inspector who examined sections of the Camisea pipeline during the construction phase in 2002-2003.

The report’s allegations prompted the IDB to freeze further funding to the companies building the Camisea pipeline in the Peruvian Amazon.

The companies, led by Texas-based Hunt, SK Corporation and Repsol YPF S.A., are seeking a 400-million-dollar loan to partially fund a liquid natural gas terminal and other infrastructure on the coast that would turn Peru into an exporter of liquefied natural gas.

The IDB had already approved a 75-million-dollar loan for the transportation component of the project in 2003. In 2002, the Bank provided a five-million-dollar loan to the government of Peru for capacity building and oversight of the project.

The gas will be exported to markets in Mexico, and possibly Chile and the United States as well, for re-gasification.

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/08/1751/

[Peace Patriot]

3. Well, all this makes is much clearer how and by whom the last presidential election

in Peru was stolen. A 100% indigenous candidate--Ollanta Humala--came out of nowhere and bumped the fascist candidate (the obvious Bushite choice) out of the race, winning an amazing 30% of the vote, in the primary, with no money and no political experience. The fascist/corporate minority (no doubt funded by Hunt and the Bushites) had no choice but to go with leftist (Clintonesque-type leftist), and highly corrupt, pro-"free trade" Alan Garcia. The inexperienced Humala almost won. He boosted his vote nearly 15% in the runoff, against Garcia--which is the vote count that I suspect was fiddled (with Hunt money and operatives?). Then, our benighted Democratic Party leaders pushed through a "free trade" deal with Peru, claiming that (unlike the Colombian "free trade" deal) it contained labor and environmental protections (har-har-har--only on paper, and only if enforced, and who is there to enforce it?). Garcia has been beset with major labor, indigenous and environmental protests ever since, and has an approval rating, now, as bad as Bush/Cheney's (mid-20s), but not quite as bad as our Democratic Congress (single digit!).

Hunt's oil spills are just what you would expect from this situation.

And unlike in Ecuador--with its true leftist president, Rafael Correa--the Peruvian indigenous have no champion--no one to enforce the law, require accountability, and/or hogtie these corpo malefactors and run them out of town.

Given the strong trend in South America toward transparent vote counting, and the strengthening of democratic institutions--the long hard work of local civil groups, social movements, and international institutions like the OAS and the Carter Center--what can (and is likely to) happen in Peru is that Garcia will be ousted in the next election, and Ollanta Humala will become president. (--in 2010, I think--not sure.) Following this, what I suspect will happen is that the gas facilities will be nationalized and Hunt thrown out. And Peru will pay Hunt for this nationalization, minus the costs of the damage they have done. Unlike the fuckwad executives of the transnational 'floating countries' we call corporations, these new leftist leaders believe in equity and fairness. Play by the rules laid down by the sovereign people, and you will do well in these countries. Act like an Orc, and they will band together to defeat you. The Orcs may have brute power, and the Dark Lords, on their side. But they have never met such a formidable foe as this new 'Fellowship of the Ring' (the combined power of the people and their allied elected leaders) in South America.

[Judi Lynn]

4. So Garcia put that law into place with an executive decree, just like the power given

to Hugo Chavez. Why the #### was there not a shrieking free for all among the trolls and corporate media about Garcia's special ability to pass laws? Also, why didn't they raise hell about it when Chavez had these powers the first time? Apparently no one realized they could get some mileage from it then. Every troll also completely ignored the information that Venezuelan Presidents had received the same executive power long BEFORE HUGO CHAVEZ and no one chewed the scenery, and threw himself on the floor howling.

Why is it it's O.K. for Garcia, then? Well? Here's how he used that power. He did something goddawful, which he appears to regret now that the whole world knows what a dirty thing it is. Now he sees the error of his way. Oh, sure!

Peru president defends Indian land law

The Associated Press
Thursday, August 21, 2008

LIMA, Peru: President Alan Garcia on Wednesday warned lawmakers against repealing a law that makes it easier for Indian lands to be sold, saying it would be a historic mistake.

The law, which Garcia decreed earlier this year, allows an indigenous community to approve the sale of tribal lands by simple majority vote — eliminating a provision that had made it nearly impossible to develop communal property.

In a televised speech, the president said a repeal would condemn Peru's Indian and rural communities to "another century of backwardness and misery."

Sixty-five Indian tribes have mobilized against the law, which they say will speed the loss of their land. Protesters are threatening to stop the flow of natural gas and oil at two key pipelines in the Amazon jungle, and on Wednesday, thousands clashed with police in thejungle city of Bagua. Hospital officials said nine civilians were being treated for injuries.

Peru's Congress has agreed to vote on the law's possible repeal — on the condition that protesters unblock highways and suspend demonstrations.

Garcia decreed the law using special legislative powers he was granted to implement U.S. requirements for a free trade pact between the two nations

More:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/21/america/LA-Peru-Indian-Protest.php

[Judi Lynn]

5. Peru's army on standby to break up protests by Amazonian Indians

Peru's army on standby to break up protests by Amazonian Indians
Thursday, 21 August 2008

Peru is considering sending in the army to break up protests by Amazonian Indians who claim the government is preparing a massive land grab in the country's remote jungles.

Indigenous groups have blockaded roads and a river and set up pickets at energy installations to protest changes in the law which would make it easier for commercial interests to buy up collectively owned tribal lands in the northern regions of Peru.

The government has responded to an appeal for talks by declaring a state of emergency in three states and threatening protesters with military action.

"Indigenous people are defending themselves against government aggression," said an Amazon Indian rights campaigner, Alberto Pizango. "This is not an ordinary or everyday demonstration. The Indians have told us they are not afraid. If the government declares a state of emergency they prefer to die there and show that this government violates human rights."

Relations between indigenous groups and the President Alan Garcia have become increasingly hostile as the government has sought to exploit what are thought to be rich oil and gas deposits in lands owned by Amazon Indians. Energy companies have pushed deep into supposedly protected areas in the past year, leading to clashes with some of the most remote tribal peoples left in the world.

The increasingly unpopular Garcia administration is under pressure due to soaring energy costs and failure to translate economic growth into a general rise in the standard of living. It is actively courting outside energy giants and this week agreed a £2.5bn stake in the state oil company to China.

Ten days of protests have so far seen thousands of Indians from all over the Peruvian Amazon mobilised. A small number of arrests have followed and a clash between police officers and hundreds of spear-carrying Indians on Saturday led to eight people being injured, according to local media reports. Police claim that two of their officers have been taken hostage after being sent to a protest site over the weekend.

More:
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/perus-army-on-standby-to-break-up-protests-by-amazonian-indians-13946826.html