The government of Peru recently announced it will not auction the reserve lands of uncontacted Tribal Peoples for oil exploration.

“The decision represents a U-turn for Perupetro, the state body responsible for negotiating exploration rights,” comments Survival International in a recent press release. “Perupetro spokespeople had previously suggested the uncontacted Indians did not exist, and that exploration in their reserves would be permitted.”

In fact, last year a Perupetro spokesperson compared the Peoples’ to the Loch Ness monster, saying “everyone seems to have seen or heard about uncontacted peoples, but …

A popular consultation (referendum) was held in Peru last week, drawing out some 7500 people from the Province of Candarave to vote on whether or not they would support the initiation of new mining activities in the region—and if they would agree to the use of underground water resources for those mining activities.

Despite an effort by one mining company (Southern Copper,a subsidiary of Grupo Mexico) to illicit a YES vote, the People of Candarave made their voice abundantly clear. 90 percent of the participants voted “NO” to both questions… …

A few months back there was a story about a company that plans to use megaphones if they come across any uncontacted tribes while working in the Peruvian Amazon. Repsol YPF, the company calls itself.

Well, the stage is now set for those indigenous People to be aurally assaulted by megaphones. In December, the government of Peru gave Repsol along with Barrett Resources permission to go ahead with their oil exploration plans. Incidentally, Barrett also plans to contact any people they come across, but rather than use megaphones they’re choosing to …

The Native Federation of Madre de Dios River and tributaries (FENAMAD) has denounced the governments actions toward granting mining concessions to indigenous lands in Peru, and have announced they must resort to self-defense in order to defend their right to the land.

They say the concessions are for one, a violation of the constitution and the ILO convention. But it is also causing conflict, and principally contributing to the “plundering of our territories, contamination of rivers and watersheds, destruction of the forest, fleeing animals” and putting pressure on hunting, causing difficulties …

The following video is a look at the situation in La Oroya, Peru, which in 2006 was identified as one of the ten most polluted places in the world. Populated by some 35,000 people, La Oroya is a mining town that suffers from numerous health and developmental problems caused by the neighboring metallurgical smelter that’s been operating since 1922.

Today the smelter is owned by the US company Doe Run Peru. The main chimney emits on average of 1.5 tonnes of lead and 810 tonnes …

This is a trailer to the film Tambogrande (2003), the story of proud fruit growers from Peru’s northern coast who came together to defend their lands and culture from foreign (Canadian) mining interests.

Canadian-based Manhattan Minerals was granted concessions by the government in the 1990’s to extract an estimated US$1 billion in gold, silver, copper and zinc from beneath the streets of Tambogrande.

The people were at no point consulted about this; and even though Manhattan made some significant offers to them, it was just not worth …

A popular referendum was held in Peru on Sunday to vote on the future of the Río Blanco mining project. The project, which was up until recently owned by the London-based mining company Monterrico Metals, has already shown to have caused damages in the area of development. Local communities say it is a threat to the rivers which they depend on, and that the company itself has been operating illegally on their community-owned lands.

More than 31,000 people showed up to participate in the referendum. The outcome–reminiscent of another …

On a recent expedition to supervise the Peru-Brazil border, the Brazilian Ashaninkas received death threats from a task leader of the Peruvian company Venao Forestal—raising concerns about the possibility of violent clashes in the future. Venao is also manipulating and creating conflict among the Ashaninka, exploiting them for wood.

Venao is one of many companies that illegally crosses into Brazil to log trees like mahogany and cedar.

The Ashaninka Society of the Rio Amônia sent out a notice of concern regarding the actions of Venao, and is calling for immediate action by …

A group of previously-uncontacted Tribal People from the East Coast of Peru have recently appeared at a village in Brazil. The people fled from their territory, it is thought, because of illegal logging activities on their land. Loggers are currently sweeping through it, in search of an exceedingly rare kind of Mahogany tree, commonly referred to as “red gold”

From Survival International - A large group of uncontacted Indians has appeared in a remote village in the Amazon rainforest near the Peru-Brazil border, a Brazilian government official and expert on uncontacted …

For the past 6 days, around 350 thousand teachers have been on strike in Peru, in protest of a new set of “Teacher’s Laws”, which are being imposed on them. Numerous actions have been take so far. to name a few, an airport was shut down, as well as one city. At this point, atleast 2 people died and an unknown number have been injured.

Amid this, the National Day of Struggle– a two day Peru-wide General Strike convoked by Peru’s National Federation of Miners, Metalworkers and Steelworkers began …