A spokeswoman from Perupetro recently dismissed the existence of uncontacted Indigenous Tribes in Peru — saying “it is like the Loch Ness Monster.” “Everyone seems to have seen or heard about uncontacted peoples, but there is no evidence.”

From Survival International - Ms Quiroz also questioned the recent appearance of uncontacted Kayapó Indians in the Brazilian Amazon, an incident which happened over 1,500 kms away. Ms Quiroz implied that the Indians’ appearance was a fiction to scare off oil companies from bidding for the Peruvian lots.

Only last week a …

From Amazon Watch - Los Angeles, CA – A report released today (link below), on the eve of Occidental Petroleum’s (Oxy) annual general meeting (AGM), reveals that the LA-based oil giant deliberately ignored industry standards and employed out-of-date practices for 30 years, resulting in severe cadmium and lead poisoning among indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon.

According to the report, based on information gathered by a team of experts in May 2006 – including a doctor, nurse, lawyers, soil scientist, agronomist, environmental engineer, and chemist – children from five Achuar …

Here is a story from Village Earth which focuses on the work of the Shipibo People in Peru to defend the rainforest and their own communities — as well as a project to aid in the defense and protection of Shipibo territory, by creating GIS layered maps of the region.

From the article “an aggressive program of Amazonian “development” has been promoted during the past 50 years, which has fragmented Shipibo territory by the incursion of non-indigenous colonists, government “development” projects, and foreign corporations exploiting the land by logging, hydrocarbon …

First Indigenous Tribunal of the Ucayali
from www.villageearth.org
March 18, 2007

As a follow-up and outcome to the Village Earth Regional Organizational workshop in January 2007, a group of Shipibo leaders have decided to hold the first ever ‘Indigenous Tribunal’ as they call it. This Tribunal will be a gathering of leaders from all 120 Shipibo communities throughout the region. They are also inviting local NGOs and leaders from other regional indigenous groups such as the Ashaninka. This is an event of historic importance because the Shipibo have not had a regional meeting of this magnitude for over 30 years, and even …

Peru-Brazil - Uncontacted Indians Flee Logging onslaught
www.survival-international.org
Feruary 28, 2007

The Brazilian government has discovered signs of some of the world’s last uncontacted tribes living near the border with Peru.

The Indians are believed to have fled illegal mahogany logging sweeping through Peru’s rainforests, destroying the Indians’ homelands and forcing them out of their traditional territory.

During an aerial inspection of the area, Brazilian government officials spotted a village and various hunting camps. They also found felled mahogany trees and drums of chainsaw oil floating down the Envira River.

The Brazilian government estimates that there are already three different uncontacted groups living in this …

HOUSTON, Jan. 31 — Indigenous leaders from the Peruvian Amazon, environmentalists and human rights groups today called on the Peruvian government to suspend its tendering of oil concessions that threaten to devastate a vast swath of pristine tropical rainforest and the native communities that live there.

They arrived in Houston today to speak out as Perupetro, Peru’s state- owned oil company, launched its 2007 roadshow in Houston timed to coincide with the NAPE Expo, the oil prospecting industry’s semi-annual trade show. Perupetro plans to tender 11 Amazonian blocks, covering approximately 22 million acres of intact primary tropical rainforest.

Three of those blocks …

Half the Peruvian Amazon Leased for Petroleum Development
http://www.ens-newswire.com
December 4, 2006

Conservation groups based in Washington warned today that the Peruvian government is signing so many contracts with multinational oil companies that half the rainforest of the Peruvian Amazon is now covered with oil leases.

The Peruvian Amazon contains some of the most pristine and biodiverse rainforests on Earth, says said Dr. Matt Finer of Save America’s Forests, who has spent years working as an ecologist in the rainforests of Peru and Ecuador.

“Over 97 million acres of the Peruvian Amazon, roughly the size of California, is now zoned for oil and …

The Struggle for Reparations - in Quechua
Ángel Páez, www.ipsnews.net
November 24, 2006

SAN JOSÉ DE SECCE, Peru — Isabel Limancca can express herself much better in Quechua. But she speaks Spanish well enough to wage a struggle against the Peruvian state from this remote town in Peru`s southern Andean highlands.

Limancca and others who lost family members during the armed conflict that hit this area hard starting in 1980 founded the Association of People Affected by the Political Violence (ASAVIP), which fights the neglect and marginalisation suffered by those who lost a parent, child or sibling to murder or forced disappearance during …

Local residents return to their homes having reached an agreement over oil waste after a 15-day protest.

Protesters from the Achuar Indian communities in the northern Peru forest have won an agreement for an Argentine oil drilling firm to stop dumping toxic waste into the rainforest. The Native Federation of the Corrientes River brought jungle operations of Pluspetrol Norte to a standstill, demanding a clean-up of the harmful waste produced by 30 years of drilling in the area.

The group signed an agreement on Monday with Pluspetrol and the Peruvian government, promising to end all dumping of oil waste into the …

World Indigenous Empowerment Summit
La Paz, Oct 9 (Prensa Latina) The multinational state, the Constituent Assembly, resistance and democracy are on Monday s agenda for delegates at the Continental Summit of the Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala.

Over a thousand representatives from Bolivia, the US, Canada, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Uruguay are presenting their experiences with unity in native peoples.

They will discuss international rights, identity and coexistence as well as culture, education, language and historical social debts in work commissions.

The event ending October 12 will spurn Washington´s new colonization strategy through the Free …