Amazon indigenous leaders urge major banks to cut ties with Peru's state oil company

Native leaders from the Peruvian Amazon are to travel to the US this week to urge banks to cut their financial ties to Peru’s state oil company, Petroperú.

As the Guardian reported, the leaders from the Achuar and Wampis indigenous communities said that the oil company is responsible for oil spills in their territory that violate their human rights by polluting their water and fishing sources and irreparably damaging their hunting grounds.

They will be also demanding that the Peruvian government and banks stop oil exploration and investment in all Indigenous territories in the Peruvian Amazon, which forms the second largest part of the rainforest after Brazil.

Nelton Yankur, the President of the Achuar Federation, said that Petroperú had "caused so much damage to our population" over the past 40 years of drilling for oil and transporting it through their territory.

The delegation from the Amazon intends to meet representatives of Citibank, Goldman Sachs and HSBC in New York, with JP Morgan in Washington DC, and Bank of America in Lima, Peru.

According to the Guardian, they also want to set out the social, legal and environmental risks of financing or investing in Petroperú, which are outlined in a report by the NGO Amazon Watch that was presented at New York Climate Week in September 2022.

The state oil company intends to seek $1.6 billion in investment to reinitiate drilling and oil extractions in the Amazon.

Widespread protests in Indigenous territories were held after Petroperú caused two oil spills, one in 2014 and the second of an estimated 2,500 barrels of polluting the area oil in September 2022.

The government declared a state of emergency then, with Petroperú and the general attorney’s office having stated that the spill was caused by an intentional cut to the oil pipeline.

Aníbal Torres, the Prime Minister of Peru accused the indigenous community of cutting the oil pipeline to later "claim compensation".

"It’s serious that the state allows the pollution of our territory by the same company that should belong to all Peruvians," said Alfonso López, the President of the organisation for "Amazonian Indigenous Peoples United in Defense of their Territories".

He added, that "the state should be aware that the regulations we have to protect the environment and the lives of Indigenous peoples are not being complied with".