Perenco and armed forces break Indigenous blockade

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A gunboat belonging to Peru’s armed forces has broken through an Indian river blockade in the northern Peruvian Amazon.

The gunboat, together with at least one boat belonging to Anglo-French oil company Perenco, broke the blockade at 5:15 am on 4 May. The blockade, organised by local Indigenous people, is on the Napo river, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon.

Peru’s Indigenous organisation, AIDESEP, condemned the use of a boat belonging to the armed forces, describing it as a ‘use and abuse of their power’. The blockade forms part of Amazon-wide protests by Peru’s Indigenous people against government policies and the invasion of their territories by multinational companies. The protests have been going on for almost a month.

Perenco holds the licence to work in a remote part of Peru known as Lot 67, accessible via the Napo River. It is an area inhabited by at least two of the world’s last uncontacted tribes – the company is under increasing pressure to withdraw from the project.

Less than a fortnight ago Perenco’s chairman, Francois Perrodo, met Peru’s president, Alan Garcia, in the presidential palace in Lima, pledging to invest US$2 billion in Lot 67. Just days later the government passed a law declaring Perenco’s work a ‘national necessity’.