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For Immediate Release
August, 06 2013, 03:50am EDT
Contact:
Sarah Gilbertz:,T,+44 (0)20 7687 8710,or,+44 (0)7504 543367,E,sg2@survivalinternational.org,W,https://www.,survivalinternational.org/,In the US:,Kayla Wieche (after 12 pm,EST,),T,(+1) 415 503 1254,E,kw@survivalinternational.org
Peruvian Ministers Resign over Amazon Gas Project
LONDON
At least three ministers have resigned in Peru, amidst increasing pressure to approve a controversial gas project in the Amazon.
The plan to expand the existing Camisea gas project, which is within the Nahua-Nanti Reserve for uncontacted tribes, has been widely condemned, and in March the UN called for its 'immediate suspension'.
Peru's Ministry of Culture, charged with protecting indigenous peoples' rights, last week issued a report outlining the dangers the project would pose to uncontacted and isolated Indians' lives. But the report disappeared just hours after it was published online, and both the Minister and Vice-minister of Culture have now stepped down.
Amongst concerns outlined in the Ministry's report are the risk of disease being spread amongst the isolated Indians, who lack immunity to common illnesses which may be brought in by oil company workers and outsiders.
The Camisea project has already led to the death of up to half the Nahua tribe after they were contacted for the first time following initial oil explorations in the 1980s. The Nahua continue to suffer from grave health problems, as is common amongst recently contacted Indians, and the expansion of Camisea would cut deeper into their forest home.
In a letter written to the Ministry of Culture last month, the Nahua rejected the expansion plans, stating, 'We have decided not to let oil company Pluspetrol carry out its work on our territory' due to its 'repeated broken promises.'
Camisea is run by a consortium of companies led by Argentina's Pluspetrol, US's Hunt Oil and Spain's Repsol. The expansion plans include the detonation of thousands of explosive charges and the drilling of more than twenty wells.
Survival International's Director Stephen Corry said today, 'Peru's government seems to have been caught up in some kind of 'gas fever', in which the government appears determined to push through the expansion of the Camisea project despite opposition from the UN, and even some of its own ministers. Peru's citizens should be asking themselves, "Which is more important - Indian lives or foreign profits?"'
Read this online: https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/9410
The movement for tribal peoples. Survival is the only organization working for tribal peoples' rights worldwide. We work with hundreds of tribal communities and organizations. We are funded almost entirely by concerned members of the public and some foundations. We will not take national government money, because governments are the main violators of tribal peoples' rights, nor will we take money from companies which might be abusing tribal peoples.
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President Donald Trump's top economic adviser boasted on Fox Business Thursday that the government had slashed more than 300,000 "high-paying" jobs from the federal payroll during the president's first year back in office.
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Jacqueline Simon, policy director at the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest labor union representing federal workers, told Common Dreams that even if slashing jobs did reduce the deficit as Hassett claimed, the harm far outweighs any such benefit—not only for the fired employees, but for the millions of Americans who depend on services they provide.
"When you say 300,000 jobs, it is a nice round number, and you link it to deficit reduction, which he was lying about," Simon said. "The fact of the matter is, the disappearance of those 300,000 jobs means degraded healthcare for our veterans; slower or nonexistent service at the Social Security Administration for the elderly and disabled who rely on Social Security for their income; and the elimination of huge swaths of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that help ensure we have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink."
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Responding to President Trump’s threat that “a whole civilisation will die tonight”, Pope Leo XIV calls for peace, says “let's remember, especially the innocent children, the elderly, sick. So many people who have already become, or will become victims of this continued warfare,… pic.twitter.com/2LygUzjuC6
— Catholic Sat (@CatholicSat) April 7, 2026
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