MAYURIAGA, Peru (PNN) - March 24, 2016 - Being closer to the natural world where the stupid legal logic of corporate individualism doesn’t exist, tribal leaders in the Amazon are seeking to bring a spotlight to the total destruction being done by the greedy capitalists and their corporation’s unmoral actions against the people and the planet.
The tribe actually seized a military helicopter, capturing multiple crewmembers along with other government officials. The hostages include three oil company executives, four government regulatory officials, and a specialist with the energy and mines ministry.
Among many demands, the Tribe insisted that they were left out of a clean-up plan that was associated with the spill.
Over a month ago, in Mayuriaga, Peru, multiple oil pipelines ruptured and spilled over 3,000 barrels of oil into the wilderness. As with most oil spills, both the government and the corporation responsible have been slow to clean up the mess.
However, many Amazonian tribes are forced to live in the mess, and have had their homes and their sources of food and water destroyed. This is just the most recent environmental tragedy in a long line of preventable, man-made disasters that have been created on tribal property, which neither the governments nor the corporations should have any claim to.
After a standoff lasting over a day, the tribal occupiers struck a deal with local authorities to release the hostages.
Petroperu struck a deal with chiefs of the tribe that includes bringing electrical and telephone coverage to the community and helping develop local businesses.
For the first time, the tribal leaders are coming out of their world within the Amazon rainforest to speak for the sanctity of keeping the rainforest alive… for the sake of the people and the planet.
It is easy to sympathize with these tribes who have had their land and resources not only stolen, but polluted by a government that they never chose, and the corporations that are in bed with that government.
