On August 22^nd, 2017, members of the Indigenous Los Jardines community living on Lot 192, Peru’s largest oil field in the Amazon, seized oil facilities operated by Canada’s Frontera Energy Corporation, Reuters reports. This comes amidst protests over the Peruvian government’s negligence to consult with Indigenous communities before allowing oil extraction on their traditional territories, therefore causing environmental pollution, health issues, and land rights violations.

The occupying members are demanding that the government abide by the Indigenous consultation law before renewing a contract with the Canadian company, a tribal chieftain said on Tuesday. The law, which was passed in 2011, requires the government to seek input from the Indigenous community before approving any development plans that might affect them or their land. However, tribal chiefs claim that the government has refused to carry out the consultation process even though it is negotiating a new contract with Frontera, whose 2-year extraction license is due to expire this month.

Furthermore, the Indigenous tribes in Block 192 also want the government to sign new pledges for the clean-up of oil pollution, as well as the improvement of access to health care and education in the remote region, says Wilmer Chavez, chief of the Los Jardines community. This is expected to be done before awarding Frontera a new contract.

Block 192 is an area inhabited by Indigenous Kichwa, Quechua, Achuar, and Urarina peoples, whose lands have been suffering from severe pollution for many years due to oil activities, first by Occidental Petroleum for the most part and then, after rights were sold in 2001, by Argentina’s PlusPetrol.  Since the 1970s, oil has been exploited largely without the input of the Indigenous communities who live there, and as a result, the region has seen serious environmental pollution, health issues, and land rights violations. Aurelio Lopez, the leader of the Marañón river basin community, said that the oil spills have caused the river and drinking water to become contaminated and the land around the basin areas to become infertile, and that the children in the communities now suffer from new diseases. Furthermore, he said that “there are no schools, there are no hospitals, and (in) the few health posts there are no medicines or a doctor” to address the concerns just mentioned.

Block 192 is not the only part of the Amazon region subjected to oil activities and consequent environmental and health damages. According to the policy group Transnational Institute, American oil and mining companies entered 44 out of 75 million acres of the Amazonian forest after Peru signed the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States in 2009. It is for these reasons that after many protests, the 2011 Indigenous consultation law was finally enacted, as well as the 2015 ‘Lima Act,’ where the former government pledged to address the serious environmental and health damages from oil extraction, and to advance community land titling as well.

Yet after four declared environmental emergencies, one health emergency, countless protests, and calls from the UN’s Special Rapporteurs for Indigenous People’s Rights and for the Management and Disposal of Hazardous Substances and Wastes, true consultation with the Indigenous communities remains undone. In fact, earlier this year, Indigenous leaders had submitted a legal request for consultation regarding Block 192. However, the new Ministry of Energy and Mines only responded in June, two months after the request was made, and denied the communities’ request saying that “the consultation process was carried out and concluded in 2015 in accordance with the law.” Yet according to the NGO Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (Oxfam), negotiations were stalled when the government failed to respond to the Indigenous communities’ request to establish a community managed trust fund for oil revenues, and communities were never consulted regarding the temporary oil contract. The letter from the Peruvian government also asserted that the “consultation” they did for the temporary oil contract now covers all future contracts as well.

However, this conveniently ignores the fact that the law requires each and every “new administrative procedure” to conduct its own consultation process. Also, they have not complied with the 2015 ‘Lima act’ either, having taken no action to clean up the oil spills and pollution. Furthermore, the government seems to have little tolerance for any opposition from the Indigenous groups, often violating the right to freedom of expression by putting down dissent. The state has been seen putting down protests forcefully and has not done much to prevent or prosecute the killings of Indigenous environmental activists at the hands of illegal miners and loggers.  In fact, Environmental NGO Global Witness labels Peru as the fourth deadliest country to be an environmental activist, with at least 57 murdered since 2002.  These are all examples of how the Peruvian government is willing to sidestep its own legal procedures for economic profit at the cost of human rights.

Four other Indigenous chiefs, speaking to foreign media in Lima where they had travelled to meet with government officials, described similar demands in the 16 out of 20 communities they represent in Block 192. They also warned that they will stage their own protests like Los Jardines and that there will be a wider uprising if demands are not met. Aurelio Chino, President of the Quechua Indigenous Federation of Pastaza, said during a press conference on Tuesday that “If there is no prior consultation, my brothers and communities will brandish their spears and rise.”

However, Wilmer Chavez also confirmed in a telephone interview with Reuters that “If the government says it’ll carry out prior consultation, we’ll automatically end the protest.”

Despite this, the latest occupation could reignite another round of serious conflict between the Indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon and the federal government. Hence, it is imperative the two groups come to reconciliation before more violence can occur. For this Peru needs to act rather than simply ignore the Indigenous community; they need to come to abide by their own laws including the Indigenous consultation law, and honour their own pledges such as the one in the ‘Lima act’. To do this, they can start by cleaning up oil spills and sitting down with the Indigenous peoples of Block 192 concerning the Frontera extraction contract. They must also stop state violence against the Indigenous population and prosecute those who intimidate and kill environmental activists, both being groups who deserve to have their voices heard.

Evidently, since the United Nation’s call to the Peruvian government to suspend oil activity negotiations until it has addressed the many issues has failed, other economic players must step up and pressure the government to take the courses of action mentioned above. For example, in the case of the current occupation, the Canadian company Frontera should place more pressure on the Peruvian government to consult and reconcile with the Indigenous communities. This is especially true seeing as how the Canadian Government too has a negative history with its own Indigenous population. On a wider scale, the U.S should also cancel the Free Trade Agreement and the European Union should stop the negotiation for an Association Agreement with Peru. This will place economic pressure on the Peruvian Government and therefore may force them to take much-needed action. It is only when Peru takes the first step in honouring human rights and its own legal procedures will there be any reconciliation between the government and the Indigenous Amazonian tribes.