Peruvian Indigenous organisations express indignation at US Ambassador to Peru over support for palm oil company implicated in deforestation and human rights abuses

Ms Ambassador: Have you ever been displaced from your home? Or had it destroyed from one day to the next? Has your access to everyday foods been affected? Have you had family and community relationships fractured? Have your family members or loved ones received death threats because you defended your home or way of life? Have you ever had to request personal guarantees to protect your life? Have you ever had to go relentlessly through the justice system, only for it to be insensitive to your claims? Have you had to leave your family over and over again to go to court hearings? It is one thing to live on a golden throne and ignore the realities of the Amazon countryside. It is something else entirely to be an Ambassador sadly condoning serious violations of human rights and Indigenous peoples’ rights. This is indignant, deplorable and we won’t permit it.

Your unfortunate comment pains our communities and feelings in the deepest way, our long histories of struggle and the memory of those who are no longer with us. It taints all of our indefatigable days, giving everything for the defense and revindication of our territories of life and in defense of the environment, the equality of rights and the defense of a dignified life and decent and humane work.

It seems you Ms Lisa have everything taken care of. And knowing that you are part of the diplomatic corp of the United States government, it is shameful that you end up ill-intentionally ignoring the reality suffered by the Shipibo-Konibo people, allowing yourself to be deceived via colonial-style sightseeing visits in which they paint a picture of peace and good coexistence, not the deforestation, not the fragility and vulnerability of life, nor the indignation of a people.

From the place where you were looking to the horizon seeing oil palm plantations: what do you think was there before? Who lived there? That is sadly where the company Ocho Sur SAC continues to profit from the memory of seven thousand hectares of virgin forest that were predated from the ancestral property of our community Santa Clara de Uchunya, which has been struggling for the revindication of our right to our territory, as accompanied by our representative Indigenous organizations.

This struggle is also against the attempts to extend the oil palm plantations with the help of land traffickers, the evidence of which are the constant denunciations that we have presented against aggravated usurpation before the Specialized Penal Prosecutor of Campo Verde and for crimes against forests before the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor. Though these are demonstrated crimes, the absence, incompetence and neglect of the State means we continue without finding justice.

Are you proud to have walked in an oil palm plantation that operates without having any forestry or environmental authorizations according to the national legislation? Is this the vision of the people of the United States that you represent, to work in complete illegality and make a joke out of forestry and environmental norms? Is this the message that you bring to the Joint Declaration of Intention that your country signed? Do you say let’s save the forests but then on the other hand enable deforestation? Why the necessity of making a big media show with the recently signed Pucallpa Declaration, to promote the value of standing forests and to stop Amazon deforestation, while the next day going on to praise deforestation and the violation of Indigenous peoples rights? It is easy to show up for a photo, but difficult to be on the frontlines of defending forests.

We remind you that currently Ocho Sur has a legal case against it before the Sixth Constitutional Court of the Superior Court of Justice in Lima, specifically because they continue operating illegally. We are outraged that, even though we met with you in 2022 when we offered information about the serious situation facing Santa Clara de Uchunya, you have made these grave declarations. Additionally, in Pucallpa on 3 March, we asked your offices to assist in concrete and urgent actions to stop deforestation and fight against climate change through the eradication of business activities (Ocho Sur) that appear formal but that predate our Amazon.

Perhaps you don’t know, but in the midst of COVID19, which destroyed our country, inspections were carried out at the Ocho Sur plant in which workers were found without security measures and when 98% tested positive, propagating more sickness. Currently there are denunciations against the company for propagating contagious diseases. You cannot call this a responsible company with sustainable practices.

Also, thanks to Ocho Sur we have a divided community, in which the company that you praised takes advantage of its economic power to offer handouts to our community members, knowing our needs and shortcomings, given that our rivers are now impoverished given the drought of our lakes, our animals and jungle fruits becoming more scarce, our lands degraded thanks to oil palm. And given threats against our leaders who defend and struggle, we can no longer move freely in our territories. Recently, in Santa Clara de Uchunya, three hundred hectares of our territory which were recently titled as part of a land title extension were invaded. Invader settlers are parceling out the land to plant oil palm and have indicated they are financed by OchoSur. Now they are deforesting. What is the Public Ministry doing about this after our denunciations? Nothing, which shows the power of the company that  you celebrate in the Ucayali region. You talk about sustainable agriculture, but in reality they are fomenting disorder, abuse and the transgression of our rights.

And finally it appears that in the media show with Ocho Sur, they made you believe that the legal representative of the community was one person, but not the real leader Carlos Hoyos Soria, currently recognized in public registries with a precautionary measure from the Campo Verde court from 20 September 2022, and ratified on 17 March 2023, in which the court rejects the community leader who was named through an irregular and fraudulent election so that Ocho Sur would have their own community council to do its bidding. From there, the company started to write to everyone  claiming that the situation between the community and Ocho Sur is an Eden. It seems you believed the story about a bed of roses and all the benefits that the company has supposedly brought.

In our opinion Ocho Sur wants to grab our Amazon at all costs with impacts on multiple fronts:

1. Breaking international conservation agreements made by the Peruvian State.
2. Breaking forestry laws in the Peruvian Amazon.
3. Breaking the laws of Native communities, and breaking the organic structures of Indigenous Peoples.

For Indigenous peoples, Ocho Sur is a direct threat because they want to degrade our forests and make our communities disappear. And by degrading primary rainforest, their pollution overtakes polluting companies or car manufacturers that pollute the environment.

Given your position and for respect between the peoples of the United States and Peru, we demand an immediate retraction of your statement from 29 March. We deeply reject the condoning of clear transgressions of the human rights of Indigenous peoples.