Peruvian Public Prosecutor's Office Charges Ocho Sur With Aggravated Usurpation Against the Community of Santa Clara De Uchunya for First Time

In October 2023, the Corporate Provincial Criminal Prosecutor's Office of Campo Verde issued a formal accusation against the company Ocho Sur P S.A.C. for the commission of the crime of aggravated usurpation to the detriment of the community of Santa Clara de Uchunya, case number 00102-2022-90-2406-JR-PE-01. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the oil palm company violently entered the community's territory to open a road to facilitate its agro-industrial operations. In response, the provincial prosecutor asked for four years in prison for the general manager Serge Georges Verhaert and the proxy Renzo Puyen Rivera, as well as a civil reparation of 10,000 soles in favour of the community.

In 2020, neither the political crisis at the national level nor the COVID-19 pandemic stopped the illegal operations and forest clearance by actors accustomed to these practices. Not only did the company Ocho Sur P S.A.C. continue to operate exposing its workers and neighbouring populations to contagion, but it went further and entered the ancestral territory of Santa Clara de Uchunya and deforested it without permission. The motive: to build a road with heavy machinery to the gate of the illegal palm plantation.

The events occurred precisely between November and December of that year, where the machinery ended up affecting natural forests and some stands of fruit trees in an area of 3 kilometres by 20 metres wide. The villagers, being settled on the other side of the river, became aware of it late, as the company's modus operandi was to operate at night until the early hours of the morning and then withdraw. The affected area is part of the 1,544.2025 hectares granted under title (territorial extension) to the community in February 2020 and registered in the Public Registers in 2022.

Initially, the Public Prosecutor's Office requested that the case be closed, to which the community's legal defence filed an appeal in opposition. The Preparatory Investigation Court of Campo Verde, not agreeing, referred the case to the higher prosecutorial authority, which disagreed with the opinion of the Provincial Prosecutor's Office and ordered the company to be charged, as there was sufficient evidence against it.

 

"We want justice for having harmed the community. They think that we cannot claim justice because we are indigenous people. That's how I see it. We are here to defend our forest. We Shipibo have the capacity to fight and move forward in our struggle. When are they going to repair the damage they have done? That forest was like a human being, they have killed it," Luisa Mori, president of the Association of the Front for the Defence of the Interests of the Native Community of Santa Clara de Uchunya (AFDPISCU).

 

Although the Ocho Sur Group claims it has not touched a single tree since it arrived in the Shipibo-Konibo territory, this formal accusation would undermine the narrative that it tries to use to justify and legitimise its presence in the Ucayali region, seeking to expand crops in one way or another within the territory of the Indigenous community.

It should be recalled that Indigenous and human rights organisations have already approached the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the United Nations Working Group on the issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations regarding human rights violations and environmental damage caused by an oil palm plantation operated by the Ocho Sur group.

As of 2023, Ocho Sur P SAC continues to work illegally, as it has neither the forestry authorisations nor the environmental permits required by national regulations. In fact, the Comptroller of the Republic itself points out that the company has no legal basis to regularise the illegal deforestation on which its plantations are located, soils with forestry aptitude, on which there is a legal prohibition for authorisation and change of use for agricultural and livestock purposes. In December of this year, the First Supraprovincial Specialised Prosecutor's Office against Organised Crime (FECOR) in Lima is due to make public its position in relation to the accusations against the company for environmental and organised crime offences.

The case of aggravated usurpation of Ocho Sur to the detriment of Santa Clara de Uchunya is now in the hands of the justice system and it is hoped that it will soon culminate in an exemplary sanction that finally reflects accountability mechanisms for companies in the palm oil sector in the Peruvian Amazon.

 

"I am happy, but cautious. I hope the judge does his job well. We live in a country where access to justice is difficult. God willing, the judge will do his job well", Efer Silvano Soria, former apu of the community and vice-president of AFDPISCU.