1 12 1 https://www.abyayalanews.org/files/original/9f66d30ffc6d03104e545463fb2a9b6c.pdf 6f87d29300763c9565dd108613212f4f PDF Text Text _ _ _ _ _ _ __,:....:: O_- J U S T I C E E C~ _ T he Urarina, who call themselves "KachA· , meaning people,'" are a ~'lhe semi~nomadic Amazonian people who have inhabited the Chambira and UrilUyacu river basins north o£ the Maral)on river in Peru for at least 500 years. The Uraril\a al\d the Mayorunas (Matses) remain the largest umitle:d Amazonian Indigenous groups in Peru. However, the relati\'e: isolmion of the Urnrina has been imen1.1pted as their traditional territory has occn invodcd by colonists. loggers. river traders, and drug· Urarina Survival Update: Continued Resource Exportation and Disease Importation by Foreigners and Newly Initiated by Multinational Oil Companies + by Ritchie Witzig and Massie/ Ascencios voyeur tourists. All of these groups have brought significam disease pressure on Resource Exploitation Update the Urarina that threatens their 'vay of life and survival as documented in the article published in Abya Yala News Vol. 10. Nllmber 2 (Sllrnrner 1996). Vol. 10 No. 3 The most rcccm and grave threat to Urarina su ,.;val is disease importation caused by the three multinational oil companies who entered their territory in late january 1997 to build an oil d rilling site ror I>ctrolcum c;~traction. The Urarina people live in a Oood zone that is projected to have signifi~m oil rescn•es. Three multinational oil com· panics ocgan drilling from the Chambira oil field located at Santa Martha on the Chambira river. Santa Martha is an old Urarina corrummity located in the heart 17 �Eco-Jusr 1 ce of Urarina land that was temporarily vacated due to the semi-nomadic naturt of Urarina cuhure. The Chambira oil fields arc pan of Block 3 owned by Petroperu. the Peruvian national oil company, but the rights to drill directly on the Chambira river were transferred to Enterprise Oil Co., of Great Britain in 1996. The rights were sold because Petroperu did not have the capital to initiate drilling. Against the " "shes of the public, the Peruvian government now wants to privatize Petrope:ru. The s."le of the oil rights to Enterprise had the effect of privatizing the entire Chambim oil field withOUl privatizing Petroperu. Enterprise subcontracted Parker Oil Drilling Co. of Tuls.,, Oklahoma, and the Santa Fe Petroleum Co. of Lima. to drill the Sama Manha well. Constnlction of the oil field staned in January, 1997 and by May I. Enterprise/Parkert'S.,nta Fe had drilled a complete well but fonunately did not encounter enough oil to warrant funhcr exploration. The latest news is that the company has moved to lot 32. which is just nonhwest of their original site and is still deep in Urarina territory. to pursue further exploration in the next two years with a go\'emmcm contract. Spills Before Drills Even before ther struck oil, there were ecological disasters. On April 30, 1997, the steel bouom of a barge bringing up supply oil w 3S punctured by a huge capirona (Calycophyllum sp.) tree 10 kilometers from the oil well, causing oil contamination of the entire Chambira river downstream. The barge was then towed upstream, moored at Sama Manha, and surrounded by pylons tO control the oil leak (sec Figure 1). One Urarina cacique (leader) in the Hormiga river off the Chambira c01nplained that the fish entering his grounds had been contaminated from the oil, and were swimming imo the Hormiga looking for fresh water. Amazonian river dolphins (lnia geoffrensis) which were numerous in the Chambira river basin ha,•e since noticed to be scarce from the main Chambira. This is certainly only the firsl of many barge leaks as this accident occur·red when the river level was at Oood Stage in the rainy season . The Chambira is a nar· attempting 18 row river. at times only 30 meters wide. In the dry season when the river is 10 meters lower there arc certain to be more accidents of this type. There are no stud· ies ongoing by the government , any NGO. or the oil companies of this impending ecological deStruction. SIL and Missionary Control an Urarina individual under the control of the SlL and living in Nueva Esperanza. This Urarina man who signed the docu· mems is not a leader of the Urarina, and only represents himself. The total "com· pensation'" to the Urarina nation from this ·agteemtnt'" was a speedboat and monthl)' promises of gasoline given to the impostor "leader'". The total effect was to give an extra St>eedboat to SIL Unfortunately, it is difficult to undo a fr:.mdulent '"cont~ct'" as described above quickly. and it enables the oil companies to establish thetnselves while the legal defense of the Urarina is being organized. As they have done elsewhere in the \Vestern Amazon. the SIL have again proven 'vith the Urarina that Indigenous self·detenninmion is e.~actly the opposite of their mission. The Summer Institute of Linguistics (Sil or l LV· lnstitmo Linguist ito de Verano) used an impostor Urarina ~Je,adcr" to help the oil compar'lics create an appearance of legitimacy in their inva· sion of Urarina land. The Sll is an evan· gclical organization of atnateur and pro~ fe.ssional linguists who attempt to influ. ence the societies in 'vhich they work by transl:.uing the Bible into native ian· g.•ages. SIL has had .-- -,...- - - - - --.v;;:- - - - - ---,---, ~ a represemati\'C , (Ronald Manus) liv''"""' ~ ing intenniltently in the Urarina commlk 5 nity of Nueva ~ Esper:mza for the §: past 30 years. The ! Urarina have retained their cui~ i turc and spirituality ~ despite SILS anctnpt l! to influence them. As the outside agency with the longest domicilial experience in Urarina territory, the SIL has never tried to empower the Urarina in any way to protect their lands. Colb)• and g t Dennen's recent book about oil exploitation in the Amazon, ..Thy \Viii be Done· has documented that the histOry of the SIL has been to help divide Indigenous peoples L ......______s~t,;;~!li;!!!o_____:~.j,~_ _j and even help oil companies enter 1M tom.'"'"' rrid"P'rrid ptito6rotiM of oil righn in Indigenous areas. When the oil compa· Peru. m. lot~ ha>o""ntly been <iloogod. OJ nies needed to gain entrance into Urarina uplo<otiM is ax"ntly tnl:iig p/o<e oo lot 32 (formerly lot land, they received 1he nceessary help 8) ;, Urorina tttrfiGI'(. from the SIL. SIL helped arrange a paper deal that ·allowed" the oil companies acce:ss to S.1nta Martha that was signed by At::fta Yala News �E co - J u sT I CE Disease Importation Mtdrinarional oil txploration = Malaria, pertussis. and cm·ironmcntal contaminalion Oil drilling teams are renowned for transporting new su-aii\S of disease into territories they exploit. The oil explo· rmion and drilling teams are based in the field with support offices in lquitos and Lima, but their personnel are imponed from various areas in Peru. the United States, and Europe. The Sama Fe lquitos office use the small Nanay ri\'er port com· munity of S."lnta Ckua to lo.1d all their equipment onto barges for transtxm to the Chambim. Santa Clara is currently suffering the most intense and drug resistant P. falciparum epidemic of any area in Peru. as well as an outbreak of penussis (whooping cough). Pcnussis appeared last February in the Chambira. after drilling had started- it was almost cenainly brought by the oil teams. At least seven persons died from the two villages around ~nta Manha. The Umrina have not received the DTP vaccine which prOtects from penussis, and penussis can be among the most lethal diseases in children with multiple infections. Over sixty percent of the P. falcipannn strains in Santa Clara ncar to lquitos are resistant to chloroquine and pyrimcthamine/stllf~doxine. the two cheapest and most \.IS.Cd drugs against P. faldp.annn in Peru. The P. falciparum strains in the Chambira river still respond to pyrimethamine /sulfadoxinc, but sup· plies are small and infrequent. There is a Vol. 10 No.3 real danger that resistant P. falciparum strnins are being transt>Orted to \'CI'}' the Charnbira by the oil workers loading the suppl)' 1>.1rges in Santa Clara. The Peruvian government has no health post in the entire Chambim river basin. The nearest health post is In Maypuco. more thai\ I week by canoe from Urarina territory. Colonists on the lower Chambim have access to boats and motors which can shuttle sick persons to Maypuco and on tO lquitos. The Urarina or oil workers will take away any hope controlling the P. faldpanun cpidtqliC that is currcmly decimating the Urarina people. hnplimcmation or Convention 169. of which Peru is a signatory nation (199'1) would help to protect the cultural rights of the Urarina as well as legall)' title their land. Legal recognition of their territorial boundaries would lead to self determination for the Urarina giving them some recourse to protect their ,...,ay of life. '\!) have no transponation except canoes. As of May 1997. the Peruvian non· governmental organization CEDIA (Centro Para el Des.1rrollo del lndigena Amazonico) had counted over 3.200 Urarina in the Chambira basin alone (there are also Urarina in the Uritiyacu river and in ;\ffiuems of the Corrientes river). The final number wiH likely include over 4.000 individuals. a large number for a rcn'lotc Amazonian J>eople. Even though it has only juSt begun, the oil exploitation in Urarina territory has resulted in both serious hcahh impacts and environmental degradation. If it continues at this pace, the cultural, biological, and ecological effects of oil exploration on the Umrina w'ill likely be irreversible. The Urarina do not marry outside their group and sexually trans· 1niued diseases including AlDS arc not yet a problem in the communities. Cultural breakdown from exposure to oil workers may alter this trend. New drug resistant Strains of malaria brought in by R. Witzig ltos ptJiormed mtdical surveys, Jiseose lttot· mtnl, suppfftd mtdlcin~. end lraintJ UJorino village htafth warkm fYHWJ in bc!ir medirof and pvbfir htofth on strM sepatote flips Ia the (hombiJa basin silut /992, with a Iota/of 13 months in the lit/d. This ron· lintring ptojut w#lic.h the outbar for~ndtd ;s Ihe Amazonian lndigtn<Jvs Ptop{e\ Heahh Pro;.rt (AIPHPJ. The aul~r hos da<umtnled the epidtmics of m eosles, acute ttspiJotaty iU nesSfs, c~teto, and malaria offocl· ingthe UtatirNJ. His ptt-riCHJs trip ;, May, 1997, found ar10 of the Jhtet VHW~ deod hom malotio, ond wide· sprtad malaria in rht enlite (bombtro basin. This wos the firsllrip aflttlhs oil Jrilling storied, ond all of the Urarina communiti~ wtre lroumotized 6y Jbe incursion of htt!Y'( tquipmenl into lhtir rireJ. Tire ptttussis epi· demk if'l Jilt commMilies DrOQnd lbt ail driH silt wos ing docome.nttd. wM the oil worktJS/;ktly inltoductd. ch Sen n Uratino had ditd of ptJMsn in t~se riffcgts ol""' sinrt ftbruory 1997. avthot is th• only ptr· san (domtstic at fottign} to work with Ihe Urctino 10 Jocume.nl fffld Jrtol theit mtdico/ p1a6kms. Tht avlbots ore cumnlly iworking on m<~lor;a p1ojects i, lqvitos , ftJrJ, n.. 19 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Vol. 11, no. 1 (Spring 1998) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Urarina Survival Update: Continued Resource Exportation and Disease Importation by Foreigners and Newly Initiated by Multinational Oil Companies Type The nature or genre of the resource Journal Article Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ritchie Witzig Massiel Ascencios Language A language of the resource English English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Spring 1998 Zotero Title Urarina Survival Update: Continued Resource Exportation and Disease Importation by Foreigners and Newly Initiated by Multinational Oil Companies Item Type Journal Article Author Ritchie Witzig Massiel Ascencios Volume 11 Issue 1 Pages 17-19 Publication Title Abya Yala News ISSN 1071-3182 Language English Abstract Note The Kacha people are increasingly being exploited for their natural resources. Oil companies are spreading disease and ruining environments, with a negative impact on Indigenous life. Attachment Title Urarina_Survival_Update_Continued_Resource_Exportation_and_Disease_Importation_by_Foreigners_and_Newly_Initiated_by_Multinational_Oil_Companies.pdf Urarina_Survival_Update_Continued_Resource_Exportation_and_Disease_Importation_by_Foreigners_and_Newly_Initiated_by_Multinational_Oil_Companies.pdf Attachment URL [No URL] [No URL] Disease Kacha Urarina