Amazon auction suspended until later in the year

Peru police target tribals protesting against the government's move to grant oil drilling rights to a foreign company Photo: Survival InternationalPeru’s state oil company, Perupetro, has announced that its auction of new oil and gas exploration rights will take place later this year. The auction, slated to include large areas of Peru’s Amazon rainforest, had originally been scheduled for last month.

The announcement comes shortly after violent conflict in the Peruvian Amazon following indigenous protests against a series of laws making it easier for foreign oil and gas companies to seize control of indigenous land. Less than a week ago, Amnesty International urged Peru’s government not to give any more exploration rights to companies that could affect indigenous peoples’ rights.

Perupetro’s chairman, Daniel Saba, was quoted by Reuters saying the auction should now happen in ‘October or November – definitely this year.’

Two years ago, Saba caused outrage after saying on Peruvian TV that the idea of uncontacted tribes was ‘absurd’. In an interview with Reuters a few days ago, he said, ‘So far as we know now, there is just one place, in Madre de Dios, near the border with Brazil, where there might be (an uncontacted tribe).’

In fact, there are known to be at least fifteen such tribes in the country, in south-east, central and northern Peru.