Lima, July 24 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Peru’s last three governments have neglected the impact companies have had on the environment, overlooking more than one thousand environmental agency reports, an investigative team of journalists and data analysts announced on Thursday.
According to a report published by the Convoca investigative team, titled “The Footprints of the Petroleum They Tried to Hide,” the governments of former presidents Alejandro Toledo, Alan García, and Ollanta Humala ignored more than one thousand reports on the environmental impact of hydrocarbon and energy businesses over the last ten years. Experts further argue that several of the ignored reports documented serious violations of environmental standards.
Authorities did not act on the reports during the four-year period in which they are legally able to take action against infringing companies. Once this deadline passed, Convoca found the reports were archived. This means that officers of the environmental monitoring entities ignored findings from the field, leading to the reports archived between 2002 and 2013.
Convoca’s investigation was based on examining reports, documents, and more than one thousand resolutions by the Peruvian Organism for Environmental Evaluation and Supervision. The documents were acquired through a series of requests made possible by the Peruvian Transparency Law.
Convoca journalists also conducted interviews with specialists and people directly involved in the events. The revelations by Convoca come at a time when the Peruvian government intends to give Lot 192 in the Peruvian Amazon to the transnational company PlusPetrol, while also seeking dialogue with the indigenous populations that inhabit the territories under scrutiny.
PlusPetrol is the leading oil production company in Peru.
One of the branches of PlusPetrol, PlusPetrol Norte, was the company most penalized in Peru between 2007 and 2014 with 24 fines that added up to $21.9 millions, according the investigation of Convoca.
Another branch of the company, Pluspetrol Peru Corporation, has 12 fines amounting to $264,000.
