“Another Pipeline Spill Reported in Peruvian Amazon as Indigenous Protests Enter Eighth Week” - 26 October

Hundreds of people gathered since September 1 in Saramurillo…have blocked transportation on the river to press for their demands.  The protesters are calling for a state of emergency to be declared in two districts of the lower Marañón Valley where a series of oil spills has affected five Indigenous communities…They resumed the blockade on October 20, saying the government’s initial response to their demands, on October 18, was inadequate…Two days later, people on a passenger boat attempting to pass the blockade fired at protesters, injuring a man in the hand…The protesters stopped the vessel and posted photographs on social media showing three men whom they identified as employees of the transportation company being held in a community building in Saramurillo until legal investigators arrived…Also on October 23, Petroperú, the state-owned company that operates the pipeline that carries crude from Amazonian oil fields across the Andes Mountains to the coast, reported that vandals had cut the pipeline in Nueva Alianza, spilling oil into a stream that flows into the Marañón River…Petroperú communications chief Luis Zapata and community leaders said some oil had reached the river…The newest spill is the ninth this year from the pipeline. Petroperú has attributed the last six to vandalism, although Osinergmin, the government agency responsible for overseeing energy infrastructure, has not ruled on them…[Refers to Pluspetrol]