Petroperú urges the new Shoroya community to release detained workers

Three Petroperú workers, together with the citizen who transferred them to the contingency zone at kilometer 177 of the Northern Branch of the North Peruvian Pipeline (ONP), have been held since October 24 in the Shoroya Nuevo native community, affiliated with the Government organization Chapra Autonomous Territory (GTACH) and located three kilometers from the contingency, in the district of Morona, Loreto region, violating their basic human rights of freedom and free transit.

The personnel of the state company entered accompanying members of the Environmental Assessment and Enforcement Agency (OEFA), in their supervision work at the site, as part of the commitments assumed with GTACH, which also declared that it provided the guarantees for entry of the staff. The OEFA workers were able to leave the place.

The Shoroya Nuevo native community has conditioned the release of the retained workers to a series of demands such as the payment of exorbitant wages, hiring without a selection process from the company that the community endorses, as well as payment for alleged surveillance tasks that, according to what they affirm, a group of residents would have carried out in the contingency zone since September 10, not having complied with sending the evidence of these tasks.

Petroperú, in a transparent manner, has repeatedly reported that the cleanup work in the impacted area will be carried out by the CINVAL company, the same company that has been selected after a process that has sought the best operational and economic proposals, for the benefit of the company and communities.

Within the framework of the dialogue with the indigenous organizations, Petroperú signed an act on 13. 10.2022 with the representatives of GTACH, the native communities and their advisors in the city of Lima, committing to the agreed agreements, the same ones that it has been complying with. For its part, as has been mentioned, GTACH undertook to guarantee the execution of the contingency attention work as of October 20, work that unfortunately cannot be started due to this force measure.

In this sense, Petroperú urges the communal authorities and the residents of the Shoroya Nuevo native community to allow free movement of the detained workers and resume dialogue to proceed with the cleanup, environmental remediation and other operational activities in a climate of tranquility and social peace that guarantees the integrity of both the personnel and the population of the area, within the framework of human rights.

Likewise, a call is made to the authorities, so that according to their competences and attributions they intervene, in order to recover the essential order and tranquility to continue with the necessary work in the area.