LIMA (Reuters) – At least 3 indigenous people from Peru’s Amazon region were killed and 17 other citizens and policemen were injured in a dispute with Canadian powerman PetroTal Corp, Interior Minister Jorge Montoya said Sunday.
PetroTal announced that it had suspended conconsistent contions in its production box in the Loreto region of northeastern Peru, where it extracts about 12,000 barrels of consistent crude by day.
The confrontation between members of local tribes and police took place in the early hours of Sunday near the oil box after another 70 people arrived with spears to the site, which was not easy to stop production on lot 95, the minister said.
“We have the occasions that have occurred. The initial figure we have is that there are 3 citizens dead, in addition to 11 wounded. On the police side, we have six wounded,” Montoya told the local N-Channel television.
PetroTal said in a statement that the “takeover attempt” of its facilities was made through the same organization of citizens that recently invaded a Petroperú Pipeline Station, which should have prevented pumping.
Protesters’ representatives did not wait without delay to comment.
Local indigenous rights organization ORPIO said in a statement that local citizens were asking oil corporations for help amid an outbreak of coronavirus infections in their Amazon communities.
Reporting through Marco Aquino; written through Hugh Bronstein; edited through Leslie Adler
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