On December 6, 2010, the Achuar of Peru were allowed to proceed in U.S. federal court with their case against Occidental Petroleum, the California-based oil giant that has been exploiting and polluting their homeland for over 30 years. The Achuar community is claiming that the company violated Indigenous rights enshrined in Peruvian and U.S. law by dumping toxic waste, including cyanide, lead, arsenic, and mercury, directly into their rivers and streams and failing to warn them of potential health impacts.
In 2008, a California court dismissed the Maynas Carijano v. Occidental Petroleum case, arguing that it should be litigated in Peru. This month U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the case should be heard in Los Angeles.
Occidental is accused of releasing billions of barrels of untreated wastewater into local waterways, as many as 850,000 per day, and causing multiple toxic spills that have never been cleaned up. All this contamination and pollution has had a grave effect on the health of the Achuar community. The Achuar people continue to suffer because of Occidental's damaging practices, which were illegal in the U.S. at the time.
Source: Amazon Watch.
