One year after the greatest ecological disaster in the Peruvian sea as a result of the spill of more than 11,000 barrels of Repsol oil, which affected the health and economy of more than 700,000 inhabitants and biodiversity, the Spanish transnational to date I do not make the payment of all the sanctions or fines imposed, the affected fishermen affirmed in a press conference.
For Alejandro Chirinos, an expert in marine-coastal issues and director of the CooperAcción organization, due to Repsol’s alleged negligence, “the third and fourth generation of artisanal fishermen in the affected area have been lost. This would cause artisanal fishing to collapse,” he warned.
In the opinion of José de Echave, a CooperAcción specialist, what happened with the Repsol oil spill shows that the country does not have the adequate institutional framework to punish and even prevent a similar disaster.
“When reviewing the contract that the State signed with Repsol, we found several clues and analysis of what should not be done. The country should draw lessons from how the rights and interests of Peru are protected,” emphasized de Echave. It also considered that these contracts favor private companies and do not protect Peruvians, this is supported by a legal report prepared by CooperAcción, “in which it has been found that the contract does not include environmental clauses, nor social or cultural clauses.”
The artisanal fishermen warned that Repsol would try to weaken or bring down the lawsuit filed by the workers by trying to convince them one by one with promises of financial compensation. Faced with the strategy of the transnational, the men of the sea from the five affected districts (Santa Rosa, Ancón, Aucallama, Chancay and Ventanilla) joined forces.
No job and no solution
Until before the oil spill, the artisanal fishermen of the area went out to the Peruvian sea to carry out their subsistence activities that were their main source of family income. However, after the contamination of the sea that ended the biodiversity of the area, they have not been able to resume their work.
Miguel Ángel Núñez, president of the Association of artisanal fishermen of the Ventanilla district, affirmed that to date he has not resumed his work in the sea because it is still contaminated. “There are traces of oil in the sea and Repsol is lying when it says that they have already withdrawn all the crude,” he said.
Abel Rojas, representative of the Association of artisanal fishermen of the Aucallama district, indicated that they have been displaced from their activities and in order to fish they must go offshore, which is not very profitable for them.
“We are in a chaotic situation, financially hit and with our health at risk. Since we can’t fish now we have to reinvent ourselves, many of our colleagues have dedicated themselves to street trade because when we go to look for work a company closes its doors due to our age”, said Rojas.
For her part, the lawyer for Earthrights international, Katherine Páucar, specified that Repsol is facing 13 disciplinary administrative processes: seven initiated by OEFA, five by Osinergmin and one by Serfor.
Of the seven processes in OEFA for hydrocarbon contamination, four correspond to non-compliance with administrative measures. To these are added one for including false information in the emergency report, another for not sending information requested by the agency, and one more for not adopting the first response actions established in the environmental regulations and in the contingency plan.
“From the beginning the company has not been honest. When the spill was discovered, Repsol stated that there was an affected area of approximately 2.5 square meters. In the final report, which was presented days later, she indicated that it was more than 10,000 hectares. She also initially reported that only seven gallons were poured, then 6,000 barrels until she finally acknowledged that it was almost 12,000,” the lawyer emphasized.
