There is no two ways about the environmental criminal responsibility: all the fingers are pointing at Pluspetrol, which adds another disaster to its long criminal record.

The pollution especially damages the indigenous communities of Loreto department and the preliminary expert reports warn that the level of oils on the water of the river are high above the permitted levels, and they could cause irreversible damages to the flora and fauna.

The ecologic disaster had its first repercussions in the political system. The MPs of the Peruvian Nationalist Party (PNP) – whose main point person is former presidential candidate Ollanta Humala- filed a criminal lawsuit on July 2 against six executives of the oil transnational corporation, over their responsibility in the spill.

They also said that one of the most affected villages, Santa Rita de Castilla, uses water of the Marañon river to drink, so the company could be charged with attempting against public health.

Pluspetrol Resource Corporation is an Argentinean corporation based in The Netherlands, which has been accused for several years of the violations of indigenous rights in the Peruvian Amazon. It had already been accused before the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT), which sessioned in May in Madrid for having violated the fundamental rights of the indigenous population of this area.

But Pluspetrol is not the only extractive corporation accused of committing environmental crimes in Peru over the recent weeks. Besides reporting the Marañon conflict, a report by Chami Radio published by ALER news agency, exposes a spill of chemical substances used for extraction in the mine La Caudalosa Chica, in Huancavelica department.

In this case, the reports of the environmental authorities speak of nearly 21,000 cubic meters of products that pollute the Opamayo river, which would have a strong impact on 10 communities living by the river.

Photo:http://www.flickr.com/photos/feconaco/