Indigenous Peruvians sue U.S. oil company

Peruvians are fighting back against the damage oil companies are doing to the Amazon Rainforest, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

With the support of U.S. lawyers, a group of 25 indigenous Peruvians are suing Occidental Petroleum, a California based company that made huge profits from the rainforest between 1972 and 2000.

They accuse Occidental of illegally dumping toxic wastewater, generating acid rain with gas flares, failing to warn locals of health dangers and improperly storing chemical wastes in unlined pits.

These “irresponsible, reckless, immoral and illegal practices” left the country’s Achuar Indians with poisoned blood, polluted streams and empty hunting grounds, the suit says.

According to the article, “Plaintiffs want damages, declaratory and injunctive relief, restitution and disgorgement of profits. One woman is suing on behalf of her child, whose death she alleges is related to environmental contamination.”

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