By Alejandra Garcia  September 10, 2024

The panorama of large portions of the Peruvian coastline is desolate. What used to be rich fishing regions and the livelihood of dozens of indigenous communities and citizens in the country, is today a scene of death since the spill of more than 11 thousand barrels of oil at the maritime terminal La Pampilla, of  the Spanish oil company Repsol, two years later.

In January 2022, the spill at the Repsol-owned La Pampilla maritime terminal, in the Callao province, the hopes of  hundreds of fishermen went up in smoke. The areas where they fished were the first ones to be affected. They are still awaiting a response from the government and compensation for their damages.

The balance in remediation and civil reparation for Repsol is worse than zero; it is negative. A recent report states that “the social impacts have worsened” after the emergency, while the government of the usurper Dina Boluarte lacks the political will to demand the corporation alleviate the consequences suffered by the affected and to restore the environment of the sea.

“I was forced to forget about fishing. As much as I would like to go back, I can’t,” Miguel Nunez, a fisherman affected by the Repsol oil spill, told the local magazine Mongabay.

“I don’t want to be a fisherman anymore. We don’t know how to take care of our biodiversity; we kill. If I were to go back to my routine, I would be harming society because the sea is still polluted and the species are still poisoned,” said Nunez, who in 2014 joined the Association of Artisanal Fishermen of Bahia Blanca Beach, with the dream of training younger generations the skills needed.

“We thought that Repsol would give us compensation for the days affected by not being able to fish and provide us with a food basket, but we didn’t imagine how long the crisis was actually going to last and how much it was really going to affect us,” he says, recalling that January  disaster.

The family food basket they received was exhausted in a week. Some fishermen, relatives and friends of Miguel Nuñez, became sick with worry and their hopes of reaching the end of the emergency began to fade. Nunez, who moved 15 years ago to Pachacutec, did not return to the sea. The spill was cataloged as “the worst ecological disaster that has occurred in the Lima area in recent times”. To date, official figures from the Ministry of the Environment indicate that the oil spilled on the coasts extends over more than seven million square meters of sea. The toxic water has also damaged shores and strips of 24 beaches for a total of almost two million square meters.

Currently, Repsol’s fines total more than 208 million soles, equivalent to about US$56 million but, so far, the company has only paid about US$8 million.

Since the negligent incident, the Spanish corporation has insisted that an abnormal swell caused by the eruption of Tonga’s submarine volcano broke the connections of the vessel that was unloading the crude oil. However, as the months went by, the company’s statements became inconsistent. The captain of the Italian vessel contracted to unload the crude oil said that the company had not responded in time to the emergency.

Two years later, the corpses of Humboldt penguins, pelicans, waders, and swallows have washed up on the shores or can still be seen in the black crude oil-stained waters. In addition, experts are warning about the loss of traces of a species of otter that was already threatened and in danger of local extinction. Pollution was also detected on islands in the area, considered protected natural areas.

Meanwhile, fishermen and citizens yearn with little hope for a sea free of pollution and to return to the activities that were once their economic livelihood that their families depended on. And the corporate polluters of Repsol continue to not be held accountable

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English