Listen
to "Ballenata" songs,
a form of Latin music, emerging
from the stereo of Wilfredo Marvaredi
Vargas, a young Machiguenga worker
for the consortium of petroleum
companies. (2:22)
Listen
to frogs and crickets recorded in the evening at Shima'a,
a Machiguenga village along the upper Urubamba river. (:24)
While young Machiguenga are hopeful
that the Camisea project will bring wealth to their
communities, elders such as Teresa Provencia Maria remain
skeptical.
Long ago, in the hot, moist folds of the Amazon, a people walked
and walked to keep the sun from setting. According to Peruvian writer
Mario Vargas Llosa, the Machiguenga believed if they ever stopped
walking, the sun would fall from the sky. Then the missionaries
came with new beliefs. Soon after, settlers arrived from the coast
and the highlands. And now another wave, this time of businessmen
who tell of a new kind of sun, below the ground, waiting to be transformed
into light and money.
For a consortium of seven energy companies, including Hunt Oil
of Texas, the vast natural gas deposit at Camisea represents potentially
large profits through exports to the U.S., where demand is rising,
and the conversion of vehicles and factories in Peru to natural
gas. Officials in Peru say the Camisea field, one of the largest
in the Americas, could mean energy independence for the nation.
For the 10,000 Machiguenga navigating their way along the "River
of the Moon," the Camisea gas project means change, and the
unknown.
The San Martin 1 rig rises from the
rainforest floor, reaching 170 feet into the sky. Companies
hope that by May, 2004, the rig will begin pumping gas
into a pipeline that travels 400 miles to Peru’s
coast.
Environmentalists and human rights organizations warn of irreparable
damage to the Amazon and its people if the project moves forward
as planned. They cite previous petroleum projects in Peru and Ecuador
as reason to proceed with extreme caution, if at all, in Camisea.
The energy companies respond that they have learned from the mistakes
of the past, and that Camisea can be a model of how to do things
right. It's a debate that could affect the future of rainforest
oil development around the world. And the Machiguenga are caught
in the middle.
Listen
to "Ballenata" songs
