Pluspetrol and the Camisea Gas Project: between the state capture and the invisivilization of indigenous peoples

Abstract

The present work studies the phenomenon of “state capture” according to which an economic elite favors its interests exercising excessive and undue power over different institutions of Peru. The case of the Camisea Gas Project is presented, which operates in Block 88, which is superimposed on the Kugapakori Nahua Nanti Territorial Reserve, which is inhabited by indigenous peoples in a particularly vulnerable situation. The research addresses the time lapse in which the initiation of the second phase of activities for the expansion of the Exploration and Development Program within the Block (2013-2014) was requested and approved, and presents it as an example of how the so- called “The national interest” is “captured” and in reality it’s the interest of the economic groups of power, which can act with impunity, even at the expense of restricting rights, encouraging the division of indigenous organizations, and limiting the very survival of entire peoples who live in crisis before a slow and negligent act of the competent state institutions.