HSBC and the Corrupt
Debt
During the 90s, under
Fujimori's administration in
In 1992, after buying Midland
Bank (
The amount agreed for the
privatizations between 1991 and 1998 is of 7,7 billion
dollars. The Public Treasury obtained 6.1 billion dollars in cash and 229
million dollars in credit reports at a market value equivalent to 343 million
dollars of face value. This means that the system of debt documentation as a
result of a privatization used only 4,4% of the total
sales and concessions. About the external public debt of 25 billion dollars a
year in 1991, the impact of the swap was only 1%. This means the mechanism of
debt for privatization swap did not result in the reduction of the external
debt, but it was only useful for HSBC and its partners to do business.
On
HSBC had a person infiltrated
in the direction of the Ministry of Economy and Finance to 1) guarantee that
the debt for privatization swap took place and 2) to know the exact moment to
do the oeprations. Moreyra became the PPF's director in 1995. What is worse,
the Peruvian state assumed the debt of the Banco Popular. It had credit reports
of the HSBC and the Banco de Credito, which allowed these banks to use 69.2
millon dollars in reports that had recovered their value after their devaluation
as a result of the bankrupcty and liquidation of the Banco Popular. The two big
winners here were the Banco de Crédito and HSBC, which had a direct
representative in the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
HSBC and its partners bought
credit reports for 125 million dollars, and obtained profits for over twice as
much for the credit reports used in the privatization processes. Another part
of the reports were sold in the stock exchange.
This case is a violation of
economic and social rights of the Peruvian population, enshrined in the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) «All
peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and
resources (...) In no case may a people be deprived of its own means of
subsistence». Article 1 ICESCR.
Key issues: Financial
System and Economic Crimes
Denouncing organizations:
Inter-American Platform on Human Rights, Democracy and Development and the
Jubilee Network Peru
Banco Santander in Madeira
River: A Spring of Ecologic Debt and Environmental Refugees
The Spanish bank Banco
Santander Central Hispano (SCH), is currently the largest private bank
operating in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is accused of being
co-responsible for causing a huge ecologic and social debt associated with the
impacts that the construction of four dams and a water way will have on the
Madeira River (Brazil and Bolivia) and with the displacement of 5,000 families that
will become landless environmental refugees without any compensation
whatsoever. As a result of this and of the funding of many irresponsible mega
projects, the bank will continue to provide huge benefits to far off share
holders.
The funding of the Madeira
river project is aimed at the construction of two hydroelectric dams: Santo
Antonio and Jirau, plus two additional dams that will build a 4,200 km water
way, destined to transport soy, wood and minerals from the Amazon to big
consumers (US, European Union and China). Banco Santander is the bank behind
the project, with plans of funding 20% of its costs (14.2 billion dollars). Madeira
River's water way is also part of the IIRSA initiative, led and promoted by the
Inter-American Development Bank, several businessmen networks and estate owners
and local administrators, and it aims to extract all kinds of commodities to
export them according to the needs of the global consumer class, at
international market prices. That is the necessary infrastructure for “free
trade”, which is supplemented with FTA and is an essential part for the looting
by transnational corporations.
The consequences will extend
to both margins of the river, the Bolivian and the Brazilian side.
SCH is accused of being
co-responsible of the:
·
Displacement of the local
population: 1.4 million people live in Rondônia for example, most of them
rubber producers, nut collectors and fishermen. It is estimated that nearly
5,000 families living on the Brazilian side will be forced to leave their land
without there being plans for their resettlement or compensation.
·
Impacts on the people's
health: the construction will affect the drinking water of
·
Loss of biodiversity and food
sovereignty: the interruption of the migration of the dourada (cat fish) will
endanger not only the survival of this species but the future of the families
of 2,400 fishermen of the region.
Despite its aggressive
marketing and corporate responsibility campaign, Santander Group fails to
comply -as in this case- with the weak international laws that could govern the
actions of an international bank. The OECD Guidelines for Multinational
Enterprises, the United Nations ICESCR, ILO's 169
Convention - which provides the consultation to the affected indigenous
communities - do not apply, nor do the standards of the finance community such
as the Equator Principles, let alone the Collevechio Declaration.
Key issues: Financial
System and Economic Crimes
Denouncing
organizations: MAB, SETEM, XODG
BBVA:
CAMISEA and HOLLOW Corporate Social Responsibility
The Spanish
bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria is the second largest bank in
Most
of its environmentally controversial projects are associated with mine
exploitation (such as in Yanacocha and Antamina mines in
After
holding a hearing in
In
2006, BBVA Banco Continental, the Peruvian subsidiary of BBVA, funded a 35
millon-dollar loan to Tecpetrol, one of the leading companies in exploration
activities of Camisea gas project. Gas pipelines have broken down causing gas
and oil leaks as a result of this project. Recent studies show that Techint,
operator of the gas pipeline and Tecpetrol's parent company, used defective
pipes and hired unqualified smelter workers, causing serious problems in the
construction of the gas pipeline. The project was also criticized for its
impacts on indigenous communities of the area, both in their way of life,
livelihood (hunting, collecting) and in their economy (agriculture, cattle
growing), and in their health (cancer, skin diseases, abortions, malformations,
etc.). In many cases the rules of protection and Indigenous Reserves created
for this purpose were not enforced.
BBVA
has violated the Peruvian constitution by funding projects that fail to respect
the indigenous reserves protected under them and ratified by the corresponding
governments: in this case the Nahua Kugapakori Reserve created in 1990, or the
violation of the rules to protect peoples like Nahua, Nanti and Kirineri. Camisea
also implies a violation of ILO's 169 Convention, under which
BBVA
Group has violated codes of conduct it signed to wash its image, such as the
Principles of the UN World Pact (2002) which includes human rights, labor,
environmental rules, the struggle against corruption
as an important part of its strategy and of its operations, all aspects that
have been clearly overlooked by BBVA.
The
adoption of the Equator Principles in 2004 (in projects with funding exceeding
10 million dollars) and its reviewed version of July of 2006,
implied a commitment of the BBVA to avoid environmental and social risks in the
process of funding projects, an aspect which, according to the accusation, the
bank fully violates.
Key
issues: Financial System and Economic Crimes
Denouncing organizations: Transnational
Institute (Holanda), Ecologistas en Acción/ Observatorio de la deuda en la
Globalización / Ekologistak Martxan/SETEM (Estado Español), SOMO (Holanda), France
Amérique Latine (Francia), Jubileo Sur (Perú)/span>