The Community
of Tauccamarca Demands Justice in Peru: Bayer Pesticide Killed 24 Indigenous
Children
On
The Alternative Agriculture Action Network (RAAA) of
Bayer introduced Parathion in
The World Health Organization categorized Parathion as an extremely toxic
pesticide. Pesticides in this category fall under sales restrictions in
The plaintiffs also consider that Bayer continues breaking the Peruvian laws by
failiing to withdraw these toxic products from sale. This
implies a serious threat to the health of the people of Tauccamarca,
besides the environmental damage caused by agrotoxics.
The First Criminal Court of Cuzco convicted professor Isaac Villena Nuñez - who provided the polluted food for breakfast – for
negligent murder and ordered him to do community service and to pay a civil
compensation together with the Ministry of Education, to each of the families
who lost their children. In October of 2001 the attorney of the families filed
a complaint before the Seventh Special Court of Lima, the Peruvian capital,
against the National Direction of Environmental Health, the National Service of
Agrarian Health and Bayer. The lawyer asked for a compensation for damages.
In April of 2007, the Judge of the Seventh Civil Court of Lima, of the High
Court of Justice, called a settlement hearing, which was postponed at the
request of the Ministry of Agriculture. The judge said she would issue a
resolution that would guide the process and that she would call another
settlement hearing shortly, which she failed to do. Bayer has yet to pay its
crimes in Tauccamarca.
The actions of Bayer, the National Service of Agrarian Health and the General
Direction of Environmental Health, violated the fundamental rights provided
under the Peruvian Constitution, such as the rights to life, moral, physical
and psychological integrity, and the free development and well-being of the
people. The Alternative Agriculture Action Network also recommends to analyze the violation of the right to health and the
access to justice of the indigenous peoples.
The legal proceedings over the poisoning of children and the death of 24 of
them, has already taken seven years and no judgment has been issued against the
defendants. There is a social and environmental debt that Bayer and the state
agencies responsible must pay.
Denouncing organizations: Red de Acción en Agricultura Alternativa – RAAA (Perú)