Report on the situation in La Oroya : When investor protection threatens human rights

[Judi Lynn]

Report on the situation in La Oroya : When investor protection threatens human rights
Last Update 7 May 2013

FIDH released a report on the situation in La Oroya, a city in the central Andean region of Peru that is at the center of a controversial case of industrial pollution caused by a poly-metallic smelter in operation since 1922.

For decades, the people of La Oroya have been exposed to high levels of air pollution stemming from the complex’s emissions of toxic substances including lead, cadmium, arsenic and sulfur dioxide. In the middle of the 2000s La Oroya was identified as one of the 10 most polluted cities in the world.

According to independent studies, 97% of children between the ages of 6 months and 6 years, and 98% of those between 7 and 12 years old still have high levels of lead in their blood. The percentage reaches 100% in La Oroya Antigua, the area closest to the smelter. The effects of lead poisoning are irreversible.

Doe Run Peru, a subsidiary of the U.S.-based Doe Run Company, began operating the complex after its privatization in 1997. Both the company and the Peruvian State have failed to comply with their obligations to prevent environmental impact and respect the human rights of the population of La Oroya. In response, the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA) and other organizations requested the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in 2005 to issue precautionary measures for people whose health was at serious risk from the pollution in the city. On August 31, 2007 the IACHR ordered the State to adopt measures to protect the health, integrity and life of a group of residents of La Oroya.

More:
http://www.fidh.org/report-on-the-situation-in-la-oroya-when-investor-protection-threatens-13241

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Ira Rennert



Ira Rennert's house





Rennert's Doe Run, La Oroya, Peru[/center]

[Judi Lynn]

1. Inside Ira Rennert's dirtiest businesses

Inside Ira Rennert's dirtiest businesses

Epic pollution at his La Oroya refinery in Peru have put the reclusive billionaire and his business practices in the spotlight.

By Aaron Elstein
November 27, 2011 12:01 a.m.

In 2004, a public health expert in Missouri named Fernando Serrano got a call from an archbishop in Peru. High up in the Andes, a metals refinery was spewing pollution that coated the factory town of La Oroya. The archbishop wanted Mr. Serrano to assess the damage.

Mr. Serrano, a professor at Jesuit institution Saint Louis University, flew to the Peruvian capital of Lima and took the long, winding road five hours east and 12,000 feet up to the town whose soil had turned too acidic for plants to grow. He tested La Oroya's ground, air and water, and took blood samples from some of its 35,000 residents. The results took his breath away: The town was not only laden with arsenic, antimony and cadmium, but an estimated 97% of the children between ages six and 12 had elevated levels of lead in their blood—levels four times higher than amounts considered dangerous in the U.S.

“The numbers were off-the-charts high,” Mr. Serrano recalled. “The town had a big problem.”

Today, the mess in La Oroya is causing big trouble for the refinery's New York-based owner, Ira Rennert, an industrialist who has amassed a $5.9 billion fortune from owning some of the world's dirtiest businesses.

Mr. Rennert has scrapped with environmental regulators and activists for decades and always emerged largely unscathed. But his problems in faraway Peru are beginning to cut close: His La Oroya refinery, which generated some 50% of his business empire's earnings last decade, now lies dormant. An angry customer has pushed it into an involuntary bankruptcy proceeding in Peru and persuaded a local prosecutor to open a criminal investigation. Mr. Rennert's foes in South America are also taking their fight to the U.S., with federal judges in New York and St. Louis recently allowing them to gather evidence here.

More:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20111127/FINANCE/311279990

[Judi Lynn]

2. Prominent American Businessman Ira Rennert Faces Extradition to Peru

Prominent American Businessman Ira Rennert Faces Extradition to Peru
Published on Nov 2, 2012 - 6:54:49 AM

LIMA, Peru, Nov. 1, 2012 - American Ira Rennert, known for his lavish lifestyle and operating companies that have polluted whole communities, may soon face an international arrest warrant followed by extradition to Peru if a judge has her way.

Rennert faces charges relating to alleged financial and business irregularities involving the La Oroya lead smelter, a notorious facility accused of poisoning thousands of children and adults living near the infamous complex. The facility is one of the most contaminated industrial sites on earth where local children were exposed to high levels of lead for decades.

Rennert's lawyers have tried to prevent his return to Peru to face official questioning in his role in managing the La Oroya metallurgical complex. The Peruvian government claims Rennert's company, the majority shareholder of Doe Run Peru (DRP), made billions of dollars in profits off of La Oroya and never kept agreements to clean-up the huge site.

Peruvian Judge Martha Flores has compelled Rennert to answer charges that include filing false claims and defrauding the Peruvian government as well as undermining business confidence in Peru. Rennert has refused to come to Peru to appear before Judge Flores to answer her questions about the company.

More:
http://yubanet.com/world/Prominent-American-Businessman-Ira-Rennert-Faces-Extradition-to-Peru.php#.UYjTsuoo5NU

[ocpagu]

3. That's so awful.

So many children, innocent people sick due to the monstrous greed of an individual.

From the first link:

""The company not only denied the impacts on the citizens and tried to evade responsibility, but in the face of the protests it pursued a campaign of stigmatization and attacks against those who were trying to defend their rights," said Souhayr Belhassen, president of the FIDH."

Typical. Just like Chevron is doing in the neighboring country. It's absolutely immoral to blame the victims.

Let's hope the US will cooperate with the Peruvian authorities and extradite this scumbag.

Thanks a lot for all this info, Judi.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Most US Americans have no idea about things like this. It's really, really sad.

The owner, Ira Rennert, had, for many years, the house in the Hamptons which has been named the largest personal private residence in the United States. There, overlooking the ocean, Rennert gets a whole lot of really clean air to breath.

Hope he enjoys the hell out of it. The people of La Oroya have absolutely nothing in common with him, even the part about being born with hearts.

Here's a quick YouTube video:

Peru's pollution problem - 18 Dec 07
AlJazeera English 3 minutes 9 seconds

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The round thing in the lower right corner is a merry-go-round













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It would take a miracle for any government to try to take this clown to court for his crimes against the human race, a miracle of the kind which took poor Venezuelan opposition coup participant, Maria Corina Machado, after those mean government supporters "flung" her down and according to her, kicked her in the face over and over again, crushing her schnozzola, mashing it up, so bad she had to be rushed to a hospital and undergo surgery to repair it. It was an enormous, colossal, ugly mass of black and blue bruises according to her photograph taken just before someone drove her to the hospital, wearing a whiplash neck brace like a terrible auto wreck victim, where she emerged and within a day had her photo taken again with NO bruises, and NO whiplash neck brace!

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Sob, sob. Can hardly bear to look.





Praise god, he is mighty![/center]
It would take that kind of divine intervention, no doubt about it, to bring Ira Rennert to justice in this world.