Occidental Petroleum, a Los Angeles-based oil and gas company with over $6.5 billion in total current assets, decided to cease all operations in a highly-sensitive and diverse region of northern Peru today, called “Block 64,” home to the Achuar people.

Occidental has a checkered past for sure, including lawsuits for possible involvement in the murder of local workers in Columbia back in 1998, and a futuristic employee-locating technology called “personnel badges,” that raised some eyebrows in the business community this past year (kinda like tracking employees like we track dogs and wildlife).

But perhaps the darkest piece of their past involves an utter lack ofresponsibility for cleaning up over 30 years of chemical waste due to their drilling operations in the region. In a move reminiscent of Exxon dodging cleanup payments after the Valdez oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound back in 1989, Occidental Petroleum is throwing integrity to the wind and tossing a multi-million dollar cleanup effort to Pluspetrol, the Argentine oil company who bought them in 1999.

Government health studies have found that Achuar Indians in the zone suffer high blood concentrations of cadmium and lead — a problem that Peruvian officials have said goes back to the 1970s when Occidental operated in the region.

Occidental spokesman Larry Meriage said the responsibility for cleanup passed to the new owners of the drilling operations.

Sure, legally Occidental is free of any responsibility for cleaning up over three decades of environmental destruction, but can they really sleep at night knowing they poisoned thousands of innocent Achuar community members? I guess if thats how we’re looking at things, O.J. is innocent as well. Legally he’s free of responsibility for the deaths of his wife and Goldman but I think we all know the real criminal there. In this case, its Occidental Petroleum.

Perhaps Occidental is angered by Ecuador’s move this year to seize all of its assets for a “breach of contract?” Or maybe they are still smarting after the amazing victory the U’wa people managed over a 14-year campaign against Occidental. Regardless, they have assumed the role of a corporation unwilling to assume responsibility for its actions and the impacts of its decisions.

Kudos to Amazonwatch for their tireless work to support the Achuar people and keep Block 64 from being further impacted by corporations like Occidental Petroleum, Burlington Resources and ARCO. The departure of Occidental represents a small but vital victory in a long effort to bring rights and respect to indigenous peoples and communities.