Ecocide in Peru: Repsol and the colonial regime of permission

Abstract

Stop Ecocide’s proposal to criminalize ecocide under the International Criminal Court relies on states’ capacity to punish offenders, often focusing narrowly on immediate ecological harm rather than structural causes. Recent scholarship highlights the state’s infrastructural role in enabling environmental crime through legal and economic frameworks facilitating capital accumulation. This paper examines the 2022 Repsol oil spill in Peru as a case study, demonstrating how the disaster resulted from long-term decisions by both Spanish and Peruvian states. It argues that ecocide must be understood within a colonial matrix that enriches fossil capital while creating conditions for ecological destruction. By analysing the historical relationship between Repsol, Spanish financial capital, and the Peruvian state, the paper reveals how criminalising discrete events overlooks systemic complicity. Without addressing these deeper colonial and economic dynamics, ecocide laws risk being ineffective or even counterproductive. The paper calls for a shift in focus from isolated crimes to the structural processes enabling environmental harm.

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