65 Indigenous Communities Declare Victory in Peru

21st August 2008
Indige­nous groups in Peru are claim­ing vic­to­ry after more than a week of protests through­out the state.

A day after the gov­ern­ment declared mar­tial law in three of the provinces affect­ed by the protests, on August 19 a con­gres­sion­al com­mis­sion vot­ed to over­turn the con­tro­ver­sial law known as Decree 1015, which the indige­nous groups were chal­leng­ing.

They say the law “makes it eas­i­er for min­ing and ener­gy com­pa­nies to buy com­mu­nal­ly owned land, will lead to a for­eign land grab, espe­cial­ly in the Ama­zon rain for­est,” Reuters explains. “Gar­cia passed the law by decree ear­li­er this year under spe­cial pow­ers Con­gress grant­ed him to bring Peru­vian law into com­pli­ance with a new free-trade deal with the Unit­ed States.”

The Con­gres­sion­al Com­mis­sion said Gar­cia ‘went too far’ with the decree, and “agreed in prin­ci­ple to bring any new land law into com­pli­ance with Con­ven­tion 169 of the Inter­na­tion­al Labor Orga­ni­za­tion. The Com­mis­sion also issued an offi­cial doc­u­ment to the Exec­u­tive call­ing for the over­turn of Supreme Decree 058‑2008-PCM, impos­ing the states of emer­gency,” adds Bill Wein­berg of the WW4Report.

The head of Peru’s leg­is­la­ture fol­lowed the announce­ment by say­ing it may go to a floor vote on Fri­day.

Gar­cia, on the oth­er hand, thinks revok­ing the decree is a “huge mis­take,” and that it will con­demn Peru’s indige­nous and rur­al com­mu­ni­ties to “anoth­er cen­tu­ry of back­ward­ness and mis­ery.”

It’s not all that far off from the truth. How­ev­er, it is in fact Garcia’s decree that would be con­demn­ing them to more “back­ward­ness and mis­ery.”

That’s why Six­ty-five indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties rose up and threat­ened a vio­lent con­fronta­tion with the state. And it’s why those same com­mu­ni­ties are now cel­e­brat­ing.