Peru Indigenous In Standoff With Government

May 22nd 2009
For more than a month, indige­nous groups in the Peru­vian Ama­zon have been main­tain­ing block­ades of roads, rivers, air­ports and oil and gas pipelines to protest a series of new laws that would lead to increased indus­tri­al exploita­tion of their ter­ri­to­ries. The decrees were passed in accor­dance with the US-Peru Free Trade Agree­ment.

An esti­mat­ed 13,000 peo­ple from 65 tribes and 1200 com­mu­ni­ties are tak­ing part in the protests.

In response, Pres­i­dent Alan Gar­cia declared a state of emer­gency, sus­pend­ed civ­il lib­er­ties and dis­patched the army to the affect­ed regions. The Peru­vian and Argen­tin­ian nation­al oil com­pa­nies have both been forced to cease oper­a­tions in the region.

The police, mil­i­tary and extrac­tion com­pa­nies have used vio­lence to attempt to break the block­ades, result­ing in injuries and dis­ap­pear­ances — but the indige­nous groups are refus­ing to back down. Despite Garcia’s insis­tence that none of the laws will be revis­it­ed, the Peru­vian leg­is­la­ture has repealed one of the 10 laws and opened nego­ti­a­tions about the oth­er nine.

The Peru­vian government’s response to the cri­sis has sparked out­rage among indige­nous peo­ple and their allies world­wide, and the Peru­vian mis­sion to the Unit­ed Nations was recent­ly met with protests in New York.

For links to more news sto­ries, vis­it Inter­con­ti­nen­tal Cry.

For more infor­ma­tion, updates and photos/video of police bru­tal­i­ty at the protests, vis­it Ama­zon Watch.

See also:

Peren­co to Drill for Oil in Ter­ri­to­ry of Uncon­tact­ed Indige­nous (Jan­u­ary 7, 2009)

Peru Indige­nous Issue Oil Ulti­ma­tum (Octo­ber 22, 2008)

Indige­nous Vic­to­ry in Peru! (August 24, 2008)