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 Despite Garcia’s insistence that none of the laws will be revisited, the Peruvian legislature has repealed one of the 10 laws and opened negotiations about the other nine.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)