Disputed Peru land laws suspended

[Swede]

Source: BBC NEWS

At least 54 people, including some police officers, died after violence erupted on Friday between security forces and indigenous protesters.

The laws are designed to regulate investment in the Amazon, but indigenous groups say they will lose control of their natural resources.

They have been demonstrating for months, blocking roads and waterways.


Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8094304.stm

[Judi Lynn]

1. Hope this can help. 100 protesters still missing, too. Thanks for the info., Swede. n/t

[IndianaGreen]

2. Peru: Save the Amazon

Dear friends,

Peru's government is clashing violently with indigenous groups protesting the rapid devastation of the Amazon rainforest by mining, oil and logging companies. The forest is a global treasure - let's stand with the protesters and sign the petition to President Garcia to stop the violence and save the Amazon:

The Peruvian government has pushed through legislation that could allow extractive and large-scale farming companies to rapidly destroy their Amazon rainforest.

Indigenous peoples have peacefully protested for two months demanding their lawful say in decrees that will contribute to the devastation of the Amazon's ecology and peoples, and be disastrous for the global climate. But last weekend President Garcia responded: sending in special forces to suppress protests in violent clashes, and labelling the protesters as terrorists.

These indigenous groups are on the frontline of the struggle to protect our earth -- Let's stand with them and call on President Alan Garcia (who is widely known to be sensitive to his international reputation) to immediately stop the violence and open up dialogue. Click below to sign the urgent global petition and a prominent and well-respected Latin-American politician will deliver it to the government on our behalf.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/peru_stop_violence

More than 70 per cent of the Peruvian Amazon is now up for grabs. Giant oil and gas companies, like the Anglo-French Perenco and the North Americans ConocoPhillips and Talisman Energy, have already pledged multi-billionaire investments in the region. These extractive industries have a very poor record of bringing benefits to local people and preserving the environment in developing countries - which is why indigenous groups are asking for internationally-recognized rights to consultation on the new laws.

For decades the world and indigenous peoples have watched as extractive industries devastated the rainforest that is home to some and a vital treasure to us all (some climate scientists call the Amazon the "lungs of the planet" - breathing in the carbon emissions that cause global warming and producing oxygen).

The protests in Peru are the biggest yet and the most desperate, we can't afford to let them fail. Sign the petition, and encourage your friends and family to join us, so we can help bring justice to the indigenous peoples of Peru and prevent further acts of violence from all parties.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/peru_stop_violence

In solidarity,

Luis, Paula, Alice, Ricken, Graziela, Ben, Brett, Iain, Pascal, Raj, Taren and the entire Avaaz team.

Sources:


Civilians and police killed: Human rights lawyers accuse the government of a cover-up, BBC, 10 June:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8092453.stm

Civil Society Condemns Massacre of Indigenous People in Peru, 8 June:
http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/765/en/global_witness_condems_violence_in_peru

On Peru's rift over economic policy and the controversial free trade agreement with the US , Reuters, 9 June:
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN09374943

Research Article: Oil and Gas Projects in the Western Amazon: Threats to Wilderness, Biodiversity, and Indigenous Peoples, M. Finer et al:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pone.0002932

Oil companies ‘should withdraw’ as Peru ‘faces its Tiananmen’, Survival International, 8 June:
http://www.survival-international.org/news/4640

Peru's Amazon oil deals denounced, BBC News, 3 February:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6326741.stm

[FarrenH]

3. I've been invited to protests at the peruvian consulate

Here in South Africa. I love how rapidly the internet enables us to disseminate information and react worldwide.

One thing though - the rainforests are a global treasure for a whole host of reasons, including simple respect for life and joy in its diversity, and a wealth of untapped biological knowledge and resources - potential cures, food (apparently something like 7 of the world's most common foodstuffs, like potatoes, originated in Peru), but...

the "lungs of the planet" idea has long ago been debunked. The contribution of marine plant life like kelp apparently dwarfs that of the rain forests. The whole land surface of the planet could be covered in savannah and the worlds oceans would still easily do the job.

[L. Coyote]

5. The oceans are being poisoned. That system can collapse too.

[L. Coyote]

4. End "The Longest Genocide." It continues today; it began over 500 years ago.

"... we doctored the horses by searing their wounds with the fat from the body of a dead Indian which we cut up to get out the fat, and we went to look at the dead lying on the plain and there were more than eight hundred of them, the greater number killed by thrusts, the others by cannon, muskets and crossbows, and many were stretched on the ground half dead..... The battle lasted over an hour....we buried the two soldiers that had been killed....we seared the wounds of the others and of the horses with the fat of the Indian, and after posting sentinels and guards, we had supper and rested.
"...These were the first vassals to render submission to His Majesty in New Spain."

The genocide of many Native Nations continues in the Americas. This fact is much ignored because the frontier of the conquest is in remote jungles and inaccessible regions where the few remaining traditional Native populations survive.

Don't get in the way of the Anglo search for (black) gold.

Bernal Diaz del Castillo: Most interest in conquest narratives is given to the Diaz account, "True History of the Conquest of New Spain."

In this century the "true manuscript" of the "true history" has come to light, with two different versions of the "true history" emerging. One copy now belongs to the Guatemalan government, the other belongs to a Diaz descendant and came to light in Spain in 1932.

On arriving in Cuba: "On landing we went at once to pay our respects to the Governor, who was pleased at our coming, and promised to give us Indians as soon as there were any to spare."
On leaving Cuba in 1517: "In order that our voyage should proceed on right principles we wished to take with us a priest... We also chose for the office of overseer (in His Majesty's name) a soldier... so that if God willed that we should come on rich lands, or people who possessed gold or silver or pearls or any other kind of treasure, there should be a responsible person to guard the Royal Fifth."

On leaving Cuba in 1517: "In order that our voyage should proceed on right principles we wished to take with us a priest... We also chose for the office of overseer (in His Majesty's name) a soldier... so that if God willed that we should come on rich lands, or people who possessed gold or silver or pearls or any other kind of treasure, there should be a responsible person to guard the Royal Fifth."

"...Juan Sedeno passed for the richest soldier in the fleet, for he came in his own ship with the mare, and a negro and a store of cassava bread and salt pork, and at that time horses and negroes were worth their weight in gold,..."

Regarding the first battle fought under Cortes in the New World, against the people of Tabasco: "... we doctored the horses by searing their wounds with the fat from the body of a dead Indian which we cut up to get out the fat, and we went to look at the dead lying on the plain and there were more than eight hundred of them, the greater number killed by thrusts, the others by cannon, muskets and crossbows, and many were stretched on the ground half dead..... The battle lasted over an hour....we buried the two soldiers that had been killed....we seared the wounds of the others and of the horses with the fat of the Indian, and after posting sentinels and guards, we had supper and rested.
"...These were the first vassals to render submission to His Majesty in New Spain."

[Judi Lynn]

6. Article posted from Peru's La Republica: "(The police) answered that they had orders to kill us"

This article was posted by magbana in the Latin America forum:

6/11/09
Bagua: "(The police) answered that they had orders to kill us"

http://3.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_7Se7iswAanA/SjEd6VDywOI/AAAAAAAAH0I/gu6OIvh6xn4/s400/bagua_rep.jpg

Photo of the three interviewed indigenous

Natives and Police agreed to talks at 10am, but at 6am the police attacked

María Elena Hidalgo, special envoy in Bagua

NativeThree indigenous that served in the Peruvian army are interned in the Hospital Gustavo Lanatta Luján, en Bagua Chica. The honorably discharged soldiers were attacked by police when they protested for the lands.

Roger Petsa Najamtai, 30, from the community of Santiago in the district of Belén, went to the site of the strike via boat along with 29 other members of his community.

"The day before the attack we talked with the Police General Víctor Uribe to make it clear that the problem was not with the police but with the government", explaind Petsa. "The police told us that there was no problem with us and that the next day at 10am we would continue talks. But at 6am the police started the attack on us including from a helicopter that fired bullets like rain. The police shot us directly in the body. I saw how my colleagues fell while I started running for cover. Two bullets hit me and I fell. I got out on a motorbike, helped by a friend. The police shot at the motorbike but I managed to get to the hospital".

Roger Petsa Najamtai, 22, is from the community of Iracuza in the district of Nieva. He joined the protest to represent his townspeople.

"We were in a peaceful protest and talking constantly with the police in order to avoid problems. It's true that we blocked the road but we allowed passengers to cross by foot witout any problem" explained Ukuncham. "On Friday at 6am around 1,000 police approached us and started to clear the road by shooting. We only had lances and sticks but they started shooting at our bodies. I didn't understand why they were shooting at me as I was also a Peruvian and the only thing we were doing was to protest for our lands. As I am an ex-soldier with honourable discharge I approached (the police) to ask them the motive and they answered that they had orders to kill us, then I was hit by two bullets in the arm."

More:
http://www.incakolanews.blogspot.com/
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x16057

[rabs]

7. This "suspension" of the exploitation laws is a smoke screen

The measure was rammed through the Congress on Wednesday by the APRA-controlled legislature. (APRA is the political party of President Alan Garcia.)

The key words are "90 days" because the opposition legislators wanted the laws to be suspended indefinitely. The APRA-istas defeated that attempt and the international media interpreted the 90-day period as willingness by the government to negotiate with the indigenous communities.

Not so. The government move is merely a ploy to ease the internal and international pressure on the Garcia government over the police-instigated massacre of last Friday.

Today in Lima there was a large demonstration by the Peruvian Confederation of Workers. The demonstration was halted near the national Congress with tear gas and clubs. There were other anti-Garcia demonstrations in other cities as well.

For those DUers who are not quite sure of what what this is all about, below is a youtube video of a demonstration in Washington a couple of days ago in front of the Peruvian Embassy. The speaker does a good job of explaining what happened. (Video is in English.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kkj91Y0P99w

[Judi Lynn]

8. Excellent info. No doubt that number in front of the Peruvian embassy is going to grow.

How alarming to learn from the Amazon Watch guy that the injured people from the conflict and dead bodies are disappearing now from the hospitals. He stresses the government's acknowledged figures of casualties is clearly artificially low. That's ALWAYS the way it's done when a Latin American government has involved itself in murder.

Thank you so much for this. Glad to see there is interest growing eveisthough we have had to depend so much upon corporate media, the same media which kept us ignorant of Chile's savage coup and years of terrorism by Nixon's puppet, Argentina's miltary coup and junta and 30,000 missing people lost to political torture and massacres, done also in total sadism, designed to terrorize potential dissidents into stunned silence and fear, (it seemed to work for decades too in latin America, didn't it, for temporary purposes?) not to mention Brazil's tortured and murdered, Paraguay, Uruguay, etc., etc., etc.

We didn't hear about those countries until many years later, and it's a miracle we know now. The fascists among us never bothered to learn, either, now that it's possible, and still going on.

For those who care, this is damned important. Thank you.

Hope people take the time to listen to this video.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Re-reading your post late at night, I wanted to thank you for passing on the info.

about the "suspension."

It's absolutely important to be aware of this.

Thank you.