US Government Pressured to Take Action on Peru Conflict Given Role of US-Peru Trade Agreement

[struggle4progress]

Letter Urges Senior Officials to Clarify Position on Controversial Peruvian ‘Free Trade Laws’

WASHINGTON - June 15 - Amazon Watch joined fourteen human rights and environmental organizations in urging the United States to take immediate steps towards addressing recent political violence in Peru. The Peruvian Government’s actions to quell two months of nonviolent protests by Amazonian indigenous communities have resulted in numerous deaths of both indigenous protesters and police and hundreds injured.

The protests are against the passage of controversial “legislative decrees”, new laws created by Peruvian President Alan Garcia purportedly to implement the US-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA).

Today, a coalition of 15 environmental and human rights organizations is sending a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other high-level Obama Administration officials as well as key members of Congress, requesting that the U.S. Government immediately issue a formal response as to whether by repealing the contested decrees, Peru would jeopardize the US-Peru TPA.

“The Garcia Administration has insisted that repealing the decrees would mortally wound the Free Trade Agreement, opting for heavy-handed measures against protesters instead of good-faith dialogue.” said Andrew Miller of Amazon Watch. “By clarifying the U.S. position on these decrees, the Obama Administration could help create the needed political space for a real dialogue between the Peruvian government and the Amazonian indigenous federation AIDESEP” ...

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/06/15-10