Peru: demands grow for Amazon massacre truth commission
Submitted by WW4 Report on Sat, 08/29/2009 - 12:49.
The United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a formal recommendation Aug. 28 that the government of Peru open an “exhaustive, objective and impartial investigation, including indigenous represetatives” into the June 5 deadly violence that ensued when National Police troops broke up an indigenous road blockade at Devil’s Curve in Amazonas region—a bloody episode that the Peruvian press has dubbed the “Baguazo.” (24 Horas Libre, Lima, Aug. 29)
Two generals of the Peruvian National Police (PNP), Elias Muguruza and Javier Uribe, are facing an internal investigation before the PNP’s Disciplinary Tribunal for their role in the massacre. Uribe is denying responsibility, insisting that only his subordinate Muguruza was on the scene at Devil’s Curve. Records indicate that Uribe initially told the Tribunal that he had left the Bagua operation in the hands of Muguruza on the direct orders of then-Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas. However, the Lima daily La Republica reported that in an interview with the newspaper he “incredibly denied” ever having mentioned Cabanillas in his testimony. In highlighted quotes, the paper presented the following:
Uribe 1: “An order came from...Cabanillas that Gen. Muguruza should assume the operation (at Bagua).”
Uribe 2: “I deny categorically having mentioned Dr. Cabanillas. I never spoke with the minister.”
Muguruza for his own part insists he was only following Uribe’s orders. The Peruvian press is generally portraying a cover-up to protect Cabanillas. National Prosecutor Gladys Echaiz says she is considering criminal charges against the two generals. She has not broached an investigation of Cabanillas. (La Republica, Aug. 27)
The Tribunal has also announced findings that Muguruza and Uribe ignored an official warning issued by a Police Intelligence unit at Utcubamba that a “violent dispersal could result in the death or injury not only of police but also of residents” of the Bagua area. (La Republica, Aug. 26)
* From http://www.ww4report.com/node/7724
Peru: indigenous uprising claims victory —for now
Submitted by WW4 Report on Thu, 08/21/2008 - 01:15.
Indigenous groups in Peru ended more than a week of militant protests Aug. 20 at key energy sites after lawmakers agreed to overturn a new land law issued by President Alan García, which sought to ease corporate access to communal territories. García had issued the law by decree earlier under special powers Congress granted him to bring Peruvian law into compliance with a new free-trade deal with the US. A congressional commission voted to revoke the law Aug. 19, and a floor vote is expected later this week. “We have lifted the strike,” said Alberto Pizango, head of Amazon indigenous alliance AIDESEP. “We have faith and expect Congress to follow through.” (Reuters, Aug. 20)
Accords signed between Pizango and Congressional president Javier Velásquez Quesquén commit AIDESEP to ending the occupations of energy installations and Congress to open debate on the repeal of Legislative Decree 1015. It also commits Congress to establish a multi-party commission to study the situation of indigenous peoples in Peru and to demand the executive branch overturn the state of emergency declared in much of the Peruvian Amazon. (RPP Noticias, Peru, Aug. 20) Under old laws, a two-thirds majority of each indigenous community was required before land could be sold. García’s new law changed this to a simple majority. (The Independent, UK, Aug. 21)
The Congressional Commission on Andean, Amazonian and Afro-Peruvian Peoples, Environment and Ecology 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. (Radio Nacional, Peru, Aug. 21)
On Aug. 20, the National Confederation of Communities Affected by Mining (CONACAMI) launched a permanent vigil outside the Constitutional Tribunal, Peru’s high court, demanding the body strike down decrees 1015 and 1073. (CNR, Peru, Aug. 20) DL 1073, a modification to the original decree, was promulgated in July in an attempt to soften indigenous opposition. AIDESEP rejected the new decree, charging that it did not alter the fundamentals of the earlier one. (AIDESEP, July 4)
Indigenous leaders warned that the minimum demand of overturning the decrees would not secure communal territories, as land invaders and employees of resource companies who have been on the lands in question for over a year can be considered comuneros under the law—with a binding vote on the fate of the territories. (Pulsar Agency, Aug. 20)
The emergency decree of Aug. 18 affects the provinces of Bagua and Utcubamba (Amazonas region), Datem del Marañón (Loreto), and Echarate district of La Convención province (Cusco). The decree is protested by the Pro-Human Rights Association of Peru (APRODEH), which states the protests “are due to the grave threats to the ancestral territories of the indigenous peoples,” and charges that “the Peruvian state has granted concessions in said territories to oil and gas companies, without holding any consultation with the indigenous peoples who inhabit these areas.” (Europa Press, Aug. 19)
The head of García’s Council of Ministers, Jorge Del Castillo, defended the state of emergency, saying the army had re-established control of the occupied El Muyo hydro-electric plant and stations 5, 6 and 7 of the North Peru Oil Pipeline (Oleoducto Norperuano). He asserted that if the installations had not been secured, “tonight we would have had to cut electrical energy to the department of Amazonas.” He said that allowing the occupations to continue would mean the “energy collapse of the country.” (AP, Aug. 19) Del Castillo called the protests a “conspiracy against national security.” (Pulsar Agency, Aug. 20) Re-taking the installations resulted in clashes between thousands of indigenous protesters and the army in Bagua. Hospital officials in the jungle city said nine civilians were being treated for injuries. (AP, Aug. 21)
Environment Minister Antonio Brack also backed up the emergency declaration, noting that protesters threatened to close down the Camisea gas export pipeline. “The government of Peru cannot permit it,” he said. (The Independent, UK, Aug. 21)
President Alan García warned Aug. 20 that lawmakers would be making an historic mistake by repealing his new land law. In a televised speech, the president said a repeal would condemn Peru’s indigenous and rural communities to “another century of poverty and marginalization.” (AP, BBC World Service, Aug. 21)
Earlier this month, the United Nations held a celebration of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, where Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed the UN’s dedication to ending the “expropriation of [indigenous peoples’] traditional lands.” (Jurist, Aug. 19)
* http://ww4report.com/node/5925
Peru: village revolts against copper company
Submitted by WW4 Report on Sat, 08/29/2009 - 17:09.
A total of 15, including two police officers, were injured Aug. 27 when the village of Cocachacra, in Islay province of Peru’s southern Arequipa region, exploded into angry protest following the release of an environmental impact statement at a public hearing on the Tía María mining project proposed by the US-based Southern Copper Corporation. (RPP, Peru, Aug. 27)
Protests erupted spontaneously at Cocachacra’s municipal stadium, where the hearing was being held, when the company’s impact statement approved use of waters from the local Río Tambo for the proposed mining operations. Some 400 police were called in, who used tear gas as the meeting ended in chaos. (Radio Uno, Tacna, Aug. 27)
The following day, Cocachacra’s Mayor Juan Guillen Lopez held a press conference in the regional capital of Arequipa to appeal for calm and insist that he would never allow the Río Tambo to be used in mining operations. (El Pueblo, Arequipa, Aug. 29)
* From http://www.ww4report.com/node/7728
Peru: “truth commission” on Amazon massacre established
Submitted by WW4 Report on Fri, 09/04/2009 - 17:30.
Carlos Navas, mayor of Imazita in Peru’s Amazonas region and spokesman for the indigenous aliance AIDESEP, hailed the government’s formation of an investigative comission on the Bagua massacre as “an important step” towards reconciliation in the wake of June’s deadly unrest. Agriculture Minister Adolfo De Córdova announced Sept. 2 that seven members of the comission have been chosen—three elected by AIDESEP, three chosen by the Executive Branch, and one to represent Peru’s regional governments.
The members chosen by AIDESEP are former Interior Minister Pilar Mazzeti Soler (the first woman to occupy the post), Spanish nun Mary Carmen Gómez Calleja and Jesús Manacés Valverde, a law professor of the Aguaruna (Awajún) ethnicity. Representing the executive branch are the priest Ricardo Álvarez Lobo; former Women’s Minister Susana Pinilla, and the dean of the Colegio de Abogados de Lima (bar association), Walter Gutiérrez. The delegate for regional governments is sociologist Manuel Bernales. The commission is to present its final report Dec. 26, when a national plan for the development of the Amazon regions will also be presented. (RPP, 24 Horas Libre, Living in Peru, Sept 3; El Comercio, Sept. 2)
Simultaneously, in an evident step backwards, a district court judge in Utcubamba overturned charges that had been brought Aug. 7 by since-demoted national prosecutor Luz Marleny Rojas against National Police generals Elías Muguruza and Javier Uribe for their role in the massacre. The Utcubamba court cited irregularities in the case assembled against the generals. (CNR, Sept. 2)
* From http://ww4report.com/node/7746
Peru: land decrees overturned in victory for indigenous movement
Submitted by WW4 Report on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 20:09.
Indigenous groups in Peru have called off protests after two controversial laws, decreed by President Alan García to implement a free trade agreement with the US, were revoked by the country’s Congress in an 82-12 vote late June 18. “This is an historic day for indigenous people because it shows that our demands and our battles were just,” said Daysi Zapata, vice president of AIDESEP, the Amazonian indigenous alliance that led the protests.
Following the repeal of legislative decress 1090 and 1064, Zapata struck a conciliatory tone. “After so many confrontations between our leaders and the government, I believe the time has come for both of us to sit down at the dialogue table,” she said.
García acknowledged in a televised speech the day before the vote that his government had committed a “series of errors” by not including indigenous groups in discussions over the decrees before he issued them. But other disputed decrees issued by García remain in effect, raising the possibility of continued protests.
Despite AIDESEP calling an official end to the protest campaign, it remains to be seen if all the roadblocks will be disbanded. Indigenous groups blocked the key Tarapoto-Yurimaguas road connecting northern Pacific ports with Brazil told the Los Angeles Times earlier in the week that they wanted several other decrees signed by García in the last year revoked before they reopen the road. However, after the vote, Pio Inuma Canchari, leader of the Achawi Native Confederation, told Peru’s RPP Noticias the blockade would be suspended as a good faith gesture.
Congressman Freddy Otarola of the opposition Peruvian Nationalist Party told reporters after the vote that seven other García decrees are “unconstitutional” and should be revoked. He also said he would seek a vote for the “censure” of García’s Prime Minister Yehude Sinom and Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas for their roles in provoking the crisis.
The repeal of the offending decrees has not led to the demobilization of protests that have for several days paralyzed the southern Andean province of Andahuaylas, Apurímac region, where campesinos have blocked roads and occupied the airport, both in solidarity with AIDESEP and to press their own demands for better services, such as paved roads, improved schools and completion of an irrigation canal. In the local pueblo of Huancarama, some 1,000 protesters June 17 seized the mayor, Carlos Cavero of García’s ruling APRA, and other town officials, accusing them of not supporting the strike, and of failure to implement promised development projects. The officials were freed after Prime Minister Simon agreed to visit Andahuaylas and meet with strike leaders. (NYT, LAT, BBC News, El Comercio, Lima, RPP Noticias, Peru, 24 Horas Libre, 24 Horas Libre, Peru, June 19; Correo, Lima, June 18; RPP Noticias, June 17)
* From http://ww4report.com/node/7459
Peru: VRAE populace rejects “combat zone”
Submitted by WW4 Report on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 10:31.
In a joint statement issued Sept. 4, local authorities and social organizations in Peru’s conflicted Apurímac and Ene River Valley (VRAE) rejected the government’s proposal to declare the area a “combat zone.” Signatories, including the VRAE Federation of Agricultural Producers, called upon the government to seek peace by promoting social justice, saying declaration of a “combat zone” would only hurt badly needed invesment in the remote and rugged area. The statement also expressed solidarity with the families of soldiers kiled in recent Sendero Luminoso attacks in the VRAE. (La Republica, Sept. 4)
Prime Minister Javier Velásquez responded that the government has ruled out declaring a “combat zone,” and would instead use “democratic mechanisms” to combat the Sendero resurgence in the VRAE—but cited as an example “those taken by the Colombian government against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.” (Peru 21, Sept 4) In a statement the folowing day, he pledged a “final liquidation of the remnants of terrorism and narcotraffic.” (RPP, Sept 5)
Declaring a “combat zone,” an idea being pushed by Vice President Luis Giampietri, would give the armed forces special powers in the area. Giampietri’s testimony before Peru’s Congress in favor of the plan was immediately met with harsh rejection by opposition legislators. (Peru 21, Sept. 4) The declaration would also permit forcible relocation of inhabitants to create free-fire zones. VRAE residents are thought to number some 133,000. (La Primera, Sept. 7)
The armed forces successfully completed Sept. 4 a rescue operation for eight soldiers wounded in a Sendero attack at Sinaycocha, Junín region, in the VRAE. The rescue operation was called off two days earlier when Sendero gunfire brought down one of the two helicopters dispatched in the mission, killing the pilot and co-pilot. (Peru 21, Sept. 4)
* From http://ww4report.com/node/7752
Peru: indigenous leaders go to court to block Amazon oil concession
Submitted by WW4 Report on Mon, 09/07/2009 - 11:08.
Peru’s indigenous alliance AIDESEP brought suit before the country’s Constitutional Tribunal to halt an oil concession in a vast area of the northern Amazon designated as Block 67. The project is owned by Anglo-French company Perenco, who have pledged to invest $2 billion in the find. But AIDESEP charges that the project could have catastrophic consequences for uncontacted tribes living in the concession area. Perenco, chaired by Oxford University graduate Francois Perrodo, denies that uncontacted tribes exist inside Block 67. Perenco was given approval to start work in Block 67 just thirteen days after the “Amazon’s Tiananmen,” when armed police violently broke up an indigenous protest near the town of Bagua on June 5, leaving at least 30 dead. (Survival International, Sept 7)
Lot 67, in the Marañon basin, comprises the Paiche, Dorado and Pirana oilfields, containing an estimated 300 million barrels. AIDESEP cites reports from residents of the Kichwa setlement of Copal Urco, just outside the concession area, of “hidden brothers” deep in the rainforest within Lot 67. The three uncontacted tribes are said to be of the Pananujuri, Taromenane and Trashumancia ethnicities, with a total population of about 100.
But company officials dismiss the claim. “This is similar to the Loch Ness monster. Much talk but never any evidence,” said Rodrigo Marquez, Perenco’s Latin American regional manager. “We have done very detailed studies to ascertain if there are uncontacted tribes because that would be a very serious matter. The evidence is nonexistent.”
These sentiments are echoed by Peru’s leaders. President Alan Garcia says the “figure of the jungle native” is a ruse to prevent oil exploration. Daniel Saba, former head of the state oil company, says: “It’s absurd to say there are uncontacted peoples when no one has seen them. So, who are these uncontacted tribes people are talking about?”
But the UK Guardian’s Rory Carroll went to the junge city if Iquitos to talk with consultants who worked with Perenco’s local contractor Daimi on the company study that rejected claims of uncontacted peoples in Lot 67. Some dissented from the study’s findings. Teudulio Grandez, an anthropology professor at the National University of the Peruvian Amazon, told him: “Yes. Certain nomadic groups are there. Our conclusion is that there are.” Lino Noriega, a forestry engineer who participated in eight missions to Lot 67 to investigate the impact of seismic tests, said: “They said there were no uncontacted groups. But there were footprints, signs of dwellings.” (The Guardian, July 4)
AIDESEP brought suit days after the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issued a statement exhorting Peru’s government not to allow oil and gas drilling on indigenous peoples’ land without their “informed consent.” CERD, which also recently called for an investigation into the Bagua massacre, expressed its concern at “serious tension in the country, which has even triggered violence, and has been generated by the exploitation of the sub-soil resources traditionally belonging to indigenous peoples.” (Survival International, Sept. 2)
* From http://ww4report.com/node/7755