- Title: PERU: Indigenous people march against government
- Date: 12th June 2009
- Summary: LIMA, PERU (JUNE 11, 2009) (REUTERS) THOUSANDS OF PROTESTERS FROM PERUVIAN CENTRAL WORKERS CONFEDERATION (CGTP) ARE ATTACKED WITH TEAR GAS DURING MARCH IN SUPPORT OF REVOKING FOREST FLORAL AND FAUNA LAWS THAT PERTAIN TO AMAZON REGION LARGELY POPULATED BY INDIGENOUS PEOPLE STUDENTS RUNNING AWAY FROM POLICE STUDENTS INJURED BY TEAR GAS PERUVIAN ANTI-RIOT POLICE MOVES BA
- Embargoed: 27th June 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Peru
- Country: Peru
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA9ZUNLAHRH2AYGX0VK6N2HS9TL
- Story Text: Residents of the Peruvian Amazon region were obeying a region-wide strike Thursday (June 10) to express their solidarity with a week-long protest organized by indigenous groups who are calling for the repeal of laws aimed at promoting foreign investment in the Amazon region considered by the indigenous to be their ancient home.
In Lima, thousands of workers from the Peruvian Central Workers Confederation (CGTP) marched on the capitol to support the protests in front of the national Congress, but were dispersed by the police who set off tear gas amid bottlenecking in the Andean capital.
The activity forced the closure of several business.
The Peruvian Congress agreed on Wednesday (June 10) to suspend the controversial laws for an indefinite time period, caving to months of protests that culminated with a violent confrontation between the police and the protesters in a clash that left at least 33 from both sides dead last weekend.
The protesters have said all along that they are committed to maintain the protest until the laws are definitively thrown out, and they are counting on support from the country's labor sector, as well as from students.
"I´ve come to protest. I am a student at the University of San Marcos. I am here to speak out against the laws, and I believe the governing classes need to go," said one university student in Lima, who asked for his name not to be published.
The violent clashes between police and protesters has become a major political crisis for President Alan Garcia, who decreed the two land laws using special powers to implement a free-trade pact with the United States.
They outline a plan for how to regulate investment in the Amazon, and protesters say they encourage energy and mining firms to invest billions of dollars in jungle projects.
Indigenous tribes fear losing control of natural resources while several other recent presidential decrees on foreign investment remain in place.
The protests have already lead to three switches in Garcia's cabinet of 17 members, with more changes in the offing.
With throngs of labor and indigenous groups around him, many of whom were holding "Alan the Murderer" posters referring to Garcia, the president of the leading Peruvian workers' union took to the podium to express his support.
"The entire country is calling for a solution in response to the Amazon people's demands," said Mario Huaman, the president of CGTP.
Indigenous tribes say one of the laws would free up some 111 million acres (45 million hectares), or roughly 60 percent of Peru's jungles, for potential development.
Prime Minister Yehude Simon is working as the government's chief negotiator in talks aimed at finding compromise, and was appointed in the hope that his past as a left-wing activist would help the administration avert such conflicts.
Lima has affirmed its commitment to a dialogue so as to come up with changes to the laws that would make them mutually palatable.
The government said it suspended the laws, including the controversial Law of Forestry and Wild Animals, in the interest of modifying them.
In an emergency parliamentary session on Thursday (June 11), the Congress also suspended seven congressmen from the opposition Peruvian Nationalist Party from exercising their functions for 120 days in response to a hunger strike they organized to call for the revocation of the laws.
Undeterred, a member of the party spoke out in favor of the protesters.
"We respect what the Amazon peoples have done, The people of Andes haven't been consulted regarding the revocation of the decrees supported by the government," said Hilaria Supa, a member of the Peruvian Nationalist Party.
Opponents of the laws have said the laws were passed without prior consultation, in direct violation of international indigenous rights pacts.
The weekend incident, now known as the "Massacre at Devil's Cross," began last Friday in the northern Amazon and continued for two days before the military imposed a lockdown.
Rights groups say that in fact up to 40 indigenous people died in the violent clashes, and they continued burying the dead on Thursday in Chimbote, a city located on the Pacific coast.
With the Wednesday suspension widely being seen as a stop-gap measure to give Congress more time, the protesters returned to blocking roads and waterways all throughout the country, including in Huancayo, a city located in southern Peru.
Reports of protest activity were also emerging from the jungle regions of Loreto, Ucayali, San Martin, and Madre de Dios, among other areas.
And in Yurimaguas, a port town located 1,400 to the northeast of Lima in the northern Alto Amazonas province, protesters gathered in the early morning, spears in hand, to hold the line.
Thirty-seven days into a roadblock to cut commerce, local indigenous leaders in Yurimaguas spoke of the protest movement as a matter of pride.
"I want to say to (Peruvian President) Alan Garcia, we are ready to think differently than the way you govern the country. This is because you didn't want to negotiate over the lands of the Amazon, and now you are looking to kick us off them. They are looking to get rid of us. They insult our dignity when they say we are terrorists. We are men of the Amazon. We are going to defend Amazon blood, indigenous blood, the blood of the countryside," said Vladimiro Tapayuri Mirani, the president of the Committee for the High Amazon Indigenous Struggle.
The justice ministry has said there exist no "reason" for the new round of unsanctioned protests, as the suspension of the laws took place within the confines of the law.
In the wake of last week's violence, Garcia referred to the protesters as "death mongers" when speaking at funerals for the fallen policemen. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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