Peaceful indigenous protests in the Amazon meet with State force but succeed in securing repeals and dialogue
01 Aug 2009
In early April over 30,000 indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon began peaceful protests calling for the repeal of recently adopted national laws that would open up 70% of the Amazon forest to exploitation by multinational companies. The laws ignore indigenous peoples' rights to their traditional lands. As a result of the protests two of the more flagrant laws have now been repealed and a framework for dialogue between the government and indigenous peoples is finally being developed.