A bloody World Environment Day in the Peruvian Amazon: indigenous organizations call for support from the international community

Urgent action request issued by the World Rainforest Movement

On April 9, local communities began what they call an “indefinite strike” throughout the Peruvian Amazon region to protest the Peruvian Congress’ failure to review six government decrees that endanger the rights of indigenous peoples. These decrees were issued by the Presidency in the framework of the implementation of the Free Trade Agreement signed with the United States, and pave the way to opening up the Amazon region to socially and environmentally destructive industries such as mining and oil exploitation.

In the early morning hours today (June 5) the Alan García government unleashed a violent wave of repression in the Peruvian Amazon. Reports from the area are conflicting and there are no official figures available, but it appears that there have been between 10 and 20 deaths so far in Bagua, in the area around Corral Quemado and Curva del Diablo.

The Andean Coordinating Body for Indigenous Organizations (CAOI), which includes indigenous organizations from Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Chile and Argentina, describes the situation as follows: “Once again they are trying to impose death over life, massacre over dialogue. This is the dictatorial response after 56 days of peaceful indigenous struggle and supposed dialogue and negotiation, which ended with bullets as always, the same bullets of more than 500 years of oppression.”

The violent crackdown began only hours after the Peruvian Congress decided once again to postpone debate on the repeal of the decrees which would permit the invasion of indigenous territories. This close timing clearly suggests collusion between the Congress and the Presidency.

The CAOI is calling on “indigenous organizations, social movements and human rights organizations around the world to take concrete action, by writing letters to the Peruvian government, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, Amnesty International, Survival International, the Nobel Peace Prize Foundation, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the International Labour Organisation (Convention 169), urging them to send missions to Peru immediately to stop the violence and demand respect for indigenous rights.” The CAOI is also calling for “sit-ins in front of Peruvian embassies in every country of the world until the bloodbath is stopped and the legislative decrees for the Free Trade Agreement with the United States are repealed.”

The CAOI adds that “UN agencies should speak out firmly and join in the demands made by the chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, to lift the state of emergency, cease the use of repression, and fulfil international commitments that guarantee the exercise of indigenous rights.”

The World Rainforest Movement joins in this call for support for the peoples of the Peruvian Amazon, whose lives, cultures and means of survival are in grave danger.

Please send letters to the Peruvian embassy in your country, demanding an immediate end to the current wave of repression and full respect for the rights of indigenous peoples. Contact information for Peruvian embassies worldwide is available at: www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Peru

For more information: Norma Aguilar Alvarado Communications office Coordinadora Andina de Organizaciones Indígenas/Andean Coordinating Body for Indigenous Organizations (CAOI) Fax: 0051-1-2651061 Mobile: 980129692 Website: http://www.wrm.org.uy  /  www.minkandina.org