San Francisco, CA – International human rights organizations today called on the Peruvian authorities to use good-faith dialogue and compromise, not violence, to end the peaceful actions taken by indigenous communities to protest controversial enabling legislation for the US-Peru free trade agreement.
Following a breakdown of talks between Peru’s Environment Minister and indigenous leaders last Friday, tensions have increased in the Peruvian Amazon. Government-provoked confrontations in recent days between demonstrators engaged in non-violent civil disobedience and police officers have resulted in multiple injuries, according to Peru’s El Comercio newspaper. As a sign that additional repression may be imminent, the government called on indigenous people to disband their actions and issued a State of Emergency applicable to three Amazonian regions where demonstrations have taken place – Amazonas, Loreto and the Echarate district, site of Peru’s Camisea gas project. Basic rights to liberty and association are suspended under the State of Emergency, which was issued for a 30-day period by President Alan Garcia and Prime Minister Jorge del Castillo yesterday.
“The Garcia government has imposed archaic rollbacks on land rights. Now that indigenous peoples are demanding respect of their rights, the state is resorting to violence and intimidation,” said Atossa Soltani, Executive Director of Amazon Watch. “The Garcia government’s mishandling of legitimate grievances of indigenous peoples is bad for democracy, equity and even bad for investors in Peru.”
Concern has emerged that the government’s designated negotiator, the recently appointed Environmental Minister Antonio Brack, does not have the political clout to make commitments necessary for a good-faith negotiation with AIDESEP, Peru’s national indigenous Amazonian organization representing 65 indigenous groups. According to an AIDESEP statement following the breakdown on negotiations, “Unfortunately, we have not been able to arrive at positive agreements with the Commission…because the Commission did not have power to make decisions about our national-level demands.” Although AIDESEP requested a higher-level delegation, Brack was re-affirmed on Monday as the official government negotiator.
Today, Peruvian Government’s Ombudsman’s office (Defensoria del Pueblo) issued a statement calling for re-start of the suspended talks. The agency also sent a letter to the Constitutional Court asking for an immediate ruling on its petition for unconstitutionality of the land rights decrees 1015 and subsequently 1073.
“We call on the Peruvian government to refrain from using any violence on the peaceful demonstrations and instead look at the root issues that led to demonstrations, namely the recent presidential decrees. Instead of escalating the conflict, good-faith steps should be taken to peacefully resolve it,” added Soltani.
Background:
Thousands of indigenous peoples joined nonviolent grassroots mobilizations across the Peruvian Amazon, protesting governmental decrees issued during 2008 to facilitate implementation of the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement. Emblematic is Legislative Decree 1073 (previously 1015), which threatens collective land ownership – central to indigenous culture – by weakening protections against the sale of communal lands to private interests.
Many indigenous leaders, lawyers, human rights groups, and Peru’s own human rights ombudsman office consider some of these decrees to be in violation of indigenous rights – such as the right to prior consultation – guaranteed in the Peruvian constitution and International Labor Organization Convention 169 to which Peru is an official party.
The peaceful protests and blockades, organized by regional chapters of AIDESEP, cover five Amazonian regions. The actions include a take-over of Perupetro’s Station 5 oil installation in the northern Loreto district; a take-over of the Aramango hydroelectric plant in the Amazonas district; a blockade of the Ucayali river in the Ucayali region; and a take over by nearly 2,000 people in the lower Urubamba of the concession and barges belonging to Hunt Oil and Pluspetrol’s controversial Camisea gas project. The indigenous peaceful mobilizations started on August 9th, in recognition of the United Nation’s International Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
