Peru

Despite the repeal of Peruvian President Alan Garcia’s controversial executive decrees, it appears as though the Amazon is still very much for sale. Earlier this year, violent demonstrations erupted over Garcia’s decrees that attempted to open Peru to foreign (read: extractive) investment in accordance with its free trade agreement with the U.S.  Although the violence has resided for the time being, the larger underlying issues are far from resolved. Moreover, the neoliberal tendency of taking advantage of indigenous resources is evolving into more complex and duplicitous forms.

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They had been at war twice in the last century, but today they’ve found a common enemy: the governments of Peru and Ecuador have singled out their own citizens who resist extractive industry expansion. […]

On June 5, World Environment Day, Amazon Indians were massacred by the government of Alan Garcia in the latest chapter of a long war to take over common lands—a war unleashed by the signing of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Peru and the United States. […]

Five thousand Indigenous peoples from across the Americas gathered in the Peruvian highland city of Puno during the last week of May for the Fourth Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala. The meeting ended with a massive plenary session that approved resolutions providing alternatives to the capitalist crisis that western civilization is currently experiencing. […]

Leaders of the two-month roadblock say at least 40 indigenous people, including three children, were killed and that the authorities are covering up the massacre by throwing bodies in the river.
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The enduring conflict in Northern Peru between the Peruvian government and indigenous inhabitants of the Amazon have led to violent confrontations on Friday, June 5. According to different sources, between 30 and 84 deaths are reported, and more than 100 were wounded when the security forces tried to stop a roadblock by using violent force. […]

Many Indigenous groups, human rights organizations, and environmental groups have called for Peruvian President Alan Garcia to step down and have also issued calls for demonstrations at Peruvian embassies around the world "until the bloodbath is stopped and the legislative decrees for the Free Trade Agreement with the United States are repealed." […]

The indefinite strike called on April 9 by the Amazon’s indigenous people has become a central concern for Peru’s principal state powers because petroleum headquarters have been seized, riverways blocked, highways picketed, and demonstrations displaying spears and banners have called for the repeal of 10 legislative decrees that they consider dangerous for the rainforest, as well as their communities. […]

(IPS)The Peruvian government refused to bail out the U.S. mining and metallurgical company Doe Run, which has caused severe pollution in the highlands city of La Oroya, from its severe financial troubles, but private banks did. An economic solution thus prevailed over the urgent need to protect the health of residents of La Oroya, who have no choice but to continue breathing the toxic fumes of the company’s large multi-metal smelter. […]

The mining bubble in Perú has popped. With world demand at it’s lowest, international metal prices have cascaded and as of November 2008 more than 8 thousand mining workers have joined the ranks of the unemployed. […]