Massacre in Peru in the name of Free Trade

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Jun 08, 2009 at 18:39:47 PM PDT

What essentially happened is that the Peruvian government wants to destroy the Amazon rainforest to use it for oil, mining, and biofuels, and they are attempting to do this in the name of free trade. When the indigenous people protested to protect their rights, they were brutally massacred.

Here is a photo diary of the massacre (warning: graphic). Read a description of the events and what caused them below. We in America need to be aware of the effects our economic imperialism has around the world. Instead of looking to move away from free trade agreements such as the one in Peru, we are working to establish new agreements, such as those in Panama or Columbia. The pork industry, for example, is lobbying very hard for a Panama FTA, so it can open up Panamanian markets to American pork.

For 56 days, about 2500 indigenous people have been blockading the road... on a curve called "The Devil's Curve." It appeared in the few days running up to the clashes, the government was beginning to get fed up with waiting and get fed up with the fact that the indigenous people were not moving on just the basis of dialogue. The government was refusing to repeal any of the laws. The day before the clashes, the local police chief and the local mayors and the indigenous leaders all had a meeting where the police chief said he had orders to bring order and to open up the road if the indigenous people didn't move.

What happened that night was the police - about 500 police - approached the protesters and at 5:30 in the morning, they started firing tear gas into the crowd of indigenous people on the road who were waking up and some still sleeping at that time in the morning. What resulted appears to be a total massacre. [I've been] speaking to a local leader who talked about how they had got down on their knees and held their hands up and the police had fired straight into their bodies as they asked for them not to shoot.

What followed then seems to be a series of running battles along the road as the indigenous people tried to flee into the hills and to flee back to the town... as the police continued to fire tear gas from helicopters and from the ground and fire live bullets from the helicopters and from the ground. People talk about how they were aiming at the bodies and shooting to kill. I've just been listening to some audio reports, hearing the police shouting, "Shoot them in the head, shoot the dogs in the head!" as they ran for cover.

There have also unfortunately been police deaths. The indigenous people I have spoken to are upset about that as they say they are all Peruvians and they all have families. It appears that as the police were attacking this huge group of indigenous people on the corner of the road, some people came down from the mountains - they were sleeping up there - and jumped on the police and killed some of the police in self defense. An act that's understandable but... not excusable, and that what they are asking for is justice and transparency about exactly what happened and for those responsible for killing to be brought to justice.

What were the protesters opposing?

People have been protesting against a government - a government policy that ignores indigenous peoples, that sees the Amazon as being unproductive and sees indigenous people as, essentially, a waste of space. What the government wants to do is open up the Amazon to private investment - they see the future of development there to be biofuel plantations, oil drilling, mining, forestry, and large corporate investments and indigenous people are just getting in the way.

So what the government did when it was given powers in the context of the free trade agreement was issue a series of laws that never went through Congress, that were never consulted with indigenous people, that basically restructure land rights, taking away land from indigenous people and allow rainforest to be reclassified as agricultural land - opening a legal loophole for biofuel companies to move in with plantations, for oil companies and mining companies to be able to work in the area without the troublesome part of having to negotiate or speak to the local communities for using their lands.

About how the Peru Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. fit into this..

Unfortunately, the process of the implementation of this free trade agreement - the president was given executive powers to pass laws to implement the free trade agreement. Using that excuse, the government passed these laws that take away indigenous rights and [present] a threat to the Amazon rainforest. The government here has been standing up and saying it can't repeal the laws because they are necessary for the free trade agreement and the development of Peru, and they are positioning the indigenous people as being against Free Trade and development and using the Free Trade Agreement as an excuse for passing these laws that undermine the indigenous rights.

About the Peruvian government's manipulation of the story and of the media...

What we're seeing appears to be a government manipulation, presenting this as all about their policemen and presenting the indigenous people as savage, as barbaric. What is very notable here - nobody here in the local towns is afraid of the indigenous people and nobody has seen any indigenous people with guns. Everyone here is very afraid of the police, they are afraid of the government, they are afraid to speak because they are seeing a huge manipulation of information and they're worried what will happen to them when they recount what happened and the message starts to get out.

About the indigenous leader (who is now in hiding) who is being scapegoated as the cause of this...

The government hasn't appeared to understand this movement. It hasn't been a political movement, it's been an autonomous movement of thousands of indigenous people from across the Amazon from dozens of different ethnic groups, all coming together on the common complaints they have. And the indigenous leaders, instead of trying to incite these people, have been trying to keep them organized and trying to keep them focused and trying to maintain the peace. Unfortunately [indigenous leader] Alberto's been held up as a scapegoat as the inciter of the violence - Him and other leaders I've spoken to have always been pleading with people to maintain calm, to produce these actions peacefully, and I think it's essential for any peaceful solution to be found that these leaders are reinstated, that they are allowed to come back and negotiate on behalf of their people because they are the only people that can really bring a peaceful solution to this situation.

See a blog post and a video from Democracy Now about this tragedy here.