Solidarity with Amazonian Peoples in Peru!

Location

Solidarity with Amazonian Peoples!

Demonstration and information picket in front of the Peruvian Embassy.

Come out to demonstrate in order to keep international attention focused
on Peru! Help make sure that the government of Peru responds to the
demands that are being made by Amazonian Indigenous communities!

Indigenous led protests against new “Free Trade” agreements in Peru have
been met with brutal violence by the Peruvian government. The Peruvian
police and military murdered up to 100 protesters on June 5/6 2009, and are
continuing to terrorize people under a declared 'State of Emergency' while
blaming the protesters for the violence. The Peruvian government considers
the profits made from exploiting logging, mining, oil and agroindustry more
important than the lives of protesters and indigenous peoples.

If we are serious about safeguarding the human rights of the Indigenous and
non-Indigenous peoples of the Amazon, we need to act now. The violent
repression of Indigenous protests and the loss of civil liberties must come
to an end. If we want to protect and preserve the Amazon, and its
bio-cultural diversity, especially in the face of climate change, there is
no better protection than keeping it under the control of those who have
maintained it forever. The free trade laws that open up the Amazon to
logging, mining, oil and agroindustry must be suspended. Indigenous Peoples'
rights - to self-determination, to their lands and resources, to their lives
- must be protected and guaranteed. If we are to stop other atrocities and
bloodshed, the battle line must be withdrawn, immediately, and there must be
dialogue.

Last Thursday, the Peruvian Congress issued a 90-day suspension of two
divisive decrees - 1090 and 1064 in order to restore the dialogue. However,
the Indigenous peoples are seeking revocation of all 10 decrees – the Free
Trade Laws.

AIDESEP is the Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana
(Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle),
represents 1,350 communities comprising some 600,000 Amazon Indians. The
group’s leader, Alberto Pizango, has been forced to take refuge in the
Nicaraguan embassy and is charged with sedition by the Peruvian government.

AIDESEP was not invited to participate in the restored dialogue. The acting
director of AIDESEP, Daisy Zapata Fasabi called this dialogue proposal is
anti-democratic, policy of dividing the Indigenous movement.

It is essential to understand that this is not an “indigenous issue” or a
“Peruvian” issue; this is a global issue; this is “our” issue in the north.
Since the 1980s and 1990s, the governments of the USA and Canada -- along
with our “development” institutions (from the World Bank, International
Monetary Fund and Inter-American Development Bank, to our “aid” agencies
[US-AID, CIDA]) -- have been pushing for and insisting on the “free trade”
trade model of development / exploitation, on the signing of “free trade”
agreements. Canada signed a “free trade” agreement with Peru on May 29,
2008, and on June 3, 2009, Bill C-24 was passed in the House of Commons to
implement this agreement. The Peruvian government has also signed “free
trade” agreements with the United States, the European Union, Chile, and
China, all of which endanger indigenous territorial rights and Amazonian
biodiversity.

* Photos from Ottawa demo on June 11 –
http://picasaweb.google.ca/peiju.wang/June11SolidarityWithIndigenousInPeru# [4]
<http://picasaweb.google.ca/peiju.wang/June11SolidarityWithIndigenousInPeru [5]>

* Audio of an interview with IPSMO member Ben Powless on CBC Radio’s
The Current (scroll down to ‘Part Two’)-
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2009/200906/20090612.html [6]
* Video of an interview with Ben Powless on The Real News Network:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzKqzlqBU2g [7]
* Audio of an interview with IPSMO member Greg Macdougall on CFRC
radio (Kingston) (from time 6:20-21:20) –
http://130.15.62.100/logger_files/20090611170001.mp3 [8]

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RSVP to this event on Facebook, and invite your friends:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=91806903201 [9]

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OUR DEMANDS OF THE PERUVIAN GOVERNMENT:



1. Immediately suspend violent repression of indigenous protests and
the State of Emergency
2. Repeal the Free Trade Laws that allow oil, logging, and agricultural
corporations easy entry into indigenous territories
3. Respect indigenous peoples' constitutionally guaranteed rights to
self-determination, to their ancestral territories, and to prior
consultation
4. Enter into good faith process of dialogue with indigenous peoples to
resolve this conflict



These demands have been endorsed by the following organizations: Common
Cause Ottawa <http://linchpin.ca [10]> ; Common Frontiers
<http://www.commonfrontiers.ca/ [11]> ; Council of Canadians
<http://www.canadians.org/ [12]> ; MiningWatch Canada
<http://www.miningwatch.ca/ [13]> ; OPIRG/GRIPO-Ottawa
<http://www.opirg-gripo.ca/ [14]> ; Ottawa-Outaouais Industrial Workers of the
World <http://ottawaiww.org/ [15]> (IWW); Rights Action
<http://www.rightsaction.org/ [16]> ; Students Against Israeli Apartheid
-Carleton (SAIA); and Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement
<http://ipsmo.wordpress.com [17]> -Ottawa. <http://ipsmo.wordpress.com [17]>


To endorse these four demands, please e-mail ipsmo@riseup.net [18].

PETITIONS:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/peru_stop_violence/?cl=250248179 [19]
<http://www.avaaz.org/en/peru_stop_violence/?cl=250248179&v=3461 [20]> &v=3461
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Amazon/index.html [21]
http://www.canadians.org/action/2009/11-June-09.html [22]

ARTICLES/WEBSITES:

* Reports by Ben Powless, IPSMO member currently in Peru
http://rabble.ca/taxonomy/term/2686 [23]
* In depth analysis of the situation, by Gerardo Rénique:
https://nacla.org/node/5879 [24]
* News from AmazonWatch.org – includes action items
http://www.amazonwatch.org/peru-protests.php [25]

* Mass Protests in Peru:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/peru-j13.shtml [26]

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