Bolivia and Peru in War of Words Over Indigenous Deaths

Dear Readers:

Due to my absence for work in Eastern Europe earlier this month we are still catching up on recent news here on the Blog. Included in that is the recent blow-up between the governments of Bolivia and Peru, stemming from the violent clash on June 5th between government officers and indigenous people in Bagua.

Below is a post on these events from Aldo Orellana and Kris Hannigan-Luther.

Jim Shultz

Bolivia and Peru in War of Words over Indigenous Deaths

Written and translated by Aldo Orellana and Kris Hannigan-Luther.

Trade Agreements and protests have been in the news again and the tensions between the governments of Bolivia and Peru have heightened.

While varying reports have come out of the events in the Peruvian Amazon over the past few weeks and months, all sides seem to agree that what is at the base of the actions is the implementation of the U.S. - Peru Free Trade Agreement.

The task of the Peruvian government is the opening up of national laws to encourage foreign investment and to meet the requirements of the Free Trade Agreement. As such, the government has issued decrees that would open the Amazon to petroleum exploration, mining, logging mono-cropping and hydroelectric dams.

Indigenous groups in opposition to these decrees claim that they are unconstitutional and began non-violent protests in April, blockading roads, railways and rivers. Peru’s President, Alan Garcia, issued a state of emergency in the areas affected by the protests on May 9th.

On June 5th a deadly clash occurred between the indigenous protesters and the state police in the northern department of Bagua. Initial reports claimed that around 20 civilians and police officers were killed, but subsequent reports put the figure much higher- at 35 people killed, including indigenous people and police officers, and hundreds injured. Read an article from The New York Times here for an account of the clash on June 5th. Upside Down World posted an article on the violent clash. Read it here.

Human Rights Watch has crafted a letter to Peru’s Attorney General. Read the full text here. According to the letter, Human Rights Watch has learned that some witnesses allege law enforcement agents threw bodies of several protesters into the river.

Amazon Watch has written a letter to Peru’s President. Read the full text and action alert here.

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."

A member of our staff participated in the IV Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples in Puno, Peru in late May where representatives of Peru's Amazonian Indigenous were present. Leaders at the summit called for international solidarity to safeguard the Amazon.

Our staff member heard powerful testimony from an indigenous woman from the Amazon, whose son enlisted in military service because of his family’s poverty. The son’s unit was later sent to attack his own community. While crying, this woman explained that they are sending their own children away because of an economic need, but then the government is teaching them to kill their own people.

So what does this have to do with the relationship between Bolivia and Peru?

Peru’s ambassador to Bolivia, Fernando Rojas, has classified the state of relations between the two countries as “worrying,” after denying Evo Morales’ assessment that what happened in Peru June 5th was genocide.

As reported by Los Tiempos, Bolivian President, Morales, said, "What happened in Peru, I am convinced, is the genocide of TLC (Free Trade Agreements), of privatization, the delivery of the Amazonian forests of South America to the transnationals."

Last Monday, a Bolivian government official from the MAS party, Gustavo Torrico, publicly compared Peru’s President to a Bolivian ex-President, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. Claiming that both Presidents were attempting to impose a neoliberal economic model and that both Presidents were responsible for massacres. Read the report in the press in Spanish here.

Rojas returned to Lima yesterday for consultations with the Peruvian government. This act demonstrates a strong rejection of Bolivian statements following the violent clash in the Amazon June 5th.

Following this clash and the subsequent media attention, the Peruvian government has temporarily suspended the decrees. See New York Times June 10th article here and a press release from Amazon Watch here.

However, the indigenous communities claim that this suspension of the decrees will not be sufficient to end their opposition. Instead, they are demanding that the decrees be completely repealed.