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8. Massacre in Peruvian Amazon over US Free Trade Agreement

On World Environment Day, June 5, 2009, Peruvian Amazon Indians were massacred by the government of Al�n Garc�a 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.

Three MI-17 helicopters took off from the national police base in El Milagro, Peru, at 6 a.m. on Friday, June 5, and flew over part of the Peruvian highway that joins the jungle to the northern coast, which had been occupied for the past ten days by five thousand Awaj�n and Wampi indigenous peoples.

The helicopters launched tear gas on the crowd (witnesses say they also shot machine guns) while a group of agents simultaneously attacked the roadblock by ground, firing AKM rifles. An estimated five hundred police bore down on the protesters, some of whom were still sleeping, and opened fire. A hundred people were wounded by gunshot and between twenty to twenty-five were killed.

The government claimed days after the clash that eleven indigenous were dead as well as twenty-three police agents. The indigenous organizations reported fifty dead among their ranks and up to four hundred disappeared. According to witnesses, the military burned bodies and threw them into the river to hide the massacre, and also took prisoners from among the wounded in hospitals. While accounts differ, what is certain is that the government sent the armed forces to evict a peaceful protest that had been going on for fifty-seven days in five jungle regions: Amazonas, Cusco, Loreto, San Martin, and Ucayali.

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[Komichi]

Such an atrocity, such an ugly world.

[TheUrbanMyth]

I don't see how the author of that article is calling it a "peaceful protest"?

Setting fire to state institutions and then kidnapping 38 police officers and subsequently murdering some of them is hardly "peaceful". Not that the government is blameless...just that it seems there's plenty of blame to go around on both sides.


Anyway here's a much more detailed source with more references for those who care about the current conflict

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/peru-archives-76/1910-massacre-in-the-amazon-the-us-peru-free-trade-agreement-sparks-a-battle-over-land-and-resources

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[TheUrbanMyth]

[thomas pars]

This is nothing new for Peru and unfortunately most of Latin America.

I recall a few years ago a water dispute in Bolivia which the rights were sold to some foreign private company. The poor folks couldn't even collect rainwater.

You have a situation in which less than 1% controls 25-30% of the wealth, and things like this happen.

Wanna know something really scary? America has a wealth disparity of nearly 25%. I think it is pretty realistic to expect events like this coming to
America.

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