<html>
<body>
<font size=3>The Rainforest’s Cry: Amazon Uprising and Opposing
Perspectives of Development in Peru <br>
<a href="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1888/1/" eudora="autourl">
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1888/1/<br><br>
<br>
</a>Written by Irene Arce Claux, Translation by Timothy
Erskine <br>
Wednesday, 03 June 2009 <br><br>
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.<br><br>
Even though the Congress’s Constitutional Commission (Comisión de
Constitución del Congreso) declared the Forest and Wild Fauna Law
unconstitutional, its repeal is not effective until it is discussed and
voted with full parliamentary participation. However, there remain nine
regulations that the indigenous hope to see repealed, and which were
declared unconstitutional by a multiparty congressional commission in
December 2008.<br><br>
Alberto Pizango, president of the Interethnic Development Association of
the Peruvian Rainforest (Aidesep), who heads the movement, maintains that
the protests will go on indefinitely as long as the demands of the
protesters are ignored. <br><br>
According to Pizango, the government should lift the state of emergency
that has been established since May 9 in five Amazonian regions, the
Congress must repeal the controversial decrees, and there should be a
sit-down discussion concerning a different path to development in the
Amazon. [i]<br><br>
Congress granted an exceptional amount of authority to the Executive
Branch at the end of 2007, allowing it to make legal adjustments in the
regulatory framework of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States.
<br><br>
Of the 99 legislative decrees presented by the Executive until mid-2008,
ten would endanger reserved forest spaces to benefit investment in large
extractive industries, such as petroleum, mining, logging, gas, and
biofuels.<br><br>
The organizations that have aligned themselves with the Aidesep-led
protest maintain that these decrees violate Agreement 169 of the
International Labour Organization, which was signed and ratified by the
Peruvian state in order to affirm the right of indigenous communities to
be consulted on matters that directly affect their localities. <br><br>
On May 15, the conflict between the Amazon peoples and the central
government came to a head when Pizango, seeing that agreements were not
being made between the two parties, called for a rebellion producing
fears of bloodshed in the regions declared to be in a state of emergency,
where the presence of police and the military is greatest. <br><br>
The following day, the spokespersons of Aidesep softened their tone after
signing a contract with the Defensoría del Pueblo (People’s Protection
Office), and said that the call for rebellion had been excessive. Due to
the actions of Pizango, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Prime Minister’s
Office (PCM, for its acronym in Spanish) denounced him this week for
sedition, rebellion, and conspiracy against the Peruvian state.
[ii]<br><br>
Spear Wounds and Resolutions <br><br>
In turn, President Alan García has declared, "I do not obey any
corporate business group. I defend all Peruvians. And the lands of the
Amazon are theirs, and their children's, they belong to the whole nation;
the lands of the Amazon are for all Peruvians, not for a small group who
happens to live there." [iii] He added that the Amazon mobilization,
"subscribes to a backward, oligarchic ideology and vision."
[iv] <br><br>
Likewise, Prime Minister Yehude Simon maintained that the armed forces of
the state would impose order on the zones where the indigenous had
declared a rebellion in mid-May.<br><br>
Simon warned: "Enough is enough. We have had ample patience. They
have gone on with this stance for one month and a week. They have surely
viewed our democracy as being weak and have considered that because of
its weakness, the state has not responded to their provocations. But
unfortunately, upon request of the people, my respect for democracy and
the constitution, we must proceed with action." [v]<br><br>
After the call for insurgency was suspended and as days passed by, Simon
adopted a more conciliatory tone, insisting to Aidesep that it should
name its representatives for a multisectorial sit-down discussion [vi]
with the goal of discussing how the Amazon can be developed in the short,
medium, and long terms. <br>
Nevertheless, the Prime Minister considered the repeal of the legislative
decrees "difficult" because there are sectors that would reap
benefits from them [vii]. At most, Simon indicated that modifications
could be made in order to abate the fears of the Amazonian communities.
<br><br>
In this regard, Pizango says: "With the PCM we have made important
advances because Supreme Resolution 031 has finally gone through and it
gives us 15 days to choose the representatives that will constitute a
multisectorial commission that will work on issues of education, health,
and agriculture... but the roundtable that they are setting up should not
mislead us, it is not sufficient to suspend the demonstrations."
[viii] <br><br>
Juan Ossio, anthropologist and one of the members of the consultant
committee for President García, considers that: "It is very
important to formulate appropriate legislation that imposes order on the
rainforest’s productive activity. Therefore, the efforts of the
government can not be excessive when there still is increasing laxity
toward drug-trafficking, illegal lumbering, and informal mining
activities." [ix] Basically, he is pushing for order. No more law of
the jungle. <br><br>
According to Ossio’s analysis with respect to the impasse: "The
conflict can be explained by, on one hand, the absolutist attitudes of
Aidesep that, being a simple NGO, has become the prime representative
entity of all the native peoples that live in the Amazon and, on the
other hand, a government that aspires to govern for all Peruvians,
procuring its economic growth especially during the current global crisis
while lacking a sufficient understanding of the multicultural nature of
the nation." [x]<br><br>
To that, Pizango states that, "Aidesep, for the indigenous world, is
not considered an NGO; we consider that it is an association of interests
with an institutionality that stems from the Amazonian indigenous
movement." [xi] <br><br>
It is worth remembering that Pizango is the "apu" (chief)
elected by the leaders of 1200 native communities in the Amazon that
comprise a population of 350,000 people. <br><br>
Order and Progress<br><br>
When the Amazonian villages staged a protest in August 2008 that lasted
nearly a month, there was hardly an echo to be heard in Lima. This year,
the conflict has gained wider media coverage and has created a space
within which two models of development are clashing; one that is being
pushed by the state, and one valued and supported by the Amazonian
populations. <br><br>
Today, while the government and Aidesep seek to arrive at agreements,
fluvial routes for petroleum carriers continue to be blocked off, as well
as petroleum stations numbers 5 and 6 in Loreto, which form part of the
Nor Peruvian pipeline. Likewise, Pluspetrol announced on May 20 that its
operations would be paralyzed due to the strike. <br><br>
"Unfortunately, it must be this way in order that word reaches mass
media. These peoples that have been seen as marginal are now the
protagonists," said Margarita Benavides, anthropologist and
co-director of the Instituto del Bien Común (Common Good Institute).
<br><br>
"The government, in place of having a discussion about civilization,
should change and be more willing to dialogue and not sit around waiting
for such situations to arise, in which peoples get tired of being
constantly deceived," added Benavides. [xii] <br><br>
In turn, Adda Chuecas Cabrera, director of the Centro Amazónico de
Antropología y Aplicación Práctica (Amazon Center for Anthropology and
Practical Application-CAAAP), has stated: "The greater part of the
indigenous territories have natural resources that are the source of
conflicts with oil and mining companies, and logging concessions. And
although the Defensoría del Pueblo says that most of Peru’s conflicts are
socio-environmental, the Peruvian state does not have a development
policy that is inclusive to the indigenous peoples." [xiii]
<br><br>
Throughout its history, "development" in Peru has been carried
out by extracting finite natural resources. In the 19th century there was
a boom in guano and saltpeter; at the beginning of the 20th century, it
was rubber. Recurrently, one sees cycles of prosperity and decadence,
such as efforts to "colonize" the rainforest and the expansion
of the agricultural frontier, all in the name of progress. <br><br>
What Federico More once said in Zoocracy and Cannibalism about
ex-president Augusto B. Leguía (1919-1930), also known as "the
builder of the new Peru," could easily be applied to President
García Pérez: "He was a great mayor for the Republic. If given the
chance, he would have left little of the rainforests un-asphalted and
converted almost all of the Amazon into a swimming pool for some grand
high-society club." [xiv] <br><br>
For more information concerning the decrees that the Amazonian peoples
consider damaging, see: “Informe legal sobre los decretos legislativos
1090, 1064, 1080, 1081 y 1089”
in-<a href="http://www.caaap.org.pe/archivos/Comision_Consultiva_Informe-1_DecretosLegislativos_Nov2008.pdf">
http://www.caaap.org.pe/archivos/Comision_Consultiva_Informe-1_DecretosLegislativos_Nov2008.pdf</a>
<br><br>
Notes<br><br>
<a href="https://webmail.unibo.edu.ar/exchange/iarce/Borradores/RE:%20article....EML?Cmd=reply&Create=0#_ednref1">
[i]</a> Interview from 5-20-09. <br><br>
<a href="https://webmail.unibo.edu.ar/exchange/iarce/Borradores/RE:%20article....EML?Cmd=reply&Create=0#_ednref2">
[ii]</a> “Procurador de la PCM denunció a Pizango por rebelión y
conspiración”, El Comercio, 5-20-09 <br><br>
<a href="https://webmail.unibo.edu.ar/exchange/iarce/Borradores/RE:%20article....EML?Cmd=reply&Create=0#_ednref3">
[iii]</a> “Alan García: Yo no obedezco a ningún grupo corporativo
empresarial”, Coordinadora Nacional de Radio, 5-16-09. <br><br>
<a href="https://webmail.unibo.edu.ar/exchange/iarce/Borradores/RE:%20article....EML?Cmd=reply&Create=0#_ednref4">
[iv]</a> Ibidem. <br><br>
<a href="https://webmail.unibo.edu.ar/exchange/iarce/Borradores/RE:%20article....EML?Cmd=reply&Create=0#_ednref5">
[v]</a> “Simon: ‘Fuerzas del Estado actuarán pues se agotó la
paciencia’”, <a href="http://www.peru.com/">www.peru.com</a>, 5-15-09.
<br><br>
<a href="https://webmail.unibo.edu.ar/exchange/iarce/Borradores/RE:%20article....EML?Cmd=reply&Create=0#_ednref6">
[vi]</a> “Yehude Simon instó a Aidesep a llegar un acuerdo sobre Ley de
la Selva”, <a href="http://www.peruinforma.com/">www.peruinforma.com</a>,
5-22-2009. <br><br>
<a href="https://webmail.unibo.edu.ar/exchange/iarce/Borradores/RE:%20article....EML?Cmd=reply&Create=0#_ednref7">
[vii]</a> “Yehude Simon: ‘Es difícil eliminar decretos sobre Ley de la
Selva’”, <a href="http://www.peru.com/">www.peru.com</a>. 5-22-2009.
<br><br>
<a href="https://webmail.unibo.edu.ar/exchange/iarce/Borradores/RE:%20article....EML?Cmd=reply&Create=0#_ednref8">
[viii]</a> Interview from 5-20-2009. <br><br>
<a href="https://webmail.unibo.edu.ar/exchange/iarce/Borradores/RE:%20article....EML?Cmd=reply&Create=0#_ednref9">
[ix]</a> Brief questionnaire interview from 5-19-2009.<br><br>
<a href="https://webmail.unibo.edu.ar/exchange/iarce/Borradores/RE:%20article....EML?Cmd=reply&Create=0#_ednref10">
[x]</a> Ibidem. <br><br>
<a href="https://webmail.unibo.edu.ar/exchange/iarce/Borradores/RE:%20article....EML?Cmd=reply&Create=0#_ednref11">
[xi]</a> Interview from 5-20-2009. <br><br>
<a href="https://webmail.unibo.edu.ar/exchange/iarce/Borradores/RE:%20article....EML?Cmd=reply&Create=0#_ednref12">
[xii]</a> Ibidem. <br><br>
<a href="https://webmail.unibo.edu.ar/exchange/iarce/Borradores/RE:%20article....EML?Cmd=reply&Create=0#_ednref13">
[xiii]</a> Interview from 5-19-2009. <br><br>
<a href="https://webmail.unibo.edu.ar/exchange/iarce/Borradores/RE:%20article....EML?Cmd=reply&Create=0#_ednref14">
[xiv]</a> More, Federico. Zoocracia y canibalismo, Editorial La
Llamarada, Lima, 1933, p. 9. <br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
<br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>