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<font size=3>Peru and Ecuador: A Common Enemy<br>
<a href="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2021/1/" eudora="autourl">
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2021/1/<br><br>
</a>Written by Jennifer Moore <br>
Friday, 31 July 2009 <br><br>
They had been at war twice in the last century, but today they've found a
common enemy: the governments of Peru and Ecuador have singled out their
own citizens who resist extractive industry expansion.<br><br>
“Something terrible is taking place,” says Father Marco Arana, a member
of the executive committee of the Latin American Observatory of Mining
Conflicts speaking at the Third Continental Meeting in Quito, “such that
the discourse of 21st Century Socialism coincides with the logic and
discourse of the most ultra-conservative governments like that of Peru.”
<br><br>
Presidents Alan García and Rafael Correa have been polarizing the
internal clash over development vision in their respective countries with
that of indigenous peoples, mestizo farmers, environmentalists and human
rights activists, raising concern about possible future
confrontations.<br><br>
A leading metal producer with ambitions to exploit agricultural, wood,
mineral, and water resources in sensitive regions such as the Amazon,
Peru's most recent stand-off resulted in the deaths of at least twenty
three police officers, five indigenous people and five residents from the
town of Bagua when state forces cracked down on a 58-day protest by
Amazonian peoples on June 5th, according to preliminary figures from the
People's Ombudsman (Defensoría del Pueblo).
</font><font size=2><b>1</b></font><font size=3> Independent
investigators, however, were prevented access to the site by police for
five days following the incident and local witnesses have testified that
cadavers of indigenous people were dumped into the river indicating that
the number killed was much higher.
</font><font size=2><b>2</b></font><font size=3> At least two hundred
more were wounded, the majority civilian, and eighty four face legal
investigations of which eighteen are currently imprisoned. Police are
subject to an internal police probe and an investigation by the office of
the public prosecutor. </font><font size=2><b>3</b></font><font size=3>
Indigenous and human rights organizations have asked for a truth
commission to carry out further investigations instead of the national
police. The same month, the People's Ombudsman registered 128
social-environmental disputes across the country, almost doubled from the
same time last year. </font><font size=2><b>4</b></font><font size=3>
<br><br>
Despite strong economic growth in recent years, García is paying a high
political cost for favouring big capital investments and aggressive free
trade policies over the well-being of his own people, resulting in recent
cabinet changes and plummeting popularity ratings.<b>
</font><font size=2>5 <br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>In Ecuador, conflicts have not grown so violent,
while Correa remains highly popular having just won a historic
re-election with over 50 percent of the presidential vote after the first
round in late April. However, Correa also faces differences with the
country's social movements over resource extraction on the domestic front
that some worry could become more serious should they go
unattended.<br><br>
Correa has expressed intolerance for public protests, especially those
opposed to a new large scale metallic mining sector intended to
substitute for declining oil production. Protests against a new mining
law in early January 2009 faced a heavy-handed response. In the
south-central province of Azuay, locals reported that police sprayed tear
gas into their homes. In the southern Amazonian region, one man was found
shot and wounded, while others face terrorism charges arising from these
events.<br><br>
In areas such as the Southern Amazon, where the biggest projects
belonging to Vancouver-based Corriente Resources and Toronto's Kinross
Gold are situated, recent election results at the local and regional
level reflect a certain disillusionment with the government with the
success of competing parties critical of Correa's economic development
policies. This situation is further complicated for the government by key
indigenous federations that maintain a firm stance against extractive
projects on their territories.<br><br>
The indigenous Pachakutik party won the presidency of eleven
municipalities, as well as the prefecture and one national assembly
member in each of the two south-eastern Amazonian provinces in April.
</font><font size=2><b>6</b> </font><font size=3>As well, President Pepe
Acacho of the Interprovincial Shuar Federation whose organization
represents 500 Shuar indigenous centres and 50 such associations in the
Amazonian provinces of Morona Santiago, Zamora Chinchipe and Pastaza
states, “We have an irreversible position...no to any type of extractive
industry on our territory which includes mining, oil, logging and
hydroelectric generation.”<br><br>
Sounding a lot like his conservative counterpart García, Correa insists
that he cannot let a few people stand in the way of national development.
Instead, he prefers to downplay the significance of these tensions while
frequently insulting opponents and emphasizing promises to redistribute
mining revenues and implement stronger state controls over the nascent
sector.<br><br>
Speaking to Amy Goodman at the end of June on the widely respected
program Democracy Now!, he misrepresented election results saying, “We
won, overwhelmingly so, in all the mining regions...So, clearly the
population trusts us.” He denied calling protesters “nobodies” and
concluded, “But three or four people are enough to make a lot of noise,
to appear in the media, and so on. But, quite sincerely, they don’t have
the popular backing or the representation.”
</font><font size=2><b>7<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>It is true that extractive industry critics have
been marginalized given the current balance of power in Ecuador. However,
Peru's experience suggests that economic growth does not automatically
resolve conflicts and that they are likely to persist with costly
outcomes unless a more democratic approach can be found.<br><br>
Peru: Majority rules and repression reigns<br><br>
On June 28 shortly after the tragedy in Bagua, President Alan García
published a lengthy treatise called “With the Faith of the Vast Majority”
in which he disregarded protesters concluding that they represent a small
minority of the population. “They threaten and block roads,” he wrote,
“because they know that they are few in number and that they have lost
the game.” </font><font size=2><b>8 </b></font><font size=3>He calculated
that about 50,000 Peruvians are involved, and purported that foreign
governments, understood to include Presidents Hugo Chávez and Evo
Morales, </font><font size=2><b>9</b></font><font size=3> have helped
spark the unrest.<br><br>
But Father Marco Arana, a native of Cajamarca, Peru where the largest
gold mine in Latin America has been radically transforming local life
since the early 1990s, suggests that there is another reason why
indigenous people, as well as peasant and mid-scale mestizo farmers,
block roads. It is that they lack real political representation in Peru
and that channels that should work for their complaints do not.<br><br>
“The result is a very complicated and polarized scenario,” comments
Arana, “which is exactly what should be avoided in order to stem further
violence and such that democratic and respectful solutions can be brought
about.” He believes that current signals from the government favouring
dialogue with indigenous groups are merely an attempt to “buy time” and
that there is little indication that such efforts “will be beneficial or
address the demands of indigenous peoples.”<br><br>
Indigenous peoples participating in the recent mobilization at Bagua
protested numerous presidential decrees enacted last year by President
García in order to implement the free trade agreement with the United
States that would, amongst other things, enable sale of their lands. The
decrees are also consistent with Alan García's thesis outlined in a 2007
editorial called “The Dog in the Manger,”
</font><font size=2><b>10</b></font><font size=3> in which he describes
indigenous peoples and peasant communities as poor, uneducated, and lazy.
He suggests that they are the main obstacle preventing Peru from
benefiting from natural resources found on their territories.<br><br>
But strong economic growth has not been benefiting Peru's poor.
“Companies and the government have confused economic growth with
development,” says Nicanor Alvarado from the Vicar's Office in Jaen, not
far from the Devil's Curve where protests took place in early June. “It's
meant growth for the transnationals and industry, but not for local
peoples.”<br><br>
Between 2004 and 2008, Peru sustained an economic growth rate averaging
7.5%, largely driven by mining.<b>
</font><font size=2>11</b></font><font size=3> However, as a recent
report from OXFAM America underlines, poverty rates in the Andean
highlands of Peru continue to soar above 70% and despite greater
redistribution of mining revenues to certain regions of the country,
institutional weaknesses often prevent them from being channelled into
local development. </font><font size=2><b>12<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>Instead of addressing such issues, President
García has not only polarized the country, he has also been criminalizing
dissent. Father Arana, also founder of the Training and Information Group
for Sustainable Development (GRUFIDES), which helps communities monitor
environmental impacts of mining on their lands and take peaceful action,
describes various changes García has made to the criminal code including
an extended definition of extortion. The new definition includes any act
that could be interpreted as extracting economic benefits under pressure,
such as impeding flow of traffic, public services or the construction of
legally-authorized public works. Sentences have been boosted to up to 25
years in jail. Also, authorities who “support their people by
participating in protests can now be disqualified from their posts,” adds
Arana.<br><br>
The overall conclusion is that “the protests will continue,” says Nicanor
Alvarado who accompanied the indigenous uprising in Bagua and who has
also been accused of terrorism as a result of participating in a popular
referendum concerning mining activities in the northwestern department of
Piura in 2007. He forewarns, “The communities who I have been
accompanying have a culture of defending their territory, their language
and way of life. They live from the land and they will fight to the end,
I swear to you.”<br><br>
The steady rise in social-environmental conflicts in recent years as
tracked by the People's Ombudsman suggests that conflicts are likely to
persist in many parts of the country. For Alan García, his popularity is
seeing a reverse trend indicating that protesters are perhaps not as
politically illegitimate as he would like to believe.<br><br>
Ecuador: A strong state solution? <br><br>
Although a forty year veteran of oil production, Ecuador is at a much
earlier stage in the development of a new large scale mining sector that
will affect parts of the country as of yet untouched by extractive
industry. Similar to García, Correa has polarized conflicts by defining
activists as self-interested political opponents instead of human and
environmental rights defenders. Without the same history of large scale
mining, however, he has gained support from certain sectors by promising
to reinvest mining profits in social programs and local development. But
observers see warning signs that Correa's current trajectory could
aggravate disputes.<br><br>
At the conclusion of a visit to Ecuador in July, investigator Anthony
Bebbington from the University of Manchester, who is leading a major
research project into extractive industry expansion and social conflict
in the Andes, says that even those “that don't have a particular axe to
grind [with Correa],” are concerned that “things could spill over and
conflicts be serious” particularly in the southeast Amazonian region.
Reflecting on the President's reluctance to admit this publicly, he says,
“One presumes that [Correa] knows what's at play....So in not recognizing
it, if something spills over he can cultivate it and say – like Alan
García did – that this was something cultivated by darker or foreign
interests as a way to ignore the political implications and to use
repressive measures to try and diffuse the conflicts.” Allusions have
already been made to foreign conspirators supposedly manipulating rural
peoples in government propaganda. </font><font size=2><b>13</b> <br><br>
</font><font size=3>Considering Correa's arguments around greater state
control and redistribution of mining revenues, Bebbington says these
might buy the President time, but they will not resolve existing
tensions.<br><br>
Drawing on years of research in Peru, he comments, “Unless you have all
of your organizational, institutional and bureaucratic ducks lined up in
order to be able to translate that money into local development, there's
no reason that that will happen and there's no reason to believe that
that approach is going to free you from local conflict dynamics.” He
concurs with Nicanor Alvarado and says that despite enormous fiscal
transfers to certain areas of Peru results “have been immensely
disappointing both in terms of real investments and also in the ways that
local politics get distorted and new leadership and movements emerge to
try to get access to those resources.” He is not convinced that outcomes
in Ecuador will be much different.<br><br>
But Correa seems to be avoiding other issues as well; issues closer to
the heart of current disputes with indigenous peoples and mestizo
farmers. <br><br>
“For example, how do you align a commitment to extractive industry with a
commitment to indigenous people's territorial rights and other collective
rights to exercise control over the life paths that they want to build?
How do you align this commitment to constitutional rights and to the
environment having rights? Those seem to me to be important discussions
that lay at the heart of making Ecuador a healthier democracy,” says
Bebbington, recalling new gains in Ecuador's political constitution
approved last September which recognizes rights for nature and declares
the country a plurinational state.<br><br>
“It seems to me that that conversation is not happening. And it's being
blocked through this argument that we're going to have a state industry,
and we're going to increase revenues that accrue from extraction, and
therefore this must be a good thing.” It is also being blocked by a
strong industry lobby backed by the Canadian Embassy in Ecuador that is
wary of any measure that might exclude mining from certain
areas.<br><br>
Risky business <br><br>
Affected communities bear the greatest risks of avoiding such debate,
whether through the environmental and social impacts of extractive
industry or when they are subject to severe repression for defending
their rights like in Bagua or as is feared might happen in the Southern
Amazon. But singling out one's own citizens also has political
ramifications. <br><br>
It has yet to be seen what will happen as various indigenous, farmer,
environmental and human rights groups become distanced from Correa. In
the case of Peru, Father Arana believes that they have reached the point
at which a new political option is essential in order to avoid greater
“chaos, violence and authoritarianism.”<br><br>
Now in the process of seeking the thousands of signatures necessary to
run for president in 2011, Arana is leading a new movement called Land
and Liberty. They will aim to advance an economic model based upon
ecological sustainability and plurinationality in which extractive
industry expansion should be subject to land use planning and ecological
zoning. They also propose to legislate the right to free, prior and
informed consent for indigenous and peasant communities as outlined by
the International Labour Organization's Convention 169. While many
details of their program remain unclear and achieving such goals will
entail serious challenges, they are central issues to making peace once
again within these Andean nations.<br><br>
Notes: <br><br>
1. All figures based upon research carried out by the Defensoría del
Pueblo between June 5th and June 30th 2009:
<a href="http://www.defensoria.gob.pe/modules/Downloads/informes/varios/2009/informe-adjuntia-006-2009-DP-DHPD.pdf">
http://www.defensoria.gob.pe/modules/Downloads/informes/varios/2009/informe-adjuntia-006-2009-DP-DHPD.pdf</a>
<br><br>
2.
<a href="http://www.politicaspublicas.net/panel/noticias/america-latina/318-peru-comunicado-mision-fidh.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.politicaspublicas.net/panel/noticias/america-latina/318-peru-comunicado-mision-fidh.html<br>
<br>
</a>3.
<a href="http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47454">
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47454</a><br><br>
4. The 64th Report on Social Conflicts from the Defensoría del Pueblo of
Peru:
<a href="http://www.defensoria.gob.pe/conflictos-sociales/objetos/paginas/6/44conflictos_-_reporte_64_-_junio_2009.pdf">
http://www.defensoria.gob.pe/conflictos-sociales/objetos/paginas/6/44conflictos_-_reporte_64_-_junio_2009.pdf</a>
<br><br>
5.
<a href="http://www.coha.org/2009/07/garcia’s-decline-in-peru/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.coha.org/2009/07/garcia’s-decline-in-peru/<br><br>
</a>6. “Hacia la segunda fase de la revolucion ciudana” Mario Unda,
<a href="http://alainet.org/active/30562">
http://alainet.org/active/30562</a>
<a href="http://alainet.org/active/30562"> </a><br><br>
7.
<a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/29/ecuadoran_president_rafael_correa_on_global%A0" eudora="autourl">
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/29/ecuadoran_president_rafael_correa_on_global
<br><br>
</a>8.
<a href="http://www.ediciones.expreso.com.pe/2009/jun/28/index8fa6.html?option=com_content&task=view&id=57434&Itemid=1">
http://www.ediciones.expreso.com.pe/2009/jun/28/index8fa6.html?option=com_content&task=view&id=57434&Itemid=1</a>
<br><br>
9.
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8106248.stm%A0" eudora="autourl">
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8106248.stm <br><br>
</a>10.
<a href="http://www.elcomercio.com.pe/edicionimpresa/html/2007-10-28/el_sindrome_del_perro_del_hort.html">
http://www.elcomercio.com.pe/edicionimpresa/html/2007-10-28/el_sindrome_del_perro_del_hort.html</a>
<br><br>
11.
<a href="http://www.economist.com/countries/PERU/profile.cfm?folder=Profile-Economic%20Data " eudora="autourl">
http://www.economist.com/countries/PERU/profile.cfm?folder=Profile-Economic%20Data
<br><br>
</a>12. “Mining Conflicts in Peru: Condition Critical” March 2009, OXFAM
America <br><br>
13. For example, see “La Mineria en el Ecuador: Una Fuente de Esperanza”
from the collection “La Patria es de Todos” available here:
<a href="http://secretariadepueblos.gov.ec/Web/Joomla/MATERIAL%20SPPC/COMICS/COMIC8.pdf">
http://secretariadepueblos.gov.ec/Web/Joomla/MATERIAL%20SPPC/COMICS/COMIC8.pdf</a>
<br><br>
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