Good News for Peru's Indigenous Peoples

Good news for the indigenous people of Peru. After two months of blockades and dozens of deaths in clashes between police and protests, the Peruvian Congress repealed two decrees yesterday that would have opened up large tracts of indigenous lands in the Amazon rain forest to oil, mining, forestry and dams.

The decrees were pushed through by the Alan Garcia government last year to conform the country’s laws with the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement. But in a radical change of discourse, Peru President Garcia publicly admitted this week that his government made “a series of errors and exaggerations” in their conflict with indigenous communities, which make up about 45 percent of Peru’s 29 million population.

Indigenous leaders are calling this historic, and have put an end to their protests. Nevertheless, protests could renew at some point if 10 other decrees in contention are also not repealed

In addition to the fierce protests across Peru, organizers from the California-based Amazon Watch credit the victory to protests at Peruvian embassies and consulates around the world, thousands of letters sent to Peruvian and U.S. officials and the condemnation of Peru’s actions voiced by international human rights organizations and celebrities such as actor Benjamin Bratt (who is part-Peruvian) and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Rigoberta Menchu, an indigenous leader in Guatemala.

But Amazon Watch, while applauding the move by Peru, says they are skeptical that the indigenous inhabitants of the Amazon are yet safe. Since 2006, for example, the group says Garcia government has already approved oil and gas projects that extend over 70 percent of the Amazon region of Peru.

Photo courtesy of Amazon Watch.