An Uprising Grows in Peru

In solidarity with ongoing protests by indigenous groups, Peruvian labor unions will hold a nationwide, general strike today. At issue are new laws decreed by President Alan Garcia's government to comply with the country's obligations in the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement that indigenous leaders say will speed the development of oil, gas and other resource extractive projects on indigenous lands, threatening their way of life. Peruvian unions support indigenous demands, and are against the trade deal, in part because they fear farmers and small businesses will be driven out of work by cheaper imports.

Since April 9, an estimated 30,000 indigenous people have been blockading roads, waterways and railroads in protest. Dozens have been killed in recent Amazon jungle clashes with the police in Peru, where roughly 45 percent of the population is identified as indigenous. "We don't get anything from this huge exploitation, which also poisons us. We've never seen any development and my community lives in poverty," an Aguaruna Indian leader told The Associated Press.

Indigenous uprisings in South America have become a more frequent and successful event over the past decade. Since 2000, movements to safeguard ancestral lands and native rights have been instrumental in toppling four presidents in Ecuador and Bolivia. In Bolivia, indigenous protests have especially transformed the balance of the power, taking a big step toward reversing centuries of racism when, in 2006, Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian, became that country's first full-blooded indigenous president.

Peru's most important indigenous figure, Alberto Pizango, who heads the human rights group AIDESEP, the main organizer of the indigenous protests, was granted asylum this week in the Nicaraguan Embassy to escape government charges of sedition that would result in up to 35 years in jail. Pizango has referred to the violent clashes last week that left at least 30 indigenous people dead as "the slaughter of my people."

The California-based group Amazon Watch has set up an Emergency Fund to help the indigenous with medical, legal and other support.