Peru putting human rights at risk, groups say

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Peru putting human rights at risk, groups say
By Jean Luis Arce and Terry Wade
REUTERS

11:29 a.m. May 5, 2008

LIMA – President Alan Garcia is jeopardizing Peru's human rights gains in his drive to turn the economy into a regional powerhouse through free-market reforms, activists say.
Garcia recently issued a decree that will make it easier to use the military to arrest protesters. He also called a respected human rights activist a traitor for saying the government was using the threat of terrorism to clamp down on protests.

The actions have angered many in a country still haunted by a 1980-2000 civil war that killed nearly 70,000 people, when leftist insurgents and the government were accused of atrocities.
“What we are most worried about is how to respond to the government's excessive use of force, which limits social movements and protests,” said Francisco Soberon, a director of the prominent human rights organization Aprodeh, a target of Garcia's criticism.

At least 13 people have died in protests suppressed by police since Garcia took office in 2006.

Garcia's administration, which is trying to lure billions in foreign investment, frequently labels anybody seen getting in its way as terrorists – lumping together groups as diverse as environmentalists, union leaders and drug traffickers.




Read more: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080505-1129-peru-humanrights-.html

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Alan Garcia and his American friend.

[Peace Patriot]

1. Telling photos!

Alan Garcia seems to act out the relationship of client politicians to the Bush Cartel--puppets on a string!

[saigon68]

2. Another Puppet of the NEOCONS like Karzai (mayor of Kabul)

[Judi Lynn]

3. Editor of weekly forced into hiding after death threat

6 May 2008

Editor of weekly forced into hiding after death threat

Reporters Without Borders today voiced concern about the plight of Paul Garay, editor of the weekly Del Pueblo and contributor to Radio Stereo 92.9 in Pucallpa, Ucayali department in eastern Peru, who was forced into hiding at the end of April after death threats and a kidnap attempt.

The journalist, who is thinking of leaving the country altogether, believes the mayor of Pucallpa, already suspected of involvement in the murder of a journalist in 2004, and a former president of the Ucayali regional government are behind attempts to intimidate him.
(snip)

Garay began receiving threats after he wrote an article that was published on 1st April 2008, exposing a real estate fraud to the benefit of Edwin Vásquez López, former president of Ucayali department. On the same day, men in the pay of the former regional official turned up at the editor’s home.

“I was physically assaulted during a kidnap attempt carried out by henchmen working for the regional ex-president, Edwin Vásquez López, currently under investigation for deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon,” Garay told Reporters Without Borders. Since then he has been tracked down on several occasions by unidentified men. “They wanted to snatch me, to kill me, there is no other possible explanation and the police have not been able to help me,” he said. “We are living in a no man’s land; it’s every man for himself.”

More:
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=26881