Bagua, Peru: A Year After

[Derechos]

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After the violence, instead of slowing down, the García-led extraction of natural resources has only accelerated, provoking at least 132 community conflicts with extractive industry projects throughout the country. Many participants in the forum from the Andean regions brought tales of frustration of how their communities have been or will potentially be affected by large multinational mining and hydroelectric projects, as well as the persecution they encountered after organizing in opposition.

As of December 31, 2009, hydrocarbon extractive companies have obtained 52 concessions from the federal government for oil and gas exploration and exploitation totaling 322,000 square kilometers of the Peruvian Amazon, which covers 41.2% of the entire area. This is up from 7.1% in 2003. The concessions region includes 17% of Peru’s protected areas and more than half of all lands previously titled to indigenous communities, all authorized without their prior and informed consent despite the fact that that right has been in effect in that country since 1995 when Peru signed Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization. One of the notable concessions is the gold mining project Afrodita of Canadian-owned Dorator Resources Inc. It is located in El Cenepa of the Cordillera del Cóndor, which is home to the national park Ichigkat Muja and the Awajún and Wampis indigenous peoples.

By all accounts this is just the beginning. The García administration is moving full-speed ahead with plans to open 25 new lots for oil and gas drilling, primarily in the Amazon region, which will mean $1.25 billion dollars in potential future investment. García is traveling to the United States, France, Spain, and England to drum up interest in their sale.

The criminalization of protest continues unabated as well. Magdiel Carrión, Vice-President of the National Confederation of Peruvian Communities Effected by Mining (CONACAMI), has had 15 criminal charges filed against him since 2007 for his efforts to organize the mountain communities of the northern coastal Department of Piura against several mining operations. Carrión is just one of more than 1500 social leaders facing criminal charges for their activism, 600 of whom are indigenous.

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The Consultation Law

One bright spot in the year since Bagua was the passage of the consultation law on May 19 in the Peruvian Congress. Although indigenous leaders recognized the text of the bill had problems, they still celebrated the bill’s requirement of community participation in all concessionary decisions as a step that could move Peru towards a more democratic and inclusive decision-making process in terms of its development policies.

This bill, predictably, faced stiff opposition from the business community as well as members of former President Alberto Fujimori’s party and their voting block partners, the National Unity Party, both who voted against it in Congress.

Although congressional members of the President’s APRA party usually vote with these other two parties in what is known as the “official alliance,” this time they broke with them and supported the bill. The decisive factor for this break was likely U.S. pressure on the García administration to get something passed in order to lower the international criticism stemming from all the social conflicts associated with Peru’s Free Trade Agreement with the United States.

Perro Hortelano Syndrome Continues

Now the consultation law is seemingly being undermined by the García administration. On June 21, the last day for the president to act on the proposed legislation, García returned the bill to the legislative body with observations for changes. Indigenous rights leaders believe the bill was returned in an attempt to postpone the proposed legislation giving the administration time to sell the 25 new lots for oil and gas drilling prior to the law going into effect. The new lots would therefore not fall under the proposed jurisdiction of the consultation law due to a provision barring its retroactive application.

Although the congressional session officially ends June 25, attempts to address the observations prior to the closing of the session failed when the Commission on Andean Peoples, one of the two commissions in charge of developing the consultation law, met to debate the observations on June 23 but failed to attract enough members to achieve a quorum, and the Constitution Commission, the second commission, didn’t even meet. As a result, Congress will not debate this until mid-August when the new legislative session is scheduled to start.


https://nacla.org/node/6622

[Judi Lynn]

1. Thanks for this look at what's happening there. How wrong it is when those who protest murder,

the slaughter of innocents, protest driving helpless people from their only homes they've ever known get labeled as the "criminals," while the pompous, utterly dishonest Alan Garcia who sent murderers out to destroy them, and the men who did it are accepted with admiration by the racist oligarchy which has maintained control of Peru far, far too long.

The people of Peru deserve a CLEAN President, and some CLEAN laws in their own country at long last. The next election can't come nearly fast enough.

Thank you for the information there's something going on with this new proposed law.