Free Trade Exposes its Ugly, Brutal Face In Peru - "Stand Against the Savages!" they say

Yesterday my familia and friends in Peru emailed me about the massacres of indigenous protestors in the Amazonas who are defending their lands from big oil companies.

"Dozens of people are estimated to have been killed in clashes between police and indigenous activists protesting oil and mining projects in the northern Peruvian Amazonian province of Bagua...troops are patrolling towns in the Amazon jungle. Authorities say up to twenty-two policemen have been killed...The indigenous community says at least forty people, including three children, were killed by the police this weekend," explains Amy Goodman on a TV Report from Democracy Now (a must see).

I was told  that the indigenous people had "tortured, gutted, and violently killed the police men they had captured the day before, slicing their necks and in at least one case cutting their eyeballs out." You can also read about this in some of the Peruvian papers, such as El Comercio.

These accounts were not mentioned neither in the NY Times article, nor the BBC one, and so its validity is in question. (Of course the framing for both articles is centered on the police and not on the protestors themselves, also victims of violence) It seems that this piece of the story is either made up or being exagerrated to readers into a general sentiment heading in the direction of "Those Savages Must Be Stopped!" In other words, the "savagery" is described as being perpetrated by the indigenous people, when in actuality, it is the Peruvian military that is committing the "savagery,", with their guns, tear gas, and tanks; backed by big oil and logging companies, and by the "free-trade-loving" president Alan Garcia himself. Not to mention how "savagely" the Amazon land is being destroyed day by day by the oil profiteers, nor how these companies are destroying the bio diversity of one of the most important regions for planet earth.

This type of fear mongering is to be expected when you are the president of a country that just signed Free Trade Agreements with China and Canada. He even went as far to call the resisters "terrorits." Ben Powless, a Mohawk from Six Nations in Ontario and blogger with Rabble.ca, writes:

"Garcia declared the Indigenous elements to be standing in the way of progress, in the path of national development, wrenches in the gears of modernity, and part of an international conspiracy to keep Peru down. In a troubling statement on the resemblance of the Indigenous protestors to the infamous Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) armed insurrection, Garcia seemed to imply the Natives were a band of terrorists as he stood in front of hundreds of military officers in a nationally televised speech. He continued to decry the Indian barbarity and savagery, and called for all police and military to stand against savagery.

We can expect Garcia to bring on the iron fist, to attempt to suppress and squash this uprising. One of the first rules in war is to dehumanize your enemy in order to facilitate their killing. Its more acceptable to murder a "savage" than it is to murder a person fighting to protect Mother Earth.

We, who are living in the United States, have a major role to play in what is happening to our people down South. Our society benefits immensely from "free trade", and lets not forget, it was Democratic President, Bill Clinton, that put NAFTA into effect back in 1993. We have to stand up to the profiteers, to the multi-national corporations, and demand, "No Globalization without Representation!" Bloguera, La Mancha, of Vivir Latino writes:

"Being in the U.S. affords me certain privileges, namely allowing me to be unaware of how laws of the U.S. affect citizens in other countries. I knew on some level what the fighting in Peru was about (corporate versus indigenous nations versus Peruvian government), but of course, the role of the U.S. is so hidden from people in the U.S., we don’t see it until we are told."....read more

I will be developing a solidarity poster to support the fight of the indigenouse people in Peru, the defenders of PachaMama. You can learn more about this issue by visiting Amazon Watch. Lets apply international pressure needed to stop the mining and killing of indigenous people. 

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