The Peru Free Trade Agreement kills indigenous people and hurts the environment. Ever think maybe they don’t want or need our crap in the Amazon rain forest?
US-Peru FTA Sparks Indigenous Massacre
from truthout.org
During the last week, deep in the Peruvian Amazon, confrontations between nonviolent indigenous protesters and police have left up to 100 people dead. The vast majority of the casualties are civilians, who have been conducting peaceful demonstrations in defense of the Amazon rain forest.
For almost two months, as many as 30,000 indigenous people have been blocking road and river traffic, demanding the repeal of presidential decrees issued last year to facilitate implementation of the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement. According to the indigenous leaders, several of these decrees directly threaten indigenous territories and rights. After having attempted several times to negotiate with the government the repeal of the most egregious of the decrees, and faced with a permanent influx of extraction equipment into the region, the people decided it was imperative to "put their bodies in front of the machines" in order to prevent this equipment from entering their territory.
On Friday, June 5, the government decided the protests needed to end and launched an aggressive assault against the people protesting on the road outside of Bagua. The dislocation was conducted from helicopters and the ground, with police and army using automatic weapons and heavy equipment against people armed with only rocks and spears. As videos, photos and testimonies from the region slowly emerge, it is clear that this was designed to inflict as many civilian casualties as possible, and deter those in other regions from continuing protests. Pictures circulating on the Internet depict snipers in uniform firing at protesters from the streets, tanks and from on top of buildings. On Saturday, in Lima, Peru's capital, a large spontaneous demonstration in support of the Amazonian indigenous was broken up by police.
In the wake of what appears to be a massacre perpetrated by the police, the government of President Alan Garcia is mounting a massive propaganda campaign, claiming that indigenous protesters attacked the police, and accusing them of being terrorists. Human rights lawyers have accused Peru's government of a cover-up, and have been impeded from getting in to investigate more fully. The Bishop's Vicariate for the Environment for Jaen, Nicanor Alvarado, said "The main problem is that injured and deceased civilians are being transferred to the "El Milagro" military base ... so, it's possible that a group of injured and deceased people are disappeared later on."
Credible accusations are emerging that the police are systematically disappearing civilian bodies by burning or throwing then in rivers. Right now, people in the region are preparing lists of those missing to document the large number of civilians disappeared. Amnesty International has issued a warning expressing concern for the scores of demonstrators who were detained last weekend.
Continue reading
http://www.truthout.org/061109B
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2009/06/105777.shtml
REPEAL THE PERU FREE TRADE AGREEMENT
ACTIVISTS CHAINED THEMSELVES TO DOORS OF CHUCK SCHUMER'S OFFICE BUILDING IN PROTEST OF HIS VOTE FOR THE PERU FREE TRADE AGREEMENT
A One World Order, and happiness for All, unless you disagree, then you are not needed.
The United States - Peru Trade Promotion Agreement was signed on April 12, 2006. Eighty percent of U.S. exports of consumer and industrial goods to Peru and more than two-thirds of current U.S. farm exports to Peru will be duty-free immediately upon entry into force of the Agreement. This comprehensive free trade agreement will eliminate other barriers to goods and services, promote economic growth, and expand trade between the two countries.
http://www.ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/peru-tpa/final-text
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