Solidarity with Amazonian Peoples!
Demonstration and information picket in front of the Peruvian Embassy.
Come out to demonstrate in order to keep international attention focused on Peru! Help make sure that the government of Peru responds to the demands that are being made by Amazonian Indigenous communities!
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Peruvian Embassy, Ottawa
130 Albert, between O’Connor and Metcalfe
Indigenous Peoples’ Solidarity Movement –Ottawa
ipsmo@riseup.net, http://ipsmo.wordpress.com <http://ipsmo.wordpress.com/>
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Indigenous led protests against new “Free Trade” agreements in Peru have been met with brutal violence by the Peruvian government. The Peruvian police and military murdered up to 100 protesters on June 5/6 2009, and are continuing to terrorize people under a declared 'State of Emergency' while
blaming the protesters for the violence. The Peruvian government considers the profits made from exploiting logging, mining, oil and agroindustry more important than the lives of protesters and indigenous peoples.
If we are serious about safeguarding the human rights of the Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples of the Amazon, we need to act now. The violent repression of Indigenous protests and the loss of civil liberties must come to an end. If we want to protect and preserve the Amazon, and its bio-cultural diversity, especially in the face of climate change, there is
no better protection than keeping it under the control of those who have maintained it forever. The free trade laws that open up the Amazon to logging, mining, oil and agroindustry must be suspended. Indigenous Peoples' rights - to self-determination, to their lands and resources, to their lives
- must be protected and guaranteed. If we are to stop other atrocities and bloodshed, the battle line must be withdrawn, immediately, and there must be dialogue.
Last Thursday, the Peruvian Congress issued a 90-day suspension of two divisive decrees - 1090 and 1064 in order to restore the dialogue. However, the Indigenous peoples are seeking revocation of all 10 decrees – the Free Trade Laws.
AIDESEP is the Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana (Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle), represents 1,350 communities comprising some 600,000 Amazon Indians. The group’s leader, Alberto Pizango, has been forced to take refuge in the
Nicaraguan embassy and is charged with sedition by the Peruvian government.
AIDESEP was not invited to participate in the restored dialogue. The acting director of AIDESEP, Daisy Zapata Fasabi called this dialogue proposal is anti-democratic, policy of dividing the Indigenous movement.
It is essential to understand that this is not an “indigenous issue” or a “Peruvian” issue; this is a global issue; this is “our” issue in the north. Since the 1980s and 1990s, the governments of the USA and Canada -- along
with our “development” institutions (from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Inter-American Development Bank, to our “aid” agencies [US-AID, CIDA]) -- have been pushing for and insisting on the “free trade”
trade model of development / exploitation, on the signing of “free trade” agreements. Canada signed a “free trade” agreement with Peru on May 29, 2008, and on June 3, 2009, Bill C-24 was passed in the House of Commons to
implement this agreement. The Peruvian government has also signed “free trade” agreements with the United States, the European Union, Chile, and China, all of which endanger indigenous territorial rights and Amazonian biodiversity.
