Numerous social, labor, women and human rights organizations will mobilize across Peru to condemn the brutal police action ordered by the government to clear out the northeastern highway where five thousand indigenous people were protesting against several “anti-constitutional and anti-Amazon” legislative decrees.

On Thursday, June 11, mobilizations and regional strikes will be staged throughout Peru, in response to a call by the Front for the Defense of Life and National Sovereignty, formed only days ago by trade unions, social organizations and political parties to channel citizen protests against the massacre perpetrated on June 5, which left 24 police officers and at least 9 indigenous persons dead, according to official reports.

Father Casinaldo Ramos, of the Archdioceses of Chachapoyas, told Radio Programas Peruanos, a Peruvian radio broadcaster, that the prosecutor’s office had informed them of the existence of an open grave containing bodies of Amazon dwellers. “The exact number of bodies is unknown,” he said.

Shuar Velásquez Ruiz, coordinator of the Indigenous Student Movement, denounced that bodies of murdered indigenous people had been dumped into the Marañón river and that the actual number of dead was above 50, “but that military and police forces were covering up what happened.”

In its efforts to silence all noncompliant media, the government has turned on La Voz, a radio station that covered the protests of the Amazon people, and is said to have cancelled the broadcasting licenses of another two stations, according to Carlos Flores, National Radio Coordinator (CNR) correspondent in the province of Utcubamba (Bagua).

Flores said that the number of indigenous people dead had not yet been determined, and that at the time of his news report only eleven bodies had been identified, although there were many still unverified reports pointing to the existence of more bodies in areas near the site of the incident.

Immediate response

Following the police action, various social and labor organizations responded immediately, taking to the streets of Lima on Friday, June 5, and marching to the Defense Ministry to protest against the government’s violent repression in northeastern Peru.

“The cry of the people will not be silenced; the rainforest is not for sale, we must defend the rainforest; the people know it and they’re right; the APRA administration is a government of hunger and repression,” hundreds of demonstrators exclaimed as they marched through the streets of Lima to voice their protest.

Among those heading the mobilization was Rosilda, a leader of the Shipiba people who organizes the Indigenous Women’s Program of the Peruvian Rainforest Interethnic Development Association (AIDESP). Rosilda told Sirel that the mobilization “is in rejection of the criminalization of our indigenous brothers and sisters by the government of Alan García. We’re not going to stand by as our brothers and sisters are treated like criminals.”

The AIDESP leader deplored “the attitude of the media, with its biased coverage of the Amazon conflict,” and denounced that many indigenous people cannot recover the bodies of their slain relatives. “Nobody speaks of these victims, only of the fallen police officers. We don’t exist, even though we’re all Peruvian,” she said.

Juan José Gorriti, of the General Confederation of Workers of Peru (CGTP), told Sirel that he was participating in the mobilization “in defense of Amazonia and in repudiation of the violence against indigenous people who are only demanding that their rights be respected. The government has resorted to weapons because it serves the interests of imperialism and the large transnational corporations, and in its obstinate determination to give away our natural resources, it refuses to accept the demands of the people.

We’re going to continue mobilizing, and call national strikes until the government heeds the demands of our Amazon brothers and sisters. They’re defending themselves and sacrificing their lives, and we can’t just stand by and do nothing,” Gorriti said.

Américo, leader of the Nueva Andoas native community, in the lower rainforest region of Loreto, is mistrustful of the State and the central government because for the past 40 years his community has been “affected by the oil prospecting operations of the Pluspetrol company, which has been contaminating our land and our rivers. Now we’re forced to cross the border into Ecuador to fish, because there are no fish left in our territory,” he said.

While denouncing that the police was not releasing the bodies of dead protesters to their families, Lourdes Huanca, president of the Federation of Peasant, Crafts, Native and Working Women of Peru (FEMUCARINAP), said that she “had taken to the streets in solidarity with our brothers and sisters of Amazonia [because] this genocidal government is slaughtering them like animals.”

“We know of around 26 native brothers who have been killed, as well as 24 police officers, and we deplore all deaths, but the only one responsible for them is the government, who refuses to repeal the decrees that threaten the sovereignty of the Amazon peoples.”

Soledad Lozano, of the Association of Teachers of Peru, said she participated in the mobilization “to protest against the massacre that the Amazon community has fallen victim of, and to express our rejection of the authoritarian and repressive attitude of the government, which refuses to find a solution through dialogue.”

The socialist and feminist movement was also at the mobilization, “to show their profound indignation, because we need to help our society recover their memory, help it remember that this is not the first time the government kills, treats the people with disdain and acts with absolute impunity, showing its total lack of democratic capacity to solve conflicts,” María Isabel Cedano, a member of the movement, said.

A relentless struggle

While indigenous peoples have been fighting to defend Amazonia for a long time, in August 2008 they stepped up their struggle after parliament enacted several decrees considered harmful to the interests of the people and the rainforest. Following an indefinite strike, they were able to overturn two of the decrees, which threatened their lands and the structure of their communities.

At that time, Congress agreed to form a committee to assess the other decrees, but then failed to meet its promise. Instead it suspended the debate and enacted the Water Resources Act (Law No. 29,338), which calls into question the priority of using water for agriculture. This law, some analysts suggest, paves the way for the privatization of water management, which would benefit oil, mining and logging companies.

The unconstitutionality of the decrees

After examining Legislative Decree 1064, the Office of the Ombudsperson concluded that it undermines indigenous peoples’ rights to cultural identity, collective ownership of their land and prior consultation, guaranteed under the country’s Constitution and Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), and it filed an unconstitutionality action with the competent court.

The legislative decrees that are considered unconstitutional by indigenous groups are Decree 994, promoting private investment in Irrigation Projects for the Expansion of the Agricultural Frontier; Decree 995, amending the Agricultural Bank Reestablishment Act (Law No. 29,064); and Decree 1020, promoting the organization of agriculture producers and the consolidation of rural properties for agricultural credits.

They also question Decree 1060, regulating the national agricultural innovation system; Decree 1063, enacting the law for state acquisitions through commodity exchanges; Decree 1081, creating the national water resources system; Decree 1083, promoting the efficient use and conservation of water resources; and Decree 1089, establishing an extraordinary temporary regime for formalizing and granting rural land ownership deeds.

It’s not over

Addressing National Congress, Prime Minister Yehude Simon said that he felt responsible for the death of the 24 police officers in Bagua, as the police action was ordered without the use “mortal weapons.”

However, photographs disclosed after the incident by journalists and human rights bodies contradict his statements, as they reveal bodies of indigenous people with bullet wounds.

The indigenous groups said that they were willing to risk their lives in this struggle, and that they tried to negotiate but did not receive the response they hoped for. Today, three days after the massacre, Prime Minister Yehude Simon and Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas are insisting on twisting the truth in their statements to Congress, presenting the Amazon people as ignorant and manipulated savages.

President Alan García has joined this media campaign against the Amazon people, stating to the press that “behind the protests there are international interests that are seeking to block Peru’s development, and there is also much misinformation.”