Peru: Indigenous Groups Block Roads in Amazon

By Larry Habegger | Permalink | No Comments | June 10th, 2009 | Trackback

Indigenous Aguaruna tribal members and heavily-armed Peruvian police battled over a blockaded road in the Amazon basin June 5, with 23 officers and as many as 30 Aguaruna killed. The Aguaruna have blocked the highway linking the jungle cities of Tarapoto and Yurimaguas since April, protesting the government’s granting of oil leases on what they consider their communal land. The violence prompted other indigenous and labor groups to call a general strike for June 11 to demand the government revoke laws that promote natural resource extraction on traditional indigenous lands. On June 10 Congress voted to suspend two of these decrees, a move seen as a compromise to make negotiations possible.

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