Peru Suspends Decree That Fueled Amazon Violence

compiled from reports by Agence France Presse, Indymedia, and Democracy Now!
Peruvian lawmakers suspended one of several controversial laws that eased restrictions on lumber harvesting in the Amazon rain forest, days after it sparked clashes between police and indigenous protesters, killing dozens of people.

The legislature agreed by a 59 to 49 vote to suspend Decree 1090 -- dubbed the "Law of the Jungle" -- that covers forestry and fauna in Peru's northeastern Amazon rain forest, said Javier Velasquez, the head of Peru's single-chamber Congress.

Ten decrees opening indigenous lands to resource extraction are vehemently opposed by the approximately half-million Indians of 65 ethnic groups who live there. They see the development of the jungle as an assault on their way of life and have been holding protests since April across the region. The decrees were issued in 2007 and 2008 by Peruvian president Alan Garcia to bring Peruvian regulations in synch with conditions imposed by the US-Peruvian Free Trade Act.

The Amazon protest peaked Friday and Saturday when some 400 police officers moved in to clear protesters blocking a highway near the northern city of Bagua. Protesters fought back. According to Indymedia, a raid by police to free 38 police hostages taken by protesters resulted in the deaths of nine of the hostages. (AFP reports that the hostages were killed by the protestors). Subsequent reports on Indymedia say that as many as 84 protesters have been killed, with another 150 arrested.

The decrees were originally to be suspended for 90 days, but in the final vote legislators agreed on an indefinite suspension "to negotiate without pressure," said Aurelio Pastor, a legislator with
President Alan Garcia's APRA party.

Angry legislators with the opposition Nationalist Party (PNP) called for the decrees to be overturned, and waved signs as they held a protest in the chamber after the vote.

"No to transnational (corporations) in the Amazon," read one sign. "The land and water are not for sale," read another.

The vote suspending the decree is seen as a compromise allowing the government to resume talks with the protesting indigenous groups who have been blocking key regional highways, said spokesmen for legislators that voted for the measure.

The vote also comes on the eve of a strike called by the country's powerful leftist labor umbrella group, the General Confederation of Workers of Peru (CGTP). Other protest marches, including those held by indigenous protesters in Amazon cities and towns, are planned in Peru's main cities.

Internationally, groups supporting the protesters are calling for solidarity protests at Peruvian consulates and embassies and revocation of the Peru FTA. Amazon Watch asks individuals to send protest emails to key people in the Peruvian government through this link: http://amazonwatch.org/peru-action-alert.php

Meanwhile some 3,000 Indians from 25 ethnic groups continue to block a key Amazon highway linking the cities of Tarapoto and Yurimaguas, some 700 kilometers (435 miles) north of Lima.

"We want an immediate derogation of those laws," said Segundo Pizango, an apu -- indigenous leader -- at a roadblock near Yurimaguas.

The repercussions of the violence have rocked the government, with Women's Affairs Minister Carmen Vildoso resigning Monday in protest over the government's crackdown, and Prime Minister Yehude Simon planning to resign at a future date when protests ease.

The crisis even extended its reach to foreign affairs after Nicaragua granted political asylum to Alberto Pizango, the main indigenous protest leader, who earlier took refuge in Managua's
embassy in Lima. The Garcia administration has issued an arrest warrant for Pizango on charges of sedition, conspiracy and rebellion.

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CLINTON ON TRADE: I'M AS AWFUL AS OBAMA...

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?bid=45&pid=250121

Hillary Clinton had a chance to do one of two things on the Peru Free Trade Agreement.

She could announce her opposition to the proposal and score the remarkable political coup of trumping both Barack Obama and John Edwards of an important issue for grassroots Democrats -- thus all but assuring her front-runner status as the race toward the first presidential caucuses and primaries accelerates.

Or she could do what Wall Street demanded.

Clinton went with Wall Street. On the same day that a majority of House Democrats voted against the Peru FTA, the senator from New York endorsed the current economic-policy priority of the Bush administration.

In so doing, Clinton confirmed that the only thing more important to her than securing her lead in the race for the Democratic nod is keeping the likely financiers of her fall campaign happy.

In so doing, Clinton joined Illinois Senator Obama in supporting the trade deal.

That means that, among the top contenders in the Democratic contest, only former North Carolina John Edwards is standing with the majority of congressional Democrats in opposition to the Bush administration's free-trade agenda.

Had Clinton joined Edwards in opposing the Peru FTA, she would have stolen the spotlight from the candidate with whom she is competing for labor support while at the same time identifying herself as more attuned to the concerns of working Americans than Obama.

It would have been a political masterstroke.

But Clinton's far enough ahead in the polls so that she feels she can dismiss Democratic voters. And, of course, she's betting that she'll collect enough campaign money from investment bankers and multinational corporation CEOs to buy the advertising that will allow her to buy down the concerns of soon-to-be-unemployed factory workers and soon-to-be-landless farmers.

Posted by John Nichols at 11/08/2007 @ 9:01pm

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Dismay Over Peru Free Trade Act Approval By House

Another Trade Pact Brought into the Coalition of the Willing
Campaigners Express their Dismay over the Passing of the Peru FTA

Contact: Tom Loudon, Executive Director, Alliance for Responsible Trade (301) 204-9549
November 8, 2007

Washington, DC — The Administration succeeded again today at building its “coalition of the willing” on free trade, with the House passing the Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by a 285 to 132 margin. While voters last year expressed widespread opposition to expanding the free trade model, the Democratic leadership has handed President Bush another resounding victory. The vote was one more indication that the shift in control of Congress has not resulted in the major overhaul that is needed in the U.S. approach to globalization.

“The people of Peru have suffered yet another attack on their national sovereignty today, delivered courtesy of the Democratic leadership,” said Tom Loudon of the Quixote Center. “This ‘agreement’ has passed in spite of scores of studies and reports which have clearly demonstrated the multiple negative effects of trade liberalization on agriculture, workers rights, access to medicines, and social security,” he said.

During the debate last night, Congress members repeated the stale rhetoric about finally leveling the playing field with Peru—a country where half the population earns the minimum wage of $3.60 a day.

“The only level playing field being established is one for multinational corporations,” said George Naylor, an Iowa corn and soybean farmer and president of the National Family Farm Coalition. "There is no excuse for Congress to support one more free trade agreement given the very apparent record of free trade displacing rural people and farmers from their communities while only benefiting multinational corporations that export and process cheap agricultural commodities.”

With only 3% of Peruvian farmers exporting their products, it's very likely that hundreds of thousands of Peruvian small farmers will lose their markets and be forced to make difficult choices to provide for their families. Some of these options include migrating to already impoverished Peruvian cities, heading North to the U.S., or growing illicit crops for drug trafficking.

“Free trade agreements that fail to address economic disparities within and between trading partners will continue to displace people and increase migration,” says Hector E. Sanchez of Global Exchange.

These trade pacts have brought increased U.S. trade deficits with FTA countries, the loss of manufacturing jobs, and erosion of democratic process and sovereignty.

"There is considerable irony in Congress voting on the Peru FTA a day after President Bush promised to veto the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Americans who lose their jobs to trade,” said Jim Mays of the NYC People's Referendum on Free Trade.

The very process of democracy is at stake with the way these trade deals are negotiated and pushed through legislative processes without an opportunity to amend the deal.

“Not only was Peruvian President Garcia reelected on a platform to renegotiate the FTA, but this FTA was approved by a lame-duck Peruvian Congress in an overnight session with eighty percent of the members having lost their seats in the elections,” said Carlos Quiroz of the Peruvian Americans for Fair Trade.

The presidential decrees issued by Garcia to improve labor rights and comply with the new labor standards embedded in the trade deal are insufficient because labor laws will not be changed through legislation, thereby not guaranteeing effective enforcement.

“On the U.S. side, President Bush will be the enforcer, which is ironic given his track record in overturning our nation’s labor and environmental laws,” said Hilda Gutierrez of the Student Trade Justice Campaign.

“Seventy-five percent of Peruvian workers are in the informal sector and many of the remaining twenty-five percent work for private employment contracting agencies that are not obligated to enforce labor rights,” said Quiroz.

Most Peruvians are of Indigenous and Afro descendant heritage. About 73 percent in Indigenous communities live below the poverty line.

“This trade pact opens the way for large pharmaceutical and agribusiness corporations to patent traditional knowledge, seeds, and life forms,” says Jessica Walker Beaumont of the American Friends Service Committee. “This opens the door to bio-piracy of the Andean-Amazon region and threatens the ecological, medicinal and cultural heritage of indigenous peoples”.

“This FTA is essentially the same failed NAFTA model,” said Laurie King with Portland Jobs with Justice Globalization Committee. “The changes inserted have been aptly characterized as ‘putting lipstick on a pig’,” she said.

“By pushing for the passage of the Peru FTA, the Democratic leadership has sent a clear message that Wall Street matters more than the livelihoods of America's workers and family farmers,” said Christine Ahn of Korean Americans For Fair Trade Despite. “All we can do is watch from the sidelines a broken democratic system that enables corporations to profit off the backs of hard working people.”

Top Bush officials and several lawmakers had argued that a rejection of the Peru deal would be a victory for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has been critical of the U.S. approach to trade policy. According to Sarah Anderson, Director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, “Playing the ‘Chavez card’ is an insult to all the Americans and Peruvians who have legitimate concerns about the impacts of free trade on their lives. We deserve a debate on the real issues – not tales of false bogeymen.”

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