TELL U.S. CONGRESS TO OPPOSE THE PERU FREE TRADE AGREEMENT

From Eyes On Trade blog.

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The Bush administration has begun moving the Peru Free Trade Agreement through Congress. A final vote in the House of Representatives is expected in the first half of October, with the Senate to follow.

Please contact your Representative and Senators immediately to urge them to oppose the Peru Free Trade Agreement.

Labor, environmental, and access to medicines amendments to the Peru FTA under an agreement between House Democrats and the Bush administration represent significant improvements to these important provisions. However, major problems of the NAFTA/CAFTA model replicated in the Peru FTA were not addressed:

• The Peru FTA contains a NAFTA/CAFTA----- foreign investor chapter that promotes off-shoring and subjects our domestic environmental, zoning, health and other public interest policies to challenge directly by foreign investors in foreign tribunals. It allows challenges by foreign investors in foreign tribunals of to challenge timber, mining, construction and other concession contracts with the U.S. federal government, and affords foreign investors greater rights than those enjoyed by U.S. investors.

• The Peru FTA's procurement rules subject many common federal and state procurement policies to challenge in trade tribunals, continue the NAFTA/CAFTA ban on anti-off-shoring and Buy America policies, and expose U.S. renewable energy, recycled content and other requirements to challenge.

• The Peru FTA's agriculture trade rules undermine U.S. producers' ability to earn a fair price for their crops at home and in the global market place. They favor multinational grain trading and food processing companies while farmers on both ends will be hurt. The Peru FTA is projected to increase hunger; illicit drug cultivation; undocumented migration; and continue the race to the bottom for commodity prices, pitting farmer against farmer and country against country to see who can produce food the cheapest, regardless of standards on labor, the environment or food safety.

• While the amended text of the Peru FTA removes the most egregious, CAFTA-based, provisions limiting the access to affordable medicines, it still includes NAFTA----- provisions that undermine the right to affordable medicines for poorer countries.

• The Peru FTA, like NAFTA and CAFTA, still contains language requiring the United States to accept imported food that does not meet our safety standards.

The United States should not adopt any new trade agreements until there is a thorough assessment of the effects of existing FTAs, and until a new model for trade agreements is developed that can ensure future trade agreements minimally do no further harm to working families and the environment. The Peru Free Trade Agreement meets neither of these requirements.

Please tell your Representative and Senators to oppose the Peru Free Trade Agreement.

OPEN LETTER TO

THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS

Dear Members of the U.S. Congress:

We are concerned Peruvian-Americans, immigrant organizations and human rights advocates in the United States. We are writing to express our strong opposition to the Free Trade Agreement with Peru (FTA) and to request its further renegotiation for the following reasons:

LABOR RIGHTS

In August, Peru’s President Alan Garcia agreed to issue presidential decrees to clarify specific labor laws during a congressional visit from U.S. Representatives Rangel and Levin. Yet Peruvian labor leaders argue that this is insufficient because it does not change the labor laws through legislation and will not guarantee effective enforcement. Like many workers in Latin American countries, Peruvians face constant threats to their labor rights. Violations include discrimination against union organizers, illegal firings and forced overtime without pay. Further, the new system of fixed-labor contracts and subcontracting radically undermines workers' rights because it does not guarantee a 44 hour work week or labor standard. Nor will the presidential decrees protect the rights of the majority of people, seventy-five percent, who work in the informal sector. In addition, any of the remaining twenty-five percent work for private employment contracting agencies that are not obligated to enforce labor rights.

A free trade agreement with Peru should not be approved by the U.S. Congress until legislation is passed by Peruvian Congress, which guarantees compliance with ILO standards and guarantees enforcement.

AGRICULTURE, POVERTY & IMMIGRATION

Agriculture is an integral part of Peru's economy with nearly a third of the population depending on this sector for their livelihood. In the FTA, the U.S. demands that Peru renounce its rights under the WTO agreements to apply Special Agricultural Safeguards, designed to protect sensitive sectors. After a thorough analysis of the trade text on agriculture, the Peruvian National Convention on Agriculture (CONVEAGRO) estimated that hundreds of thousands of Peruvian farmers would be negatively affected by the agreement. The U.S. agricultural subsidies constitutes unfair competition for Peruvian agricultural goods and will impoverish the 700,000 producers of cotton, corn, barley, wheat, oilseeds and dairy products in that country. Considering that only 3% of Peruvian farmers export their products, it’s very likely that as hundreds of thousands of Peruvian small farmers lose their markets, they will be pushed into drug production, and to migrate with their families to already impoverished Peruvian cities, or as undocumented immigrants to countries like the U.S.

Even though Peru's economy has been growing continuously in the last 7 years, almost 50% of the population is still living under $2 per day as a result of neo liberal economic policies that are very similar to those promoted by this FTA. According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), close to one fourth of Peruvians live in extreme poverty. People in rural areas are the worst affected; nearly 70 percent of them are extremely poor.

After NAFTA, over 1.3 million small farmers lost their livelihoods in Mexico due to agricultural rules that are nearly identical to those included in the U.S.-Peru FTA. As a result, undocumented immigration from Mexico to the U.S. increased by 61 percent in the years following the implementation of NAFTA, according to Pew Hispanic Center. U.S. policies like NAFTA-style “free trade agreements” influence the economy of Latin America directly. Therefore, solving the problem of undocumented immigration is a shared responsibility, and it must be addressed by a comprehensive immigration reform that includes fair trade legislation and that prevents interest groups from promoting human trafficking, exploitation of workers, broken communities and cheap labor.

CORRUPTION vs. DEMOCRACY

We must remind you that there are pending cases of human rights abuses and corruption involving Garcia’s first government. Garcia was reelected in 2006 on a platform against Toledo’s free trade policies and with a promise to renegotiate the FTA – the agricultural rules in particular. But, once elected, he instead visited Bush to request its approval.

This FTA was passed by Peruvian Congress in 2006 in a lame-duck session with very little public support and ignoring a request for a national referendum. Eighty percent of Peruvian Congress members who voted for this FTA had already lost their seats in the elections that predated the vote.

Meanwhile foreign mining and natural gas corporations are making huge profits in Peru but leave behind underpaid workers, pollution and environmental destruction. The Garcia administration has ignored popular protests and strongly supports extractive industries. The Garcia government has abandoned dozens of towns destroyed by the recent earthquake, even though it has the biggest budget surplus in history. Public protests regarding this matter have been silenced or ignored by the government, including closing down a radio-TV station in the city of Pisco that had been critical of the relief efforts.

We believe that if this FTA is ratified now by the U.S. Congress, it will send a signal to the Garcia government that its current heavy-handed and anti-public interest policies are supported by the U.S. Congress. It will further perpetuate the perception that the U.S. favors the interests of multinationals over protecting human rights and reducing corruption.

INDIGENOUS RIGHTS & THE ENVIRONMENT

Most Peruvians are of Indigenous and Afro descendant heritage. According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the poorest of the poor in Peru are the Indigenous/Native peoples. About 73 percent in Indigenous communities live below the poverty line. This FTA is a threat to indigenous peoples' heritage and way of life, as it allows agribusiness and pharmaceutical corporations to take over their traditional medicine and nutrition knowledge for profit.

Mining, oil and natural gas exploration and extraction projects would increase dramatically with this FTA, leading to extensive damage to the Peruvian environment, especially the Andes mountains region and the Amazon basin, which is the largest virgin forest on the planet. With this FTA, multinational corporations would have the right to sue governments if any attempt to protect the environment would cause the companies to see their profits reduced. In addition, this agreement establishes secret trade tribunals, making trade rules more powerful than democratic institutions and domestic laws.

As a result, entire Indigenous communities could be displaced from their lands and pushed into extermination. These FTA regulations directly contradict the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recently adopted by the United Nations, which includes the rights to protect their land and natural resources.

PUBLIC HEALTH & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Hundreds of thousands of Peruvians will not be able to afford generic medicines because of new patents and data-protection regulations included in this FTA are intended to protect and boost the already outrageous profits of pharmaceutical corporations. This FTA promotes the privatization and deregulation of services such as water, health care and education. At the same time, it protects the interests of multinational corporations benefiting from Peru's bungled privatization of its social security system at the expense of workers, women, children, senior citizens and the chronically ill.

CONCLUSION

We strongly encourage you to reject the Free Trade Agreement with Peru – and ask instead for it’s further renegotiation – because it is not fair for most Americans nor most Peruvians, and because it was negotiated ignoring the voice of the people of both the United States and Peru.

We believe that a free trade agreement with Peru must provide safeguards that will protect vulnerable sectors of Peruvian society, instead of worsening its economic, social and political inequality.

Trade should be used to promote social justice and progress for all, and not just for the benefit of the few rich and powerful. The United States can truly spread democracy and freedom by example, not by imposing economic policies that will increase corruption, poverty and abuse among impoverished nations.

We believe that fair trade is necessary to address poverty and hunger, and to promote economic progress and decent living standards, while respecting the UN Declaration of Human Rights and guaranteeing the protection of our planet.

Respectfully,

PAFT - Peruvian-Americans for Fair Trade
Group of Andean Immigrants in DC
WOLA - Washington Office on Latin America
NNIRR - National Network for Immigrants and Refugee Rights
LULAC - League of United Latin American Citizens
NETWORK – National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
United Methodist Church - General Board of Church and Society
Casa de Maryland, Inc – Immigrants rights advocacy group
Global Exchange – Human rights for social, economic and environmental justice
Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras - Indigenous human/civil rights advocacy group
Global Rights - Human rights advocacy group
Intercontinental Congress of First Nation People of North and South America
Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
KAFT - Korean Americans for Fair Trade
Manuel Zapata Olivella - Center for Immigrants Education and Human Development
AFRODES USA - Association of Displaced Afro Colombians
Mexico & U.S. Solidarity Network - Red Solidaria México & EEUU
Movement for Peace in Colombia - Movimiento por la Paz en Colombia
NYC People’s Referendum on Free Trade
NICANET – The Nicaragua Network
WAQIB´ KEJ - Coordinación y Convergencia Nacional Maya

Washington, DC September 24, 2007

FESTIVAL NACIONAL DEL LIBRO 2007 EN WASHINGTON DC

Hoy sábado 29 de septiembre del 2007, estoy en la Feria Nacional del Libro 2007, que se realiza en el Mall Nacional de Washington, DC. The National Book Festival, es organizado y financiado por la Biblioteca del Congreso de EEUU, que es la biblioteca con la colección más grande del mundo, por cierto. La primera dama de EEUU Laura Bush es la presentadora oficial.

Este evento se realiza anualmente desde el año 2000, y atrae a decenas de miles de lectores. Este año habrá 70 autores, ilustradores y poetas quienes además de leer sus libros, los comentan y firman. Cientos de vendedores exponen estos libros a la venta también.

El “mall nacional” es un parque enorme que empieza en el Monumento a Abraham Lincoln y se extiende al este hasta el edificio del Capitolio, es decir el congreso de EEUU. Alrededor de este parque se ubican los museos más importantes de la ciudad y todos son de acceso gratuito.

El festival está dividido en pabellones: de la Librería del Congreso; de los Estados; de ventas de libros; y el pabellón “América, vamos a leer” intencionado a promover la lectura en estudiantes menores de edad. Las publicaciones están divididas en las siguientes secciones: Infantil; Adolescentes y Niñez; Ficción y Fantasía; Misterio y Terror; Historia y Biografía; Hogar y Familia; y Poesía.

El comunicado de prensa del festival dice:

"Los visitantes pueden hacer que sus libros sean firmados por sus autores favoritos, los menores pueden conocer personajes de cuentos populares y de la TV así como jugadores de las ligas de basketball de hombres y mujeres, quienes estarán presentándose durante el día."

2007 NATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL

Organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, will be held on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 7th and 14th streets from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The festival is free and open to the public.

http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/

Fotos y mapa son del web del NBF

DESCUBREN TRIBU INDIGENA EN PERU / INDIGENOUS TRIBE DISCOVERED IN PERU

La agencia Reuters informa hoy que ecologistas han tomado fotos de una desconocida tribu nativo/indígena rural en Perú, en las orillas del río Las Piedras ubicado en la selva amazónica de Madre de Dios. Este descubrimitento ocurrió mientras ellos volaban encima del parque nacional Alto Purús en la frontera con Brasil, ubicado a 550 millas o 900 Km. al este de Lima.

Este es el articulo de Reuters:

Little-known Indian tribe spotted in Peru's Amazon

By Terry Wade and Marco Aquino

Photo: REUTERS/Handout

LIMA (Reuters) - Ecologists have photographed a little-known nomadic tribe deep in Peru's Amazon, a sighting that could intensify debate about the presence of isolated [indigenous peoples] as oil firms line up to explore the jungle.

Carrying arrows and living in palm-leaf huts on the banks of the Las Piedras river, the tribe was glimpsed last week by researchers flying over the Alto Purus national park near the Brazilian border to look for illegal loggers.

"We saw them by chance. There were three huts and about 21 [native persons] -- children, women and young people," said Ricardo Hon, a forest scientist at the National Institute of Natural Resources.

Hon said an indigenous group using the same kind of huts was seen in the region in the 1980s, and advocacy groups said they appeared to be part of the Mascho Piro tribe.

The sighting of the indigenous group comes as Peru's government is encouraging foreign companies to look for oil in the rainforest.

Environmental and [Indigenous peoples] rights groups firmly oppose the exploration in the remote jungle area about 550 miles (900 km) east of Lima, the South American country's coastal capital.

Indigenous people who have shunned contact with the rest of society are believed to live within some of the dozens of parcels being auctioned across the country for petroleum prospecting, some of them in the Amazon.

"The Peruvian government is actively promoting oil and gas exploration in areas where uncontacted tribes live," said David Hill, a researcher with London-based advocacy group Survival International.

The organization estimates that up to 15 isolated tribes live in Peru, the most after Brazil and Papua in Indonesia.

Peru's state oil company PetroPeru says it considers tribes that shy away from outsiders to be safe as they live in protected reserve areas, which are excluded from petroleum auctions. But its president, Daniel Saba, was criticized earlier this year for saying the notion of hidden tribes was "absurd."

Rights groups say nomadic tribes travel in and out of national parks depending on the season, and encroaching loggers or oil company workers could expose them to deadly diseases. In the past, disease halved many Amazon tribal populations.

Documenting how many isolated groups exist is notoriously difficult because some tribes have hidden deeper in the forest or moved to new locations after brief encounters with outsiders.

"Quite a few groups have probably made a conscious choice to retreat and not build long-term relations with newcomers," said Suzanne Oakdale, an anthropology professor at the University of New Mexico.

"Often, 'uncontacted tribes' means uncontacted by a government institution, but the groups have long and complicated histories with other people," she said.

OTRA RAZON PARA NO APROBAR EL TLC CON EEUU

"Un descubrimiento que aumenta el debate acerca de la presencia de comunidades indígenas aisladas, mientras que las empresas petroleras se alistan para explorar la selva." dice el articulo escrito por Terry Wade y Marco Aquino.

Mapa del parque nacional Alto Purus. World Wide Fund For Nature

Ricardo Hon, un científico peruano dijo que "los vimos de casualidad, habían como 3 chozas y 21 personas, niños, mujeres y jóvenes." Ellos parecen ser miembro de la tribu Mascho Piro que fue vista antes en 1980.

El gobierno de Perú, liderado por el presidente Alan García, sigue promoviendo la exploración de petróleo y gas natural en la región amazónica incluyendo zonas donde viven indígenas en estado de aislamiento. Esto ha sido ratificado por David Hill, un científico que trabaja para el grupo Survival International, de Londres.

Esa organización cree que hay más de 15 tribus aisladas viviendo en la amazonia de Perú, que es el mayor número en el mundo después de Brasil y Papua en Indonesia. Estas poblaciones viven en territorios que están siendo entregados por el gobierno peruano a corporaciones extranjeras.

Daniel Saba es el presidente de PerúPetro, la empresa estatal peruana que se encarga de conceder tierras en concesión para exploración y explotación de petróleo y gas natural, y él ha dicho que la idea de que existan tribus aisladas en la amazonia es “absurda.”

Daniel Saba de Andrea. Foto por PerúPetro

Grupos de ecologistas y de derechos indígenas, se oponen fuertemente a la exploración en la selva remota. Ellos aseguran que la presencia de trabajadores de empresas petroleras expondrá a estas comunidades a enfermedades que causaran su desaparición.

Es difícil saber cuantas tribus aisladas existen en la jungla, pues ellos se ocultan y mudan a otras regiones después de breves encuentros con forasteros.

De aprobarse el TLC entre Perú y EEUU, las empresas extranjeras podrían enjuiciar al estado peruano, si es que alguna norma de protección al medio ambiente y a los pueblos indígenas, pueda ocasionar pérdidas de ganancias de las mismas. Estos juicios se realizarían en tribunales secretos, inmunes al sistema judicial peruano.

RELATED / RELACIONADOS

• US-PERU FTA IS A THREAD TO WORLD'S ECOLOGY: While the world begins to realize that global warming is a more serious matter of which it was believed, and political leaders from rich countries begin to take actions to prevent the destruction of our planet, the authorities of Peru seem to go in the opposite way.
  

• Q'ORIANKA KILCHER HACE DOCUMENTAL SOBRE PERU: Esta es una traducción no autorizada que yo mismo hice de una entrevista a la actriz de cine Q'orianka Kilcher, en la que habla de su visita a Perú ...

MAS VIDEOS DE EVO MORALES EN NYC - ENTREVISTA EN DEMOCRACY NOW!

Democracy Now! entrevistó al presidente boliviano Evo Morales durante la visita del mismo a la ciudad de New York. Amy Goodman y Juan Gonzáles conversaron con el líder indígena por una hora acerca de temas como los derechos de los pueblos nativos/indígenas, la crisis del cambio climático, la invasión de Irak y el impacto en Latino América, el establecimiento de relaciones diplomáticas con Irán, el legado del Che Guevara, la hoja de coca, el uso de combustibles biológicos para reducir las emisiones de carbón, la Escuela de las Américas entre otros temas.

La entrevista ha sido dividida en 4 videos, gracias al usuario Donovan de Youtube.


VIDEO 1
(10:44 minutos) Morales habla acerca de su mensaje este año en las Naciones Unidas, comparándolo con su visita anterior en el 2006, se refiere a los cambios sociales importantes realizados en Bolivia, de los problemas globales del medio ambiente, de la Declaración de los Derechos indígenas aprobado recientemente por la ONU, de Bolivia, del movimiento indígena y los temores de otros grupos raciales, las nacionalidades indígenas bolivianas, etc.


VIDEO 2
(10:27 minutos)



VIDEO 3
(10:13 minutos)


VIDEO 4
(10:28 minutos)


VIDEO 5
(7:35 minutos)


RELACIONADOS:

EVO MORALES @ DAILY SHOW w/ JON STEWART
Listen to what he says and hear the way people welcome him. After all his candidacy to the Peace Nobel Prize seems to be a good idea. Escuchen lo que dice y la forma como lo recibe la gente. Despues de todo su candidatura al Premio Nobel de la Paz parece una buena idea.

CRISIS IN THE SOUTHERN REGION OF PERU
I received this email from a friend, who works for a Christian charity organization. This is an urgent message from one of this organization’s members who lives in Puno, a southern state of Peru right next to the border with Bolivia.

QUE ESTA OCURRIENDO EN BOLIVIA

BOLIVIA NECESITA DE NUESTRA AYUDA

.

EVO MORALES @ DAILY SHOW W/ JON STEWART

Listen to what he says and hear the way people welcome him. After all his candidacy to the Peace Nobel Prize seems to be a good idea.

Escuchen lo que dice y la forma como lo recibe la gente. Despues de todo su candidatura al Premio Nobel de la Paz parece una buena idea.


VIDEO: EVO MORALES - DAILY SHOW (SUBTITULADO)
(8:21 minutes)With subtitles in Spanish, thanks to SentimientoBoliviano.

RELATED:

LA REVANCHA DE EVO MORALES

THE NEW LATIN AMERICAN LEFT

EVO MORALES INICIA REFORMA AGRARIA EN BOLIVIA

VIDEO ON BEING BLACK IN PERU - SER NEGRO EN PERU

I found this video tonight, it is about Afro Peruvians. It has been made by "La Plataforma del Pueblo Afroperuano (The Platform for Afro Peruvian people) in order to create a debate starting with the question: What does it feel like being a black person in Peru? Also it shows Afro Peruvian leaders talking about their demands for equality and the work they do to stop and prevent racism, and to request the implementation of the Durban pact. The video is in Spanish, but I promise to come with the translation into English later on.

Afro Peruvians are commonly hired to carry coffins for the rich in Lima. Photo by Peru.com

Encontré este video esta noche, es acerca de los afroperuanos. Ha sido hecho por "La Plataforma del Pueblo Afroperuano” para crear un debate comenzando con la pregunta: ¿Qué se siente ser negro en Perú? Y mostrando a varios lideres afros peruanos que hablan de sus demandas por igualdad y sus acciones para detener y prevenir el racismo, y para exigir el cumplimiento de los acuerdos de Durban. El video esta en español, haré la traducción al ingles luego.


VIDEO: BEING BLACK IN PERU - SER NEGRO EN PERU
(9:55 minutes)

People interviewed:

Man 1: In Peru being black is like being a funeral worker of luxury, black people carry white people [when] they pay for it... and that makes me angry.

Man 2: No matter the racism and everything, I am proud, thanks to my parents that made me black. I am happy and it’s the best thing I have in my life.

Woman 1: What do I feel? I feel that I have to fight against stereotypes about black people but even that I am proud.

Woman 2: It's nice but it’s a dilemma because in one side I like it but in the other hand since there aren’t many blacks out there, people look at me weird or treat me bad but I like to be a black woman.

Man 3: Well, even though there is discrimination and segregation and all the racism that exists, I am proud of being a black man.

Boy: Well I feel good, I am proud of my race.

Man 4: What do I feel being black? All my life I being a black man, was born black and I believe I am proud. There is discrimination in Peru, yes, there always has been, at least in the environment where I hang out, there is a lot of racism.

Woman 3: Well I think we all are the same, the color of the skin doesn’t matter, people’s feeling and color aren’t related, the sentiments [of a person] is what is important.

Man 5: I am proud of being a black man, here in Peru where racism is so strong but I am proud of my race and my heritage.

Man 6: What does it feel being black? I feel wonderfully good, and even though discrimination exists, but I live that on them [racists] particularly I don’t get offended, I leave it on them.

Woman 4: I don’t feel inferior for being a black woman.

Voice: How do you feel?

Girl: bad.

After presentation:

"Afro Peruvians on their way to Santiago +5"

The racial discrimination in our country is one of the main reasons for the reduction of the quality of life for the Afro Peruvian community. This [social] practice has been important in the shaping of the social system, since it’s based in racial relations whose most notorious expression is the racial prejudice. The same way, [Afro Peruvians] deal with the most severe discrimination from general society and institutions especially, which is the lack of visibility, in other words the Afro Peruvian population is being left out from the process of citizenship identity.

Video continues...

afroperuanos

MORE ORGANIZATIONS JOIN LETTER AGAINST PERU FTA

More organizations supporting an OPEN LETTER TO THE US CONGRESS requesting for the renegotiation of that unfair commercial deal.

As on September 24, 2007 these immigrant, faith-based and human right groups have signed the letter:

* PAFT - Peruvian-Americans for Fair Trade

* Group of Andean Immigrants in DC

* WOLA - Washington Office on Latin America

* NNIRR - National Network for Immigrants and Refugee Rights

* LULAC - League of United Latin American Citizens

* NETWORK – National Catholic Social Justice Lobby

* United Methodist Church - General Board of Church and Society

* Casa de Maryland, Inc – Immigrants rights advocacy group

* Global Exchange – Human rights for social, economic and environmental justice

* Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras - Indigenous human/civil rights advocacy group

* Global Rights - Human rights advocacy group

* Intercontinental Congress of First Nation People of North and South America

* Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth

* Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

* KAFT - Korean Americans for Fair Trade

* Manuel Zapata Olivella - Center for Immigrants Education and Human Development

* AFRODES USA - Association of Displaced Afro Colombians

* Mexico & U.S. Solidarity Network - Red Solidaria México & EEUU

* Movement for Peace in Colombia - Movimiento por la Paz en Colombia

* NYC People’s Referendum on Free Trade

* NICANET – The Nicaragua Network


Meanwhile, the House Ways and Means Committee (lead by Democrats) has moved forward to send this FTA to the White House...

Peru trade pact clears major hurdle in Congress

Tue Sep 25, 2007 12:02pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A key committee in the U.S. House of Representatives gave preliminary approval on Tuesday to a free trade agreement with Peru in a sign of restored bipartisan support for at least some trade deals.

The House Ways and Means Committee, in a voice vote, expressed support for the pact, which locks in Peru's duty-free access to the United States and tears down barriers to exports of U.S. goods and services to Peru.

The committee action clears the way for the White House to formally submit the agreement to Congress. Once that happens, lawmakers will have 90 days to approve or reject the pact without making changes.

VIDEOS - HUGO BLANCO EN CANADA

Hugo Blanco Galdós es un político peruano, a quien muchos peruanos le han perdido el rastro. Pero aquí aparece en dos interesantes videos.

Foto por servindi.org

De acuerdo a Wikipedia en inglés, Blanco es una figura política peruana y ha sido líder de la Confederación Campesina de Perú. A comienzos de los 1960’s lideró una rebelión campesina del pueblo Quechua en la región de Cusco, Perú. Capturado por los militares, fue sentenciado a 25 años de prisión en la isla de El Frontón. Durante su encarcelamiento escribió Tierra o Muerte: La Lucha Campesina en Perú. Fue liberado de la prisión y expulsado a Suecia en 1976 después de una campaña de solidaridad internacional que incluyó al Che Guevara, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, y Bertrand Russell.

Después de pasar varios años de exilio en Suecia, México y Chile regreso a Perú en 1978, y fundó el Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores; fue elegido al congreso en una plancha izquierdista [Izquierda Unida]. Sirvió en el senado peruano como representante del Partido Unificado Mariateguista hasta 1992 cuando huyó a México donde se le otorgó asilo debido al "autogolpe" de Alberto Fujimori y a la declaración del estado de emergencia.

El autor de este video escribe:

"El líder campesino y activista indígena Hugo Blanco, habla en la Universidad Simon Fraser en Vancouver, British Columbia, Canadá. Grabado el 21 de setiembre del 2007."

Escuchen ambos videos, Hugo Blanco sorprende por la sapiencia y certeza de sus afirmaciones.




VIDEO 1: HUGO BLANCO HABLA EN CANADA
(9:52 minutos)


VIDEO 2
(9:22 minutos)

VIDEO: PORQUE EL TLC NO DEBE SER APROBADO

El blog EYES ON TRADE (EEUU) incluye hoy este excelente video producido por dirigentes sindicales y campesinos de Perú con la colaboración de Radio Libre – Negro Primero (Venezuela.)

"Hat tip to the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign, who pointed us to the film below, a well-produced video full of interviews with Peruvian labor and campesino leaders on why they oppose the U.S.-Peru FTA. Definitely worth your 10 minutes."

Traducción: "Nos quitamos el sobrero por La Campaña por Comercio Justo del [estado de] Oregón, quienes nos avisaron acerca del filme de abajo, un video bien producido lleno de entrevistas con líderes laborales y campesinos peruanos acerca del por qué se oponen al TLC EEUU-Perú. Definitivamente vale la pena ver los 10 minutos."


VIDEO: NO AL TLC
(9:59 minutos) Peruanos explican también como el comercio libre si puede ser beneficioso para Perú, pero no de acuerdo a las normas del TLC con EEUU.



RELACIONADOS

• VIDEO DE LA "NOCHE PERUANA" EN CONGRESO DE EEUU En varios artículos he expresado mi preocupación acerca del tratado de libre comercio (TLC) entre Perú y EEUU. Los términos incluidos en ese acuerdo son los mismos del NAFTA...

• ECONOMIA DE PERU SIGUE CRECIENDO - PARA ALGUNOS Some friends and relatives of mine have just returned from Peru. They confirmed what I have noticed every time I visit my first country: although Peru's economy is growing every year, but poverty and social injustice stay unmodified...

• LAS EMPRESAS DE EEUU EN PERU No hay duda que la inversión privada tiene efectos positivos en la creación de empleos y el desarrollo de los pueblos, pero ...

• TLC EEUU-PERU ES UNA AMENAZA PARA ECOLOGIA MUNDIAL Mientras el mundo empieza a darse cuenta de que el problema del calentamiento global es más grave de lo que se creía, la ministra peruana Mercedes Aráoz, ha dicho recientemente en EEUU que Perú no vá a renegociar el TLC y que su gobierno...

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VIDEOS - PERU EN GRUPO MUNDIAL COPA DAVIS

VIDEO: EL ULTIMO PUNTO
(3:18 minutos) Despues de cuatro horas de juego, Luis Horna de Peru vence a Mirnyi de Bielorrusia.



VIDEO: LA CELEBRACION PERUANA
(1:17 minutos) El publico celebra el triunfo de los peruanos Iván Miranda, Luis Horna y Matías Silva. Los aficionados gritan "chino" a Miranda, quien es en realidad indigena peruano.


ARRIBA PERU

PERU FTA: OPEN LETTER TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS

OPEN LETTER TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS

Dear Members of the U.S. Congress:

We are concerned Peruvian-Americans, immigrant organizations and human rights advocates in the United States. We are writing to express our strong opposition to the Free Trade Agreement with Peru (FTA) and to request its further renegotiation for the following reasons:

LABOR RIGHTS

In August, Peru’s President Alan Garcia agreed to issue presidential decrees to clarify specific labor laws during a congressional visit from U.S. Representatives Rangel and Levin. Yet Peruvian labor leaders argue that this is insufficient because it does not change the labor laws through legislation and will not guarantee effective enforcement. Like many workers in Latin American countries, Peruvians face constant threats to their labor rights. Violations include discrimination against union organizers, illegal firings and forced overtime without pay. Further, the new system of fixed-labor contracts and subcontracting radically undermines workers' rights because it does not guarantee a 44 hour work week or labor standard. Nor will the presidential decrees protect the rights of the majority of people, seventy-five percent, who work 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.

A free trade agreement with Peru should not be approved by the U.S. Congress until legislation is passed by Peruvian Congress, which guarantees compliance with ILO standards and guarantees enforcement.

AGRICULTURE, POVERTY & IMMIGRATION

Agriculture is an integral part of Peru's economy with nearly a third of the population depending on this sector for their livelihood. In the FTA, the U.S. demands that Peru renounce its rights under the WTO agreements to apply Special Agricultural Safeguards, designed to protect sensitive sectors. After a thorough analysis of the trade text on agriculture, the Peruvian National Convention on Agriculture (CONVEAGRO) estimated that hundreds of thousands of Peruvian farmers would be negatively affected by the agreement. The U.S. agricultural subsidies constitutes unfair competition for Peruvian agricultural goods and will impoverish the 700,000 producers of cotton, corn, barley, wheat, oilseeds and dairy products in that country. Considering that only 3% of Peruvian farmers export their products, it’s very likely that as hundreds of thousands of Peruvian small farmers lose their markets, they will be pushed into drug production, and to migrate with their families to already impoverished Peruvian cities, or as undocumented immigrants to countries like the U.S.

Even though Peru's economy has been growing continuously in the last 7 years, almost 50% of the population is still living under $2 per day as a result of neo liberal economic policies that are very similar to those promoted by this FTA. According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), close to one fourth of Peruvians live in extreme poverty. People in rural areas are the worst affected; nearly 70 percent of them are extremely poor.

After NAFTA, over 1.3 million small farmers lost their livelihoods in Mexico due to agricultural rules that are nearly identical to those included in the U.S.-Peru FTA. As a result, undocumented immigration from Mexico to the U.S. increased by 61 percent in the years following the implementation of NAFTA, according to Pew Hispanic Center. U.S. policies like NAFTA-style “free trade agreements” influence the economy of Latin America directly. Therefore, solving the problem of undocumented immigration is a shared responsibility, and it must be addressed by a comprehensive immigration reform that includes fair trade legislation and that prevents interest groups from promoting human trafficking, exploitation of workers, broken communities and cheap labor.

CORRUPTION vs. DEMOCRACY

We must remind you that there are pending cases of human rights abuses and corruption involving Garcia’s first government. Garcia was reelected in 2006 on a platform against Toledo’s free trade policies and with a promise to renegotiate the FTA – the agricultural rules in particular. But, once elected, he instead visited Bush to request its approval.

This FTA was passed by Peruvian Congress in 2006 in a lame-duck session with very little public support and ignoring a request for a national referendum. Eighty percent of Peruvian Congress members who voted for this FTA had already lost their seats in the elections that predated the vote.

Meanwhile foreign mining and natural gas corporations are making huge profits in Peru but leave behind underpaid workers, pollution and environmental destruction. The Garcia administration has ignored popular protests and strongly supports extractive industries. The Garcia government has abandoned dozens of towns destroyed by the recent earthquake, even though it has the biggest budget surplus in history. Public protests regarding this matter have been silenced or ignored by the government, including closing down a radio-TV station in the city of Pisco that had been critical of the relief efforts.

We believe that if this FTA is ratified now by the U.S. Congress, it will send a signal to the Garcia government that its current heavy-handed and anti-public interest policies are supported by the U.S. Congress. It will further perpetuate the perception that the U.S. favors the interests of multinationals over protecting human rights and reducing corruption.

INDIGENOUS RIGHTS & THE ENVIRONMENT

Most Peruvians are of Indigenous and Afro descendant heritage. According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the poorest of the poor in Peru are the Indigenous/Native peoples. About 73 percent in Indigenous communities live below the poverty line. This FTA is a threat to indigenous peoples' heritage and way of life, as it allows agribusiness and pharmaceutical corporations to take over their traditional medicine and nutrition knowledge for profit.

Mining, oil and natural gas exploration and extraction projects would increase dramatically with this FTA, leading to extensive damage to the Peruvian environment, especially the Andes mountains region and the Amazon basin, which is the largest virgin forest on the planet. With this FTA, multinational corporations would have the right to sue governments if any attempt to protect the environment would cause the companies to see their profits reduced. In addition, this agreement establishes secret trade tribunals, making trade rules more powerful than democratic institutions and domestic laws.

As a result, entire Indigenous communities could be displaced from their lands and pushed into extermination. These FTA regulations directly contradict the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recently adopted by the United Nations, which includes the rights to protect their land and natural resources.

PUBLIC HEALTH & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Hundreds of thousands of Peruvians will not be able to afford generic medicines because of new patents and data-protection regulations included in this FTA are intended to protect and boost the already outrageous profits of pharmaceutical corporations. This FTA promotes the privatization and deregulation of services such as water, health care and education. At the same time, it protects the interests of multinational corporations benefiting from Peru's bungled privatization of its social security system at the expense of workers, women, children, senior citizens and the chronically ill.

CONCLUSION

We strongly encourage you to reject the Free Trade Agreement with Peru – and ask instead for it’s further renegotiation – because it is not fair for most Americans nor most Peruvians, and because it was negotiated ignoring the voice of the people of both the United States and Peru.

We believe that a free trade agreement with Peru must provide safeguards that will protect vulnerable sectors of Peruvian society, instead of worsening its economic, social and political inequality.

Trade should be used to promote social justice and progress for all, and not just for the benefit of the few rich and powerful. The United States can truly spread democracy and freedom by example, not by imposing economic policies that will increase corruption, poverty and abuse among impoverished nations.

We believe that fair trade is necessary to address poverty and hunger, and to promote economic progress and decent living standards, while respecting the UN Declaration of Human Rights and guaranteeing the protection of our planet.

Respectfully,

Organizations supporting this letter on September 24, 2007

• PAFT - Peruvian-Americans for Fair Trade
• Group of Andean Immigrants in DC
• WOLA - Washington Office on Latin America
• NNIRR - National Network for Immigrants and Refugee Rights
• LULAC - League of United Latin American Citizens
• NETWORK – National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
• United Methodist Church - General Board of Church and Society
• Casa de Maryland, Inc – Immigrants rights advocacy group
• Global Exchange – Human rights for social, economic and environmental justice
• Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras - Indigenous human/civil rights advocacy group
• Global Rights - Human rights advocacy group
• Intercontinental Congress of First Nation People of North and South America
• Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth
• Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
• KAFT - Korean Americans for Fair Trade
• Manuel Zapata Olivella - Center for Immigrants Education and Human Development
• AFRODES USA - Association of Displaced Afro Colombians
• Mexico & U.S. Solidarity Network - Red Solidaria México & EEUU
• Movement for Peace in Colombia - Movimiento por la Paz en Colombia
• NYC People’s Referendum on Free Trade
• NICANET – The Nicaragua Network

FUJIMORI: GRACIAS CHILE (!) PERO AHORA VIENE PERÚ - VER VIDEOS

FUJIMORI EXTRADITADO

Los siete cargos por los que se aprobó la extradición del ex-dictador son:

2 CASOS DE DERECHOS HUMANOS
- 10 asesinatos en La Cantuta en 1991.
- 15 asesinatos en Barrios Altos en 1992.

5 CARGOS DE CORRUPCIÓN
- Apropiación de 15 millones de dólares.
- Sobornos a miembros del Congreso de Perú.
- Grabación ilegal de videos de espionaje.

Mi padre fue asesinado durante la dictadura de Fujimori y aunque no ha sido un caso relacionado con la política interna peruana directamente, pero el asesino era un miembro de la Marina de Guerra de Perú. El crimen quedó impune y mi familia nunca alcanzó la justicia.

Por eso la extradición de Fujimori representa una forma de justicia para nuestra familia y para todos los peruanos que conocemos de injusticia. Porque el dolor que pasamos aquellos que perdemos seres queridos -no interesan las causas- es similar al de aquellas familias que perdieron a sus familiares por culpa de la violencia política. A ellos expreso mi solidaridad y me uno a esta celebración de la justicia.

No se podrán regresar las vidas de los peruanos caídos por el abuso, pero con este proceso judicial tiene que dejar un precedente importante para nuestra historia, para que los peruanos de mañana vean que a nosotros nos importan la vida, los derechos humanos y las libertades civiles.

Por ello también me uno a la actitud vigilante de los peruanos para continuar con este proceso, hasta que Fujimori y sus secuaces, sean castigados penalmente por sus delitos.

LOS PERUANOS TENEMOS QUE MANTENERNOS VIGILANTES DE LA FORMA COMO SERA JUZGADO EL EX-DICTADOR POR LA JUSTICIA PERUANA.

GRACIAS a CHILE, a su Corte Suprema y al juez Alberto Chaigneau.

VIDEO: QUIEN ES ALBERTO FUJIMORI
(2:59 minutos)Video de COMISEDH - Comision de Derechos Humanos de Lima.

VIDEO: TV DE LIMA INFORMA
(1:09 minuto)

VIDEO: TV DE CHILE ANTES DEL FALLO FINAL
(2:28 minutos)

VIDEO: CNN EN ESPANOL ENTREVISTA A FUJIMORI DESPUES DEL FALLO JUDICIAL
(5:48 minutos)


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VIDEOS: METEORITE IN PERU

These are three videos of the crater left by a meteorite crash in southern Peru. I found them tonight on Youtube. Also I include two articles from AP and EFE. What is most interesting is the way how people reacted afterwards.


VIDEO: REUTERS REPORTS
(0:44 seconds) People are experience headaches and vomit after approaching the crater left by a meteorite crash in southern Peru.


VIDEO:EUROGERMAN NEWS
(1:29 minutes) Over 200 people blame a strange diseases to the gases caused by meteorite. Scientists deny the possibility of poisoning gases.

Meteorite Likely Caused Crater in Peru

By MONTE HAYES – 5 hours ago

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peruvian astronomers said Thursday that evidence shows a meteorite crashed near Lake Titicaca over the weekend, leaving an elliptical crater and magnetic rock fragments in an impact powerful enough to register on seismic charts.

As other astronomers learned more details, they too said it appears likely that a legitimate meteorite hit Earth on Saturday — an rare occurence.

The Earth is constantly bombarded with objects from outer space, but most burn up in the atmosphere and never reach the planet's surface. Only one in a thousand rocks that that people claim are meteorites turn out to be real, according to Jay Melosh, an expert on impact craters and professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona.

Melosh was skeptical at first, initially calling it a "non-meteorite" and suggesting that the crater might have possibly come from below as a volcanic eruption. Then scientists learned of more details about the crater, as well as witness descriptions of a thunderous roar and a rain of smaller rocks coming down.

"It begins to sound more likely to me that this object could indeed be a meteorite," Melosh said Thursday.

Such impacts are rare, and astronomists still want to do other tests to confirm the strike.

Other details don't add up, they said — such as witness accounts of water in the muddy crater boiling for 10 minutes from the heat. Meteorites are actually cold when they hit Earth, astronomists say, since their outer layers burn up and fall away before impact.

Experts also puzzled over claims that 200 local residents were sickened by fumes from the crater. Doctors who examined them found no evidence of illness related to the meteorite, and one suggested a psychosomatic reaction to the sight and sound of the plunging meteor.

More details emerged when astrophysicist Jose Ishitsuka of Peru's Geophysics Institute reached the site about 6 miles from Lake Titicaca. He confirmed that a meteorite caused a crater 42 feet wide and 15 feet deep, the institute's president, Ronald Woodman, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Ishitsuka recovered a 3-inch magnetic fragment and said it contained iron, a mineral found in all rocks from space. The impact also registered a magnitude-1.5 tremor on the institute's seismic equipment — that's as much as an explosion of 4.9 tons of dynamite, Woodman said.

Local residents described a fiery ball falling from the sky and smashing into the desolate Andean plain.

Doctors told an Associated Press Television News cameraman at the site that they had found no sign of radioactive contamination among families living nearby. But they said they had taken samples of blood, urine and hair to analyze.

Peasants living near the crater said they had smelled a sulfurous odor for at least an hour after the meteorite struck and that it had provoked upset stomachs and headaches. But Ishitsuka said he doubts reports of a sulfurous smell.

Meteor expert Ursula Marvin said that if people were sickened, "it wouldn't be the meteorite itself, but the dust it raises."

A meteorite "wouldn't get much gas out of the earth," said Marvin, who has studied the objects since 1961 at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Massachusetts. "It's a very superficial thing."

Peter Schultz, a meteor crater specialist at Brown University who is eager to visit the Peruvian site, said the latest details suggest this might be an unusual type of meteor strike, and that given the crater's size, the original meteoroid had to have been at least 10 feet in diameter before breaking up.

"With everything I see reported now, it seems to me like we just got hit," Schultz said.

Justina Limache, 74, told the Lima daily El Comercio that when she heard the thunderous roar from the sky, she abandoned her flock of alpacas and ran home with her 8-year-old granddaughter. She said that after the meteorite struck, small rocks rained down on the roof of her house for several minutes and she feared the house was going to collapse.

Modesto Montoya, a member of the medical team, told El Comercio that fear may have provoked psychosomatic ailments.

"When a meteorite falls, it produces horrid sounds when it makes contact with the atmosphere," he said. "It is as if a giant rock is being sanded. Those sounds could have frightened them."

Associated Press writers Seth Borenstein in Washington and Monte Hayes in Lima contributed to this report.

VIDEO: TELEVISION DE PERU REPORTA
(1:19 minutos)Un meteorito cayó en Perú, próximo al Lago Titicaca en la provincia de Chucuito, cerca al límite con Bolivia. Reporte de Enlace Nacional TV, un canal independiente de los andes peruanos.

Un meteorito causa un cráter de 30 metros en la frontera entre Perú y Bolivia

El impacto no causó ninguna víctima

EFE - Lima - 17/09/2007

Un meteorito cayó la madrugada del pasado domingo en la región peruana de Puno, cerca de la frontera con Bolivia, y causó un cráter de 30 metros de diámetro y seis de profundidad, según la prensa del país andino.

El objeto luminoso se estrelló poco antes de la medianoche del sábado en el pueblo de Carancas, en la provincia de Chucuito, situada unos 1.300 kilómetros al sur de Lima. Según narraron fuentes de la Dirección Territorial de Policía a los medios de comunicación, los alarmados pobladores de la zona escucharon un estruendoso ruido que parecía provenir de un avión que caía en picado.

Posteriormente, los testigos observaron en el cielo un objeto que se encontraba en llamas, se estrelló en tierra y produjo una explosión que dejó trozos de materia calcinada.

El impacto no afectó a ninguna persona y se investiga si los restos hallados pudieran ser de animales que habrían muerto carbonizados al encontrarse cerca del lugar.

Los campesinos de la zona han declarado a los medios locales que temen que se produzca el brote de alguna enfermedad por el desprendimiento de esquirlas de plomo y plata que dejó el meteorito al precipitarse a tierra.

Según dijo el miembro de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias Modesto Montoya a la agencia estatal Andina, en Perú caen meteoritos con frecuencia, fenómeno que no suele entrañar ningún peligro.

El pasado junio, otro supuesto meteorito cayó en el cerro Mascapampa, en la provincia de Arequipa, sur del país, generando alarma entre la población.

RELATED / RELACIONADOS

• LA RECUPERACION DEL RIO DE LIMA Por miles de anios, las civilizaciones humanas han fundado sus ciudades junto a fuentes de agua. Los rios no solamente eran fuentes de agua...

• US-PERU FTA IS A THREAT TO THE PLANET ECOLOGY While the world begins to realize that global warming is a more serious matter of which it was believed...

• GLACIALES ANDINOS PODRIAN DESAPARECER EN EL 2015 El calentamiento global está afectando directamente a Perú: un 22% de los glaciales de los Andes peruanos que existían en 1970, han desaparecido...

.

LOS NIÑOS DE PERÚ MENCIONADOS EN LOS PREMIOS EMMY'S

Perú (o al menos los niños peruanos) fueron mencionados anoche en la premiación Emmy's de la TV de EEUU, como parte de una broma de mal gusto en referencia a la contaminación mundial.

Menores jugando en La Oroya. Foto: AP

El video que incluyo es un extracto de la entrega de esos premios que se otorgan anualmente a las producciones de la televisión estadounidense. Aquí están Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert, dos comentaristas y cómicos quienes dirigen exitosos programas de sarcasmo político y de actualidad.



Ver los minutos 1:31 hasta 1:10 cuando se refieren a los peruanos.

Stephen (con lentes): ¿Jon te has olvidado de los "carbón offsets"?

[carbon offsets son acciones para contrarrestar la contaminación ambiental, desde comprar bonos para proyectos específicos hasta plantar árboles] Los gobiernos y corporaciones pueden comprar estos "offsets" como "créditos" que pueden ser comercializados.]

Jon: Si, después de la ceremonia esta noche, teniendo a Dios como testigo! voy a ir al Internet y comprare un "carbón credit" que cuando sea convertido en dinero, permitirá que algunos niños peruanos menores de edad puedan reforestar una parte de los Andes.

PERÚ CONTAMINADO

¿Será que Perú se ha vuelto ahora sinónimo de la contaminación global?

La Oroya. Foto: The Blacksmith Institute.

No es de extrañar, considerando que La Oroya es parte de la lista de los 10 lugares peor contaminados del planeta (!) según The Blacksmith Institute, una organización internacional que estudia y trata de resolver casos de contaminación en el mundo. El propietario de la refinería de La Oroya es la empresa minera estadounidense Doe Run.

La mala reputación de Perú en materia ecológica se debe a la contaminación causada por la minería, la pesca, el petróleo, las industrias urbanas, el congestionamiento vehicular y ahora el gas natural. Aparte de La Oroya, están Yanacocha, Madrigal, Camisea, Chimbote, Lima, Casapalca, Callao, Ilo, etc. Esta es la lista de The Blacksmith Institute:

World's Worst
Polluted Places 2007

• Sumgayit, Azerbaijan
• Linfen, China
• Tianying, China
• Sukinda, India
• Vapi, India
• La Oroya, Peru
• Dzerzhinsk, Russia
• Norilsk, Russia
• Chernobyl, Ukraine
• Kabwe, Zambia

Muchas viviendas están ubicadas junto a montículos de materiales industriales. Foto: Anna Cederstav /Blacksmith Institute

LOS PREMIOS "TLC"

Los más afectados por la contaminación de La Oroya son los niños. Los menores de edad (el 99%) de esa ciudad andina tienen altísimos niveles de plomo en la sangre en tal cantidad, que casi todos sufren daños mentales y de reducción del coeficiente intelectual.

¿Son esos los niños a los que se refería el cómico estadounidense en los Emmy's? A mi me dá lástima y rabia ver que nuestros menores peruanos sean ahora símbolo del abuso de las corporaciones multi-nacionales.

Y por eso espero de verdad, que el TLC con EEUU no sea aprobado por el congreso estadounidense. De lo contrario, tendremos varios casos como La Oroya en un futuro no lejano.

El TLC contempla la posibilidad de que mineras como Doe Run puedan enjuiciar al estado peruano si es que las autoridades peruanas intenten proteger el medio ambiente - y eso produzca una reducción de las ganancias de las mineras. Así de peligroso es ese acuerdo comercial, pero pocos peruanos lo saben. Están a punto de darnos el "premio" TLC, el premio a la cojudez, la ingenuidad y la falta de coraje para defender el futuro de nuestros menores.

RELACIONADOS:

EL TLC PERU-EEUU CADA VEZ MENOS PROBABLE: El Congreso de EEUU ha dejado de lado el debate de los TLC con Perú y Panamá, para después de su receso de verano...

VIDEO: NOCHE "PERUANA" EN CONGRESO DE EEUU: En varios artículos he expresado mi preocupación acerca del tratado de libre comercio (TLC) entre Perú y EEUU. Los términos incluidos en ese acuerdo son los mismos del NAFTA...

PERU ES LIDER MUNDIAL EN HORAS EXTRAS DE TRABAJO: De acuerdo al reporte “Horas de Trabajo en del Mundo” publicado ayer por la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT), Perú es el país líder en el mundo donde los empleados trabajan sobre tiempo, debido mayormente a la necesidad de obtener ingresos para cubrir gastos mensuales pues los sueldos son bajos...

LAS EMPRESAS DE EEUU EN PERU: Decidí publicar algunos datos útiles, para conocer la actual presencia de empresas de EEUU en Perú, justo antes de la posible firma del TLC entre los dos países. No hay duda que la inversión privada tiene efectos positivos en la creación de empleos y el desarrollo de los pueblos, pero...

EL TLC CON EEUU ES UNA AMENAZA PARA LA ECOLOGIA MUNDIAL Mientras el mundo empieza a darse cuenta de que el problema del calentamiento global es más grave de lo que se creía...

.

RACIST PERUVIAN CONGRESSWOMAN HILDEBRANDT ATTACKS INDIGENOUS PEOPLES - ONCE AGAIN

Another racist attack is exposed in Peru - and this time the offender is a member of Congress. Three Peruvian Congresswomen got into an argument about a legislation initiative that would guarantee the use, preservation and diffusion of the aboriginal languages of Peru.

Congresswoman Martha Hildebrandt (shown in this scary photo) is exposed in a video expressing publicly her racist and anti-Indigenous mentality.

By the way, Hildebrandt's daughter Matibel once said "my mother says that we should place a million of Indigenous people in the "zanjon" [Lima's main underground highway] and throw an atomic bomb. It would be the cholonica bomb [cholo is an insult used to disrespect Indigenous Native peoples]

This video shows the deep division of two cultures in Peru: the one who descends from the mixture of Indigenous and European (Martha Hildebrandt) and that of the original Indigenous peoples (Maria Sumire and Hilaria Supa.) In other words: Lima vs. Cusco.

VIDEO: TWO CONGRESSWOMEN ARGUE IN CONGRESS
(2:27 minutes) A news channel of Lima reports

TRANSCRIPTION in English

Journalist talking to Martha Hildebrandt: … she said [refering to Maria Sumire] that that it's sad that people elect persons -referring to you obviously- who come to the Congress to sleep.

Congresswoman Martha Hildebrandt (MH): [laughing] It doesn't get me, I don't know what intellectual work she might have [looking at Congresswoman Maria Sumire] but I have 30 to 40 cited and translated books right? So, frankly those attacks are low right? From people that don't have an intellectual capacity neither college education...

Congresswoman Maria Sumire (MS): Lady I have college education.

MH: Figure yourself that I had been Deputy Director, not of Peru, but the UNESCO at a world level and she will teach me about education? Nooo... to each its own place, each with its place…

MS: I am also educated; I am Indigenous but I'm also an Attorney, yes?.

MH: There are plenty of Attorneys and really bad ones too [laughing].

MS: And I also have publications that I won't show to you, I won't just publish anything right?

MH: Oh really, do you know mines [publications]? No one knows yours [laughing] I have 10,000 books of an educated language that surely you haven't read.

MS: It's a shame that you don't write in the original languages.

MH: I am not a Quechua [language] specialist nor do I have to be one.

MS: I am not talking about Quechua [only] I am talking about the original languages.

MH: I can only speak with intellectuals like me, in a linguistic congress at the language academy [not sure what academy she refers to] and I am the only woman in that academy... ah? But she doesn't know anything about linguistics.

The video then shows images of the debate about a legislation initiative to make official all Indigenous languages in Peru.

MH: This law initiative is not useful, at all.

Journalist describes: The discussion started in the Congress; the Nationalist Congresswomen criticized Congresswoman Martha Hildebrandt for not supporting their initiative to guarantee the preservation, use and diffusion of the aboriginal languages.

Congresswoman Hilaria Supa (HS): [Martha Hildebrandt] always sleeps, simply; she always does sleep and signs laws sleeping.

Journalist: Who sleeps?

HS: Mrs. Hildebrandt, she just sleeps at Congress that is how she makes her money.

Video shows images of the initial conversation again.

Journalist: Is a lack of respect then? Do you consider that?

MH: I don't even consider it at all, it doesn't get me, and I didn't hear it. I am arrogant like that ok.

MS: We are not talking about linguistics; we are talking about use and preservation of the original languages.

MH: I am also a supporter of them, but if you ask for the most then you lose it all.

MS: You would have to study also what is use and preservation.

MH: Is that right? I will ask for advice to the language academy [laughing] frankly, they make me laugh, frankly they are laughable.

Journalist: They never got to agree and finally they left in the same way they came from, until a next encounter.

Journalist: 6:10 am, well we hope that debates at Congress could be much more respectful than what we have seeing…

TAKE ACTION!

Write to Peruvian Congresswoman Martha Hildebrant and let her know what do you think about her racist behaviour:

• Martha Hildebrandt Perez
  Representa a: LIMA
  Condición: Congresista en Ejercicio
  Correo electrónico: mhildebrandt@congreso.gob.pe

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