Peru: Indigenous Congress members suspended / Community radio station shut down / Indigenous leaders harassed / New uprising in central Andes

Thousands protested in the streets of Lima yesterday
Photo by Servindi

Tensions in Peru are rising as the Garcia-controlled Congress president Javier Velasquez, decided to suspend 7 Indigenous Congress members for three months. This was a response to the protest the leftist Congressmembers were holding to demand a final solution to the struggle of Indigenous peoples of the Amazon regions. The suspension was supported by the right-wing majority. Congress members suspended are Juana Huancahuari, María Sumire, Hilaria Supa, Nancy Obregón, Yaneth Cajahuanca, Cayo Galindo and Rafael Vásquez, all members of the leftist party Partido Nacionalista who leader is likely presidential candidate Ollanta Humala.

Suspended Indigenous Congress members
hold a press conference in Lima today. Photo by Aladoj

During phone conversations I had this morning with Indigenous leaders living in Peru and the world, I was told that the next plan of the government of Peru will be to classify the Indigenous uprising as a terrorist movement. Thus, the government will be able to possibly increase on the violent repression. This is perhaps why these Indigenous leaders in Lima are being followed around, their emails and cellular phones are being spied on, and bank accounts are being shut down.

Media manipulation and government control

The government now has ordered to shut down a community radio station in Bagua, and more stations might follow. A message sent in Twitter a Peruvian blogger said “urgent, they are trying to shut down La Voz de Bagua radio for being 'social agitators' calling all journalists."

I got in communication with one of the independent journalists in the Bagua area who told me that it is a small radio station, and it has been one of the most actives ways for Bagua civilians to use during the attacks of Friday June 5, as way to keep informed and to assist the injured and rescue the dead bodies. This radio helped to spread the word about the attacks and allowed public announcements in ways to help. Unlike other stations that support the government –and get tax deductions and benefits from Lima- this is a small but very popular station that is totally independent and not involved with any political groups.

The current publicity strategy of the government in followed by most Peruvian media, showing images of police men killed by a group of Natives in an incident that occurred in a location six hours away from Bagua. These killings were result of a very unfortunate action taken by desperate civilians of a remote Amazon village, who thought they were also going to be attacked by the police in charge of an oil pumping station deep in the forest.

A leader of AIDESEP, the mayor Peruvian Indigenous civil rights organization said in Lima that “Indigenous peoples didn't start the violence at all, as opposed to what the government is saying” said the leader who is being requested by the Peruvian Justice for sedition charges.

Actress and human rights activist Q’Orianka Kilcher is in Lima to support the Indigenous movements, and she held a press conference today at the AIDESEP headquartes, where she cried out for the government and the media to stop violence and misinformation “against my people” she said. Q’Orianka is in Peru also to create awareness on the need for dialogue and respect and to stop violence. She will be working with Indigenous children in a community project.

Q'Orianka tells me by email that after arriving yesterday she went to the protest in downtown Lima, but it was very scary for her to see how police were violently repressing civilians with tear gas bombs. She made a point that Indigenous peoples are not considered in Lima as capable to make their own decision, to protect the Amazon, and to create their own model of development.

Today right-wing newspaper El Comercio has started a defamatory campaign against Q'Orianka, posting racist and xenophobic "comments" against her and her message "for young people to rise up against injustice" and to support Alberto Pizango, an Amazon leader that the Garcia government has called "a terrorist".

Meanwhile the Garcia administration has created a “National Group of Coordination for the Development of Indigenous Peoples” to promote dialogue. But that group includes leaders of some Indigenous groups, the Ombudsman office, the Catholic church, the Evangelical church, regional presidents, and the Executive and has kept AIDESEP apart from it. Although the Primer Minister Yehude Simon said the doors are open for everyone, most Indigenous grupos don't trust the government anymore.

Today a community leader who asked me not to reveal her name, said from Peru that in the 20 years of internal conflict in the 1980’s and 1990’s decades, the military and police used to kill, rape and torture Indigenous civilians of the Andes, and then blame thoise crimes on insurgent groups Shining Path and MRTA. "Nowadays, they are trying to use that same strategy to blame Amazonian indigenous peoples of the crimes they have committed." This only leads to distrust of the government she said.

Protests continue

Another Indigenous uprising started today in the central Andean region of Andahuaylas, where thousands of locals took control of the local airport and blocked roads as a sign of protest while demanding justice for the Bagua victims and their relatives. Dozens of injured civilians have been reported in a road accident, including several children.

During yesterday National Protest Day, thousands of people in several cities of Peru came out to the streets in pacific demonstrations. Most of the protests were peaceful except in Lima, where police repressed civilians with tear gas bombs, as they were trying to walk to Congress. Watch this video by CEPES:

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Servindi, the Indigenous news agency in Peru, says that several protests occurred in Peru at the moment when in Lima dozens of thousands of people were in the streets, the same happened in Iquitos, Yurimaguas, Satipo, Huanuco, Arequipa, Puno, Juliaca, Azangaro, Ayacucho, Huanta and Chiclayo, among others.

Photos sent from Lima by a reader
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Also around the world several demonstrations were held in front of Peruvian embassies and consulates including Brussels, Melbourne, Ottawa, Stockholm, Turin, Rome, Milan, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, and Miami. Today there were protests in Montreal in Canada, Antwerp in Belgium, and Wellington in New Zealand.

Protest in New York last Wednesday June 10.
Photo Indymedia NYC

State of shock and time for truth

While I was interviewed this morning by a Native radio station in Houston, a volunteer for a NGO working in Bagua, called from Lima. He said that most people in Peru and recently in Lima are in shock. They don’t understand why after 56 days of pacific protest and dialogue this had to be replied with such violence. This volunteer arrived to Bagua a day after the attacks, and by speaking to local journalists on what really happened he got a version different from what the Lima press was reporting: that police members were killed by Indigenous savages barbarians.

The locals in Bagua told him that on Friday June 5, police approached civilians early morning and opened fire first with tear gas bombs and then weapons. Police chased protesters into hills and roads outside of Bagua and shot them. Nine police died that day. But in a separate incident occurred six hours away at oil pumping station 6, Indigenous peoples kidnapped and killed police as revenge and in fear that they were also going to be attacked.

Very little information is provided on how Indigenous peoples died, but pictures show them burned, beyond recognition. There are still a lot of missing people, and 157 injured with bullets. Many questions are raised right now as the information being covered by national press is slowly catching up with what initially only foreign press reported. He said that hopefully the truth will come out soon.

Also he said that even police in Peru has started to question what really went down, why they were not better prepared (information) and what the plan really was. He said that now this is not about police, is about government, because people want a full investigation on how indigenous peoples were killed -they wonder how a President can use such racist terms. During yesterday protests in Lima young students were demanding for peace, justice and for an end to violence.

Bagua is now under military and police control
with Indigenous troops sent from Lima. Photo by Ben Bowess

Testimony from Bagua: tired and angry at government

This afternoon I spoke to Fernando Valdivia, an independent filmmaker who is also in Bagua for the last two months, working in a documentary financed by a Spanish media company. Fernando tells me that people in Bagua are returning to normality with their lives, but they all are angry at the government on the violence. They don’t blame the police or the Indigenous protesters: they want Alan Garcia to resign. Valdivia has visited the remote villages where the Indigenous protesters live, and they told him that they are too tired and want to reorganize their strategies before joining any other protest.

About the rumors of 250 people killed last weekend, he said that is possible because he has heard so many stories of people seeing others being killed in front of them but nobody knows where the remains area. In the site of the violent attacks called Curva del Diablo, the military has cleaned up the whole area, and he added that on the very same night of the attack, helicopters arrived and they where doing some work there. Fernando mentioned several times that “all the injured people I've met were shot, everyone who is recovering I see gun shots in their bodies, even a 7 years old girl named Leslie whom I met this morning and who was shot in the stomach but is now recovering.

Indigenous soldiers of Peruvian Army

Fernando Valdivia visited also the local Peruvian Army base of Milagros, and he said that most of the soldiers are Indigenous men as well. The locals take pride when they send their children to fight for the country, like it happened during the war with Ecuador (Cenepa) in the 1990’s, when Fujimori was president.

At the base Fernando met with Indigenous soldiers who said that when the attacks occurred, they were taken by high rank officers to a room and kept there without TV or radio, and their guns were confiscated. They said they would have joined the Indigenous uprising if knew what was happening like some Cenepa veterans did, when the protesters were being attacked they shot policemen. Also civilians in the city of Bagua tried to join the fight with stones and anything they could, but police had blocked the access to Curva del Diablo already. This was a well designed plan obviously.

Finally Valdivia tells me that he has walked into the forest and met with Awakun and Wampi Indigenous peoples, who told him that right now they are embarrassed of being Peruvians, and that they will never send their children to fight for the Peruvian military again. They feel betrayed, disgusted by even mentioning the name of president Garcia. A sense of abandonment fills their expressions.

Another emergency crisis is coming to Bagua in the near future, said Valdivia. Hundreds of injured men are now jobless and their families are unemployed. The area is controlled by military and police forces that are making it difficult for these workers to mobilize, and there are very few trying to help them right now.

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