2009 Peruvian political crisis
Encyclopedia
The 2009 Peruvian political crisis resulted from the ongoing opposition to oil development in the Peruvian Amazon
, with local Native Americans
opposing Petroperú
and the National Police
. At the forefront of the movement to resist the development was AIDESEP, the coalition of indigenous community organizations.
The crisis involved over one year of declared opposition and advocacy, and 65 straight days of civil disobedience
. In June 2009, the Garcia government suspended civil liberties
, declared a state of emergency
, and sent in the military
to stop the protest
s. The military intervention resulted in two days of bloody confrontations, in which, according to first reports, at least 22 soldiers (7 by spears), and least 30 indigenous people
(including 3 children) were killed.
This conflict has been described as Peru
's worst political violence in years and is the worst crisis of President Alan García's presidency. Prime Minister Yehude Simon
was forced to resign his post in the aftermath, and Congress repealed the laws that led to the protests.
granted the government authority to implement the required regulatory changes. Indigenous tribes insist that some of the new government regulations brought in by President Alan García in 2008 threaten the safety of their natural resources
and would enable foreign companies to exploit them. Protests ensued in August 2008 and Congress repealed two laws and promised to examine and vote on others. When that didn't happen, protest
s and blockade
s resumed in April 2009.
Mineral exploitation is nowadays attacked by researchers having shown a link between the abundance of natural resources (particularly minerals and oil) of a country and its poor growth performance, as well as poor governmental policies and institutions (corruption, weak governance, rent-seeking, plunder). This seems especially true for 'point source' minerals such as mine and oil fields, which produce high value for few people, as opposed to agricultural diffuse development which involves large quantities of workers forcing a share of benefits. Some believe that Peruvian oil development functions in such a model of 'point source', providing grievances and low benefit to local populations.
In 2008 an oil scandal
shook the government of Alan García when audio tapes were released to the press. The tapes contained the conversations of Rómulo León
, an important member of the ruling Apra party negotiating bribes from foreign companies in order to allow them to drill for petroleum in the Peruvian amazon region. Romulo León was imprisoned, yet his daughter, Luciana León
, a member of congress, continues to work in the parliament despites e-mail messages found by investigators that revealed that she was aware and participating in her father's activities.
In June 2009, as the dispute worsened, the military was called in to assist the police. The deaths occurred as a result of two clashes fought in the Amazon jungle on 5 and 6 June 2009.
, over 1,000 kilometres north of Lima
, as the security forces attempted to break down a road blockade. The deaths came when police decided to break down a blockade of 5,000 protesters. 9 of the dead were tribesmen and 23 were members of the police force. The tribes accused the police of firing with helicopters on those protesting peacefully below, with Alberto Pizango
, an indigenous leader, telling journalists that the government was responsible for the massacre. Police said they had been fired upon initially and the President said the tribes had "fall[en] to a criminal level".
A 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 a.m. curfew was announced immediately.
According to Amazon Watch
, the police staged a violent raid on the unarmed indigenous people who were participating in a peaceful blockade to revoke the "free trade" decrees, issued by President Garcia in the context of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States. During that day, over 600 police attacked several thousand unarmed Awajun and Wambis indigenous peoples (including many women and children) and forcibly dispersed them using tear gas and live ammunition. The 9 police officers were killed when, after the police started shooting at the protestors, some indigenous were able to take away some of their guns and fight back. In the end, 25 civilians died and more than 150 were wounded.
The police were accused of burning bodies to hide the death toll.
At least 155 were injured, one third by bullet wounds. 72 people were arrested. The toll was expected to rise. Not since the conflict with the Shining Path
were so many people been killed or injured in political clashes of this nature in Peru.
The Peruvian government sought to arrest Alberto Pizango
, a Shawi Indian leader of the indigenous protesters and head of their organization AIDESEP
, for sedition. Pizango entered Nicaragua
's embassy in Lima on June 8 and was granted asylum the next day. Four other AIDESEP leaders were accused of disturbing the peace and advocating sedition
and revolt and faced up to six years in prison.
On June 18, Congress overturned two of the decrees, causing the protesters to halt their blockades.
Prime Minister Yehude Simon
negotiated the deal to overturn two decrees mentioned above and announced on June 16 that he would resign "in the coming weeks" over the government's handling of the crisis. President Alan García had appointed Simon, who is politically to the left of García, in October 2008 in an effort to mollify the country's poor and hard-line leftist nationalists.
condemned the Peruvian government's decision to revoke the broadcast license of a local radio station stating that "The timing and circumstances of the revocation suggest that it may have been an act of censorship, or punishment, in response to coverage of anti-government protests on June 5, 2009."
"If there is in fact credible evidence that a radio station has actively supported or incited violence, then the broadcasters should be subject to investigation and sanction, with all appropriate judicial guarantees", said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas
director at Human Rights Watch. "But closing down a station this way certainly looks like retaliation for coverage the government didn't like."
Peruvian Amazon
The Peruvian Amazon is the area of the Amazon jungle included in the territory of Peru, from the east of the Andes to borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia. This region comprises 60% of the country and is marked by a large degree of biodiversity...
, with local Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
opposing Petroperú
Petroperu
Petróleos del Perú S.A. is a Peruvian state-owned petroleum company. Its activities include transport, refinery and commercialization of fuel and other oil derivatives...
and the National Police
National Police of Peru
The Peruvian National Police is the national police force of Peru. Its jurisdiction covers the nation's land, sea, and air territories. Formed from the merger of the Investigative Police, the Civil Guard, and the Republican Guard in 1988, it is one of the largest police forces in Latin America...
. At the forefront of the movement to resist the development was AIDESEP, the coalition of indigenous community organizations.
The crisis involved over one year of declared opposition and advocacy, and 65 straight days of civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
. In June 2009, the Garcia government suspended civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
, declared a state of emergency
State of emergency
A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...
, and sent in the military
Military of Peru
The Peruvian Armed Forces are the military services of Peru, comprising independent Army, Navy and Air Force components. Their primary mission is to safeguard the country's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity against any threat...
to stop the protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
s. The military intervention resulted in two days of bloody confrontations, in which, according to first reports, at least 22 soldiers (7 by spears), and least 30 indigenous people
Indigenous peoples in Peru
Indigenous people in Peru comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country's present territory prior to its discovery by Europeans around 1500...
(including 3 children) were killed.
This conflict has been described as Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
's worst political violence in years and is the worst crisis of President Alan García's presidency. Prime Minister Yehude Simon
Yehude Simon
Yehude Simon Munaro is a Peruvian politician and former Prime Minister of Peru.-Early life and family:He is of Jewish and Italian descent and was born in Lima. When he was a child his family moved to Chiclayo to further a business selling shoes...
was forced to resign his post in the aftermath, and Congress repealed the laws that led to the protests.
Background
A free trade agreement negotiated between Peru and the United States that came into effect in February 2009 required certain changes in law allowing access to the Amazon. The Congress of PeruCongress of Peru
The Congress of the Republic of Peru or the National Congress of Peru is the unicameral body that assumes legislative power in Peru.Congress consists of 130 members of congress , who are elected for five year periods in office on a proportional representation basis...
granted the government authority to implement the required regulatory changes. Indigenous tribes insist that some of the new government regulations brought in by President Alan García in 2008 threaten the safety of their natural resources
Natural Resources
Natural Resources is a soul album released by Motown girl group Martha Reeves and the Vandellas in 1970 on the Gordy label. The album is significant for the Vietnam War ballad "I Should Be Proud" and the slow jam, "Love Guess Who"...
and would enable foreign companies to exploit them. Protests ensued in August 2008 and Congress repealed two laws and promised to examine and vote on others. When that didn't happen, protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
s and blockade
Blockade
A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...
s resumed in April 2009.
Mineral exploitation is nowadays attacked by researchers having shown a link between the abundance of natural resources (particularly minerals and oil) of a country and its poor growth performance, as well as poor governmental policies and institutions (corruption, weak governance, rent-seeking, plunder). This seems especially true for 'point source' minerals such as mine and oil fields, which produce high value for few people, as opposed to agricultural diffuse development which involves large quantities of workers forcing a share of benefits. Some believe that Peruvian oil development functions in such a model of 'point source', providing grievances and low benefit to local populations.
In 2008 an oil scandal
2008 Peru oil scandal
The 2008 Peru oil scandal started after a Peruvian TV station broadcast an audio tape of an alleged conversation between a government official and a lobbyist agreeing to help a firm win contracts...
shook the government of Alan García when audio tapes were released to the press. The tapes contained the conversations of Rómulo León
Rómulo León
Rómulo León Alegría is a politician from Peru. He is a member of the ruling Apra party. He has been imprisoned for his involvement in requesting bribes from foreign oil companies seeking to explore and drill in the Peruvian amazon rainforest. The company involved in this deal was Discover Petroleum...
, an important member of the ruling Apra party negotiating bribes from foreign companies in order to allow them to drill for petroleum in the Peruvian amazon region. Romulo León was imprisoned, yet his daughter, Luciana León
Luciana León
Luciana Milagros León Romero is a Peruvian politician .Luciana León holds a law degree from the University of Lima and a Master of Governance and Public Policy from the University of San Martín de Porres....
, a member of congress, continues to work in the parliament despites e-mail messages found by investigators that revealed that she was aware and participating in her father's activities.
In June 2009, as the dispute worsened, the military was called in to assist the police. The deaths occurred as a result of two clashes fought in the Amazon jungle on 5 and 6 June 2009.
Battle at "Devil's Curve"
On 5 June 2009, at least 31 people were killed in clashes between security forces and indigenous people on the "Devil's Curve" jungle highway close to BaguaBagua, Peru
Bagua is a city in Peru located about from the city of Chachapoyas. It lies in the provincia of the same name.-External links:*...
, over 1,000 kilometres north of Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
, as the security forces attempted to break down a road blockade. The deaths came when police decided to break down a blockade of 5,000 protesters. 9 of the dead were tribesmen and 23 were members of the police force. The tribes accused the police of firing with helicopters on those protesting peacefully below, with Alberto Pizango
Alberto Pizango
Alberto Pizango Chota is the current president of AIDESEP, the premier indigenous rights organization in Peru. He is part of the people. Pizango has been actively resisting the government of Peru's selling of petroleum concessions to foreign companies on lands legally titled to indigenous...
, an indigenous leader, telling journalists that the government was responsible for the massacre. Police said they had been fired upon initially and the President said the tribes had "fall[en] to a criminal level".
6 June 2009 massacre
On 6 June 2009, a further 9 police officers were killed at a petroleum facility belonging to a national oil company, Petroperú, which had been seized by the protesting indigenous tribes. Prime Minister Simon said the officers were killed as they tried to rescue 38 kidnapped police officers. García criticised the protesters, claiming they had behaved like terrorists and vaguely suggested that they may have been "incited by foreigners". Several police had been taken hostage, although 22 were freed and 7 were missing. This was later revised to one missing policeman.A 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 a.m. curfew was announced immediately.
According to Amazon Watch
Amazon Watch
Founded in 1996, Amazon Watch is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. It works to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin...
, the police staged a violent raid on the unarmed indigenous people who were participating in a peaceful blockade to revoke the "free trade" decrees, issued by President Garcia in the context of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States. During that day, over 600 police attacked several thousand unarmed Awajun and Wambis indigenous peoples (including many women and children) and forcibly dispersed them using tear gas and live ammunition. The 9 police officers were killed when, after the police started shooting at the protestors, some indigenous were able to take away some of their guns and fight back. In the end, 25 civilians died and more than 150 were wounded.
The police were accused of burning bodies to hide the death toll.
At least 155 were injured, one third by bullet wounds. 72 people were arrested. The toll was expected to rise. Not since the conflict with the Shining Path
Shining Path
Shining Path is a Maoist guerrilla terrorist organization in Peru. The group never refers to itself as "Shining Path", and as several other Peruvian groups, prefers to be called the "Communist Party of Peru" or "PCP-SL" in short...
were so many people been killed or injured in political clashes of this nature in Peru.
AIDESEP leaders prosecuted, asylum for Pizango
On June 9, the government of Peruvian President Alan García still refused to meet with the indigenous coalition AIDESEP.The Peruvian government sought to arrest Alberto Pizango
Alberto Pizango
Alberto Pizango Chota is the current president of AIDESEP, the premier indigenous rights organization in Peru. He is part of the people. Pizango has been actively resisting the government of Peru's selling of petroleum concessions to foreign companies on lands legally titled to indigenous...
, a Shawi Indian leader of the indigenous protesters and head of their organization AIDESEP
Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva
The Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest is a Peruvian national indigenous rights organization, presided over by a decentralized National Council based on six organisms found in the North, Center and South of the country...
, for sedition. Pizango entered Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
's embassy in Lima on June 8 and was granted asylum the next day. Four other AIDESEP leaders were accused of disturbing the peace and advocating sedition
Sedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
and revolt and faced up to six years in prison.
Decrees suspended, then overturned
In the week following the clashes, Congress suspended two of the offending government decrees. The indigenous protesters vowed to continue until the decrees were repealed and not just suspended.On June 18, Congress overturned two of the decrees, causing the protesters to halt their blockades.
Vildoso and Simon resign
Carmen Vildoso, minister for Women's Issues and Social Development, resigned on June 8 to protest the government's actions.Prime Minister Yehude Simon
Yehude Simon
Yehude Simon Munaro is a Peruvian politician and former Prime Minister of Peru.-Early life and family:He is of Jewish and Italian descent and was born in Lima. When he was a child his family moved to Chiclayo to further a business selling shoes...
negotiated the deal to overturn two decrees mentioned above and announced on June 16 that he would resign "in the coming weeks" over the government's handling of the crisis. President Alan García had appointed Simon, who is politically to the left of García, in October 2008 in an effort to mollify the country's poor and hard-line leftist nationalists.
Peruvian government accused of undermining press freedom
In June 2009, Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
condemned the Peruvian government's decision to revoke the broadcast license of a local radio station stating that "The timing and circumstances of the revocation suggest that it may have been an act of censorship, or punishment, in response to coverage of anti-government protests on June 5, 2009."
"If there is in fact credible evidence that a radio station has actively supported or incited violence, then the broadcasters should be subject to investigation and sanction, with all appropriate judicial guarantees", said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
director at Human Rights Watch. "But closing down a station this way certainly looks like retaliation for coverage the government didn't like."
See also
- 2008 Peru oil scandal2008 Peru oil scandalThe 2008 Peru oil scandal started after a Peruvian TV station broadcast an audio tape of an alleged conversation between a government official and a lobbyist agreeing to help a firm win contracts...
- SarayakuSarayakuSarayaku is a territory and a village, situated by the Bobonaza River in the province of Pastaza in the southern part of the Amazonic region of Ecuador, el Oriente...
– a forest EcuadorEcuadorEcuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
ian village having successfully slowed oil explorations - Oil explorationOil explorationHydrocarbon exploration is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for hydrocarbon deposits beneath the Earth's surface, such as oil and natural gas...
- Amerindians
External links
- Chevron, Shell and the True Cost of Oil – Article by Amy GoodmanAmy GoodmanAmy Goodman is an American progressive broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter and author. Goodman is the host of Democracy Now!, an independent global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the internet.-Early life:Goodman was born in Bay Shore, New York...
- Peruvian Police Accused of Massacring Indigenous Protesters in Amazon Jungle – News on Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
- Lemonde.fr, gallery