| | |  Americas & Beyond | June 2009 
Peru Congress Suspends Decrees that Upset Indians
 Franklin Briceno - Associated Press
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June 11, 2009
| | Relatives of Raul Mayhuasca, a police officer who was killed during clashes with Indians, cry at his funeral in Lima, Wednesday, June 10, 2009. The turmoil following the killing of police officers and Indians last Friday, has saddled Peru's President Alan Garcia with the worst crisis of his second presidency and set his government on a collision course with Peru's seething native peoples and the global environmental community. (AP/Karel Navarro) | |
Lima, Peru — Peru's Congress indefinitely suspended on Wednesday two key legislative decrees that spurred the Amazon Indian protests that erupted in bloodshed during a government crackdown last week.
The suspension was widely seen as an attempt to re-establish negotiations with leaders of Peru's 400,000 Amazon natives. But a leader of Peru's largest indigenous group indicated the gesture wasn't enough to halt protests, beginning with nationwide marches called for Thursday.
"They've mocked the indigenous peoples and we are consulting with the eight regional organizations that make up our group in order to make a decision," Daysi Zapata, vice president of the Peruvian Jungle Inter-Ethnic Development Association, told The Associated Press by telephone.
Indigenous groups say the decrees make it easier for foreign companies to exploit their lands for oil, gas and logging. President Alan Garcia says the laws are needed to help impoverished Peru develop.
The decrees were enacted last year to make Peruvian law meet requirements of a free trade agreement with the U.S.
Road and river blockades in Peru's jungle that began in April turned violent Friday when police moved against a road blockade in the northern state of Amazonas. At least 23 police were killed, some with wooden spears, and Indian leaders say at least 30 civilians died.
Indigenous leaders are also upset that a judge ordered on Saturday the arrest of the association's president, Alberto Pizango, on sedition and rebellion charges.
He sought refuge Monday at Nicaragua's embassy in Lima.
Nicaragua granted Pizango political asylum but he remained at the embassy on Wednesday, awaiting Peru's agreement to allow him safe passage out of the country. |
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