Bagua: One year on
by David
Exactly one year ago today, at six a.m., an indigenous leader called Alberto Pizango was walking to his office in Peru’s capital city, Lima, when his mobile phone rang.
A voice said: ‘Brother, they’re killing us. The government has started the massacre. Listen.’ Alberto listened.
Police attack protesters at Bagua. © Independent journalist courtesy of Amazon Watch
Hundreds of miles away, in the Amazon, near a town called Bagua, police had opened fire on Awajún and Wampis Indians protesting against new laws opening up their land to oil, gas, logging and mining companies.
‘Baguazo’, as this tragic event became known, made international headlines and sparked protests against Peru’s government around the world: 33 people were killed, more than 20 of them policemen, and 200 injured.
The government’s response? A mixed bag including suspending two of the laws, appointing a commission to investigate the killings, and instigating a campaign against Peru’s indigenous leaders that forced Alberto, among others, to seek asylum in Nicaragua.
When the commission published its report, in December, two members refused to sign it and announced, on Christmas Day, that they would write their own instead.
That report, released on 15 April, said exactly what Peru’s government didn’t want to hear: that the police operation at Bagua was ‘badly planned’ and ‘could only lead to disaster’, and that the laws the Awajún and Wampis were protesting against were ‘highly contradictory’ to indigenous rights.
An eyewitness account of the violence that erupted after the Peruvian government decided to break up an indigenous roadblock by force.
Has Peru’s government, one year on, learnt its lesson? Hardly. Two weeks ago, in London, I listened to a delegation from state oil firm Perupetro declare that 10.9 million hectares of Peru are up for auction this year to oil and gas companies.
Almost all of this area is indigenous land in the Amazon, and is in addition to millions more hectares that Perupetro has already opened up to companies.
Police detain a protester. © Thomas Quirynen
Alberto’s organization, AIDESEP, called the auction a ‘new provocation’ and ‘new threat.’
Equally concerning, Peru still allows oil and gas companies into areas inhabited by ‘uncontacted’ tribes.
Perenco, Repsol-YPF and ConocoPhillips are all working in a region in northern Peru where there are at least two such tribes.
If contact is made, the consequences could be catastrophic: disease, deaths and epidemics.
And Alberto? He returned to Peru last week, but was arrested immediately at Lima’s airport before being released on bail.
The charges against him are part of what AIDESEP calls a ‘destabilization campaign’ aimed at destroying Peru’s indigenous movement, and which has included forcing other leaders into asylum and a legal move to close down AIDESEP.
We urge Peru’s government to drop all charges against Alberto, to recognize indigenous peoples’ rights to land and self-determination, and to do all it can to make sure that nothing like ‘Baguazo’ ever, ever happens again.