Oil and land rights in Peru: Blood in the jungle

Alan Garcia’s high-handed government faces a violent protest FOR seven weeks tens of thousands of Amazonian Indians blocked roads and rivers across eastern Peru. They seized hydroelectric plants and pumping stations on oil and gas pipelines to try to force the repeal of decrees facilitating oil exploration, commercial farming and logging in parts of the jungle. Petroperu, the state oil company, had to shut a pipeline that carries 40,000 barrels of oil each day. Amid threats of energy rationing in eastern towns, the government of President Alan Garcia this month ordered armed police to clear a stretch of road and retake a pumping station near Bagua, in Peru’s northern jungle (see map). In the ensuing clash at Curva del Diablo—or “Devil’s Curve”—on June 5th at least nine protesters and eleven police were killed. The Indians, armed with spears and machetes, went on to capture and kill a dozen more police guarding a pumping station. Their leaders claim that at ... (link)