After 56 days of peaceful demonstration, Peru’s Special Forces arrived in the remote region of Bagua to disperse indigenous protesters in a violent and deadly display of force.
Photos courtesy of Amazon Watch
[Editor's Note: This article contains extremely graphic images that may not be appropriate for all audiences. Please use your discretion.]
For people around the world who have limited access to traditional forms of power, the peaceful demonstration is often an effective means of bringing local and international attention to life and death issues that would otherwise go unnoticed.
This was true during the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., when African Americans dressed in their Sunday finest and sat at lunch counters, waiting to be served but knowing they wouldn’t be.
It was true two weeks ago in California, when supporters of gay rights gathered together to stage a sit-in in front of San Francisco’s City Hall.
And it was true on Friday morning, June 6, when several thousand Awajun and Wambis, indigenous Peruvians, continued their 56 day road block in the remote area of Bagua to protest free trade agreements that have opened ancestral lands to private companies for resource extraction without their input or agreement.
But traditional authority has little tolerance for these patient, often silent, forms of protest.
And so, around 2 AM on Friday morning, Peruvian Special Forces surrounded demonstrators set up along a roadway with steep embankments on either side. While the demonstrators were sleeping, police came in from both sides and even from above–by helicopter–trapping the indigenous groups and demanding they cede the land they were holding.
When the demonstrators refused, police fired tear gas, grenades, and bullets into the group, killing at least 25 civilians and wounding more than 150.
Gregor MacLennan of the environmental advocacy group Amazon Watch arrived in Bagua shortly after the attacks to begin collecting the testimonies of eyewitnesses. Based on the reports he collected, MacLennan reported:
“All eyewitness testimonies say that Special Forces opened fire on peaceful and unarmed demonstrators…. This was not a clash, but a coordinated police raid with police firing on protesters from both sides of their blockade…. Some have reported seeing the police throwing liquid on the cadavers and burning them.
“Also local residents have given accounts of having seen police throwing bodies of dead civilians into the river in an apparent attempt to underreport the number of dead. We’ve also received accounts that some of those injured were being detained by security forces and denied medical attention leading to additional deaths. There are many people still reported missing and access to medical attention in the region is horribly inadequate.”
Amazon Watch is currently monitoring events in the region and has established several opportunities for you to take action:
1. Send a direct message to Peruvian President Alan Garcia and the government to support the four-point agenda presented by the indigenous groups: (a) immediately suspend violent repression of indigenous protests and the State of Emergency; (b) repeal the Free Trade Laws that allow oil, logging, and agricultural corporations easy entry into indigenous territories; (c) respect indigenous peoples’ constitutionally guaranteed rights to self-determination, to their ancestral territories, and to prior consultation; and (d) enter into good faith process of dialogue with indigenous peoples to resolve this conflict.
2. Make a donation of any amount to a fund that has been established to provide emergency medical care and legal services to those directly affected by the violent raid.
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18 Comments... join the discussion!
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What a tragedy… well written article. great opener…
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During my months in Peru in this year, I’ve heard many things said about Alan Garcia and his government. 0 of them were positive. This isn’t going to help.
Thanks for getting this story out there, Julie.
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This is horrible. I find the difference in coverage (from mainstream media) very interesting. What is the response to claims that the protestors took police hostage and killed 9 of them? I will be keeping my eye on this as it unfolds. Hopefully the truth comes out. Thanks for reporting on this Julie.
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Thanks for the feedback. Mainstream media are indeed reporting this story quite differently, citing (among other things) the difficulty of getting reliable information from the area. This is why Matador waited to report on what was happening in Bagua until we had an on-the-ground contact who could collect eyewitness reports and photo and video footage from people who were present. That source does, in fact, confirm that nine police were killed in the Friday raid, though it’s not clear, based on the information I received, how or by whom they were killed. I think this event underscores the critical importance of having people on the ground to serve as an intermediary of impressions and information as actions are occurring. At present, it’s impossible to say what “the Truth” is, but what does seem clear to me is that the back-story–namely, indigenous people’s rights not being taken into account during free trade negotiations–is where we need to start. Once the smoke clears–quite literally–perhaps that’s what we’ll be able to do.
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Does the U.S. give any military aid to Peru?
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Tim-
Good question. The answer is yes.
The Congressional Budget Justification for Peru, fiscal year 2009, indicates that the US has specific interests in the region, which include combating narcotics and terrorism, as well as “consolid[ating] ‘democratic’ gains” in the country.The bulk of US money goes to the Andean Counterdrug Initiative, but the request for the 2009 budget includes line items for military financing (operations), and “international military education and training.”
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School of the Americas, probably.
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Just happened to hace the ol’ Visa Card out paying some bills when this popped-up. Started to make a donation and the damn thing asked me for $100 and I got pist-off.
Then I see another blog about an American gal starving in Peru, somewhere and a picture of Starbucks coffee, so I run out and get me an iced-coffee and settle down and went back to donate here.
Sonovagun, if you just click-on the $100 thingy and backspace, the damn thing lets you put $20 in there!
Now, I got change leftover for Darfur, Somalia. Tibet, Mild Seven Light cigarettes and a few ,ore iced-coffees.
Sometimes I wish everybody would just become travellers and leave everybody else alone!↵ -
Meant to say have the Visa Card…
Damn typwriter has “V” & “C” too close together. More coffee..↵ -
haha, enjoy that coffee and the Okinawa sunshine!
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Been tryina get ahold of you, Tim, through Send Message on yer Profile and couldn’t get through. Could you drop me an email, sometime?
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I am living in Lima right now and just thought I’d report on one media response to this conflict. A commercial, funded by the government no less, shows images of injured and killed policemen, and then their families at the funeral, and puts up stats about how indigenous are taking land that isn’t theirs, and they are already given so many hectares of land. It’s unbelievably one-sided and emotive, and I’ve seen it playing almost everywhere I go.
more to come…↵ -
Jenny-
Thanks for the local insight. Foreign mainstream media are essentially playing out the same story you’ve described here, which raises lots of questions about how information is obtained and what different motives are on all sides.
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I have only recently moved to Lima from the USA, but seeing the information here is disturbing. As much as I have become cynical about the US media reports, I still somehow believed that if people died, it would be reported accurately in the media. There are simply too many ways for information to be dispersed now there.
I have watched the local Peruvian television news reports about this incident, and until now, had sympathized with the police. Based on these stories, the officers did not deserve to die, as they were carrying out orders from above. However, if the report here is accurate, the protesters did nothing to deserve their deaths, either. I now am starting to see signs that, once again, the media is under government control. I am now very confused as to how to get the “real story” about anything happening in Peru.
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John-
I share your frustration. One of the refrains I keep hearing repeated in all external media is “There’s no independent corroboration of these facts.” Which begs a few questions:
1. Who’s independent?
2. Who’s reporting “the facts”?
3. What constitutes corroboration?↵ -
Just got an email about a wildlife photo contest. Audobon Society has a trip tp the rain forest in Peru as a Grand Prize. One thing I can tell you from my experience, on both sides of massacres is this: There’s two sides to every story. It’ll take awhile for peace and the truth to break-out.
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I urge you all to pick up a copy of Flat Earth News by Nick Davies, from the library or Amazon. You’ll get the low down on exactly how the media works. Of course, if he can be believed…but he’s a highly respected veteran journalist, and he has no shortage of evidence to the claims he makes. You will never read/watch another newspaper/news program the same way.
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