Wednesday, Jun 17, 2009

Crisis in Peru: State-Back Massacre in Response to Indigenous Resistance

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Join your host J. Kehaulani Kauanui for a special edition that focuses on the recent state-backed police massacre of indigenous peoples in the northern Amazon of Peru. On Friday, June 5th, which happened to be World Environment Day, some 600 riot police and helicopters attacked a peaceful indigenous blockade outside of Bagua a northern Peruvian Amazonian province. According to leader Miguel Palacin, president of Coordinadora Andina de Organizaciones Indigenas (CAOI) or the Andean Coordination of Indigenous Organizations, the police killed at least 250 indigenous Peruvians and injured more than 150. Witnesses attest that the police fired live ammunition and tear gas into the crowd who were engaged in a peaceful blockade to protest oil and mining projects in the region as part of the Peru Free Trade Agreement with the United States. Reports in the U.S. state that over 30,000 indigenous people have been blockading roads, rivers, and railways to demand the repeal of new laws that allow oil, mining and logging companies to enter indigenous territories without seeking their prior consultation or consent. Our guest is Shane Greene who joins the show by telephone from Lima, Peru. Greene is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Indian University where he is a Faculty Associate, Anthropological Center for Training and Research on Global Environmental Change (ACT). He is the author of a book just released this year titled, Customizing Indigeneity: Paths to a Visionary Politics in Peru, which examines indigenous activism among the Aguaruna, an ethnic group at the forefront of Peru's Amazonian Movement. Original air-date: 06-16-09.

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