The news is sadly familiar. Indigenous people from the amazonian areas of Peru who objected to president Alan Garcia's nine decrees since April, essentially giving their lands to oil transnationals, were massacred over the course of the weekend. In all, more than twenty were killed, bringing back the spectre of genocide to this part of the world.
What is more depressing is the official reaction of Peru, headed by an inflamatory speech by the president himself. Apologies? There were none. Regrets? They were sadly missing. Instead, Alan Garcia launched on a diatribe against 'the forces of anti-development' - presumably those who are unimpressed by his macroeconomic policies - and against 'foreign intervention', a thinly veiled attempt to blame Bolivia for the massacre.
Not only is his position disgraceful and his accusations untrue. Alan Garcia has a knack for reminding Bolivians of the worst racist excesses in living memory that took place last September in Pando. And unfortunately he defends those excesses by condescendingly referring to Peru's 'natives' - a term that denotes not only contempt for indigenous peoples, but that denies them of all citizenship rights. Sounds familiar? The viscerous Bolivian extreme right speaks in exactly the same way and has shown to be prepared to act accordingly too.
Let's be clear. In wanting to make Peru's natural resources available to capital at any price, Alan Garcia, a populist demagogue, has shown to be prepared to criminalise any peaceful and democratic form of protest from civil society and, if necessary, to resort to murder, blaming Bolivia along the way.
But, being the leader of a country that has recently condemned former president Fujimori to 25 years imprisonment, Alan Garcia should be careful. And, Peru being situated next to a country that shows the world the example of a healthy political change with powerful social movements of which the indigenous movement is the spinal column, there is more than enough reasons to be concerned about the contagion effect of progressive politics.
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Alan Garcia, you should be worried.
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
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1 comment:
Hummm, let me see, how many political refugees the viscerous extreme Peruvian government has in Brazil, or anywhere else, cero, sip, nada; Ok, one in Bolivia. What about the extremist, viscerous Bolivian regime of the maSSist Evo Morales, 118 alone in Brazil, plus 4 in Peru, plus 1 in Spain, plus 4 in USA and counting.
Everybody but the maSSist zealots, yes, you; know by now that Evo Morales and his regime are behind the Peruvian terrorist cell that kidnapped and murdered the Peruvian police custodian an oil site, which by the way, looked as indigenous people as their captors. And everybody by, you now who, yes, the maSSist zealots, know that the regime of Evo Morales is responsible for the massacre in Pando; or the socialist government of Lula da Silva wouldn’t be granting political asylum to those people from Pando who escaped the regime.
You are right in one thing, there is more than enough reasons to be concerned about contagion effect of democracy fighting, Evo Morales, we know you are worried.
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