An Ashaninka indigenous woman cooked in the main road linking the central jungle to Lima.

Ashaninkas and Machiguengas, indigenous peoples of Peru, protested against the government’s plans to open large parts of the Amazon for drilling, logging and dam building.

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Q’orianka Kilcher is half Peruvian Indian on her father’s side, of Quechua/Huachipaeri descent.  Kilcher talks about the Peruvian Indian protests and how she’s helping them.

from the LA Times:

Late last week, Q’orianka and her mother flew to Peru, which in recent days has been the scene of violent clashes between police and Amazon indigenous groups, who are protesting the turning over of tribal lands to oil drilling, logging and mining. The clashes have left more than 30 people dead and brought severe criticism of President Alan García, who is pushing to open the Amazon for commercial development, over his government’s handling of the affair. Under domestic and international pressure, last week Peru’s Congress suspended the pro-development decrees that sparked the protests, but the situation is far from resolved.

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Peru’s indigenous people win one round over developers

The Shawi indigenous people in northeastern Peru have many reasons for bitterness, Pizango, who is apu, or chief, of the group, said last week at a roadblock set up a few miles west of Yurimaguas to protest government policies.

“It’s been a long trajectory of abuse,” Pizango said. “We got tired of it.”

He and others had blocked the main road leading to Peru’s interior with tree stumps and rocks and set up makeshift tents with plastic sheeting along the highway shoulders. The surrounding terrain of Loreto province was a rolling green moonscape that long ago had been clear-cut by loggers.

Then, in a development celebrated as a victory for indigenous groups, Peru’s Congress last week voted to revoke two laws enacted last year to further open the Amazon to mining, oil and timber development. The measures had enraged indigenous groups and led to a bloody confrontation June 5 in Bagua that officials said left 10 civilians and 23 police officers dead, with one officer missing and presumed dead.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/photo_galleries/article6487646.ece

morningyerba:

“The Jungle Is Not For Sale”

Iranians aren’t the only ones protesting these days.

Ever since last year, Peru’s Amazonian indigenous peoples have been resisting President Alan Garcia’s plan to grant corporate access to their traditional lands for greater development of oil, gas, logging and biofuel crops. click onto the link to see their photos.

Read more about this issue here in the Guardian

“…These native lands are the entitled properties of the Amazon people, and to sell them off without even consulting us is a violation of our ancestral rights. This is why we rioted on August 9. Well, how would you feel if all of a sudden some authority came to tell you that you had to get out of your house because a rich company wanted to settle there, and you had to find yourself another place to live?…”

-Saul Puerta Peña, of the Peruvian indigenous association AIDESEP

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via www.villageearth.org

Protests have ended today after more than a week of armed blockades on roads and energy installations. More than 60 ethnic groups have come together in solidarity leaving behind their political divisions and organizational alliances to form a unified front against the state and the allied oil companies. The President of ODDPIAP (Organization for the Defense and Development of the Indigenous Peoples of the Peruvian Amazon) has said this is a fight for everything.

“We are tired of being silent against the abuses of the government such as recent legislation passed which makes it easier for foreign companies to buy up indigenous lands in the Amazon. And over 70% of Amazon lands are now in the hands of oil companies. Over 1500 police have been deployed to Camisea, Bagua, and Marañon. Government helicopters have been circling locations taken over by indigenous protesters. The government had declared a state of emergency and had given permission for police to shoot protesters on the spot, but we indigenous peoples think this cause is worth dying for and are not scared anymore.”

Roads and rivers have been blockaded, oil pipelines were closed, oil operations have been occupied, and major industry was blocked from river travel between, in and around Iquitos and Pucallpa, the two major urban centers of the Peruvian Amazon.

What the indigenous front is asking for is direct dialogue with Alan Garcia, President of Peru, and his administration and the repeal of a number of destructive laws. The President claims that bringing industry and foreign investment into the furthermost reaches of the Amazon will bring people out of poverty. This is a clash between two different development paradigms. Many indigenous peoples have already determined their own development path and it does not include the wide-scale exploitation of resources and the industrial take over of their lands.

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http://intercontinentalcry.org/amazon-tribe-lays-waste-to-hydro-dam-site/

In an attempt to protect the Juruena river in western Brazil, an estimated 120 members of the Enawene Nawe tribe occupied the construction site of a hydroelectric dam on October 13, and then burned it to the ground.

“They came armed with axes and pieces of wood, banished the employees and later set fire to everything” said Frederico Muller, a coordinator working at the site. At least 12 trucks were destroyed, along with a number of offices and housing units. All told, Muller suggests that there was at least a million dollars in damages.

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-09-22-infanticide_N.htm

Evangelical Christian missionaries have launched a campaign against what they claim is the widespread practice of infanticide among Amazonian Indians. The missionaries, associated with the U.S.-based group Youth With A Mission, say the Brazilian government is turning a blind eye to the killing of babies born with birth defects, many of which are treatable by western medicine.

Brazilian government officials say the missionaries are exaggerating and exploiting the issue to justify their attempts to convert Indians to Christianity, destroying ancient civilizations in the process.

The fight has spilled into American churches and Brazilian national politics. It has reached the point that the Brazilian Department of Indian Affairs accuses the evangelicals of enslaving Indians and disguising their intent to evangelize.

Hakani.org

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http://www.survival-international.org/blog/2008/09/22/top-tribal-television-tonight/

US broadcaster ABC shows a Nightline special as anchor man Dan Harris treks to the jungle homes of the Enawene Nawe and theAkuntsu people of the Amazon.

Harris learns of the troubles faced by both groups. The Enawene Nawe are not only threatened by the typical plague of encroaching, violent ranchers, but must now fight the state government’s dam project which will ravage their essential fishing sites.

Hostile demand for natural resources is what took the lives of nearly every member of the Akuntsu, other than the six who remain to mourn with Harris. He meets them in their pitiful patch of land, surrounded by soya fields that have flattened former forests.

Nightline goes out at 11.35pm ET on ABC.

Elsewhere, Bruce Parry continues his voyage downriver, in the BBC’sAmazon. He visits the Achuar who are up against the forces of the global oil industry creeping through their territory.

They live in jungle on both sides of the Ecuador-Peru border, numbering about 15,000 people. The Peruvian Achuar have suffered greatly as a result of oil exploration on their land over the last 40 years, leading to environmental havoc and huge social problems.

Their rivers and land have been devastated by pollution, animals and fish are dying out, and many Achuar’s health has been seriously damaged.

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http://bangalore.indiainteracts.com/2008/08/31/lost-tribe-of-amazon-and-the-indian-connection/

We managed to locate a member of the lost tribe whose existence was reported in papers sometime back. This guy was lost and searching for food and water when we found him. We managed to interview him and heres the exclusive:

How is life in the jungle, cut off from all forms of civilization?

Life is pretty tough here. Sometimes you see our internet speeds drop below 2 MBPS and then it becomes tough to download those songs.

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