Deaths in environmental conflict (Peru)

[struggle4progress]

The history of Latin America is one instance after another of a foreign power coming in and taking resources away from indigenous groups. Once it was gold, now it's oil.

Just this weekend, at least 13 people (and possibly as many as 100) were killed and at least 45 injured in the Peruvian Amazon in a just such a conflict. In April, the Peruvian government granted mineral rights for tribal groups' ancestral lands to foreign companies without the free prior and informed consent required by the U.N. After months of peaceful protests by indigenous groups, the conflict took a violent turn on Friday when 650 police officers attempted to clear protesters blocking an access road. It's unclear whether protesters or police first turned violent, but both groups suffered fatalities.

This conflict is another chapter in the history of exploitation of the Amazon for which a soon-to-be-decided lawsuit is attempting to hold San Ramon-based Chevron responsible.

The Peruvian conflict has echoes worldwide as lands are usurped from indigenous groups in Canada for logging, mining, and oil extraction, in Indonesia for palm oil plantations, and so on. Meanwhile, indigenous groups must battle to gain access to international climate talks. Their interests are not, clearly, represented by their national delegates.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/green/detail?entry_id=41352

Related DU links:

"Go ahead and shoot the dogs in the head": Garcia's police shoot, bomb and gas protestors in Peru!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5805063

Eyewitness Reports Accuse Peruvian Police of Disposing the Bodies of Dead Indigenous Protesters
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3912997

[excess_3]

1. nothing 'environmental' about this

this is about money.

notice that they are not fighting over
a grove of oil-palm-trees, or a coal field,
or a sugarcane-to-ethanol plant.

[napoleon_in_rags]

2. Its environmental.

If I'm not mistaken, their fighting indigenous people living sustainably in a communal forest so they can cut down trees, set up drilling rigs, and pump carbon into the atmosphere. Sounds environmental to me.

[excess_3]

3. OK, I suppose it could start that way

the foreign oil company comes in,
and pollutes the river and cuts down trees.

the people then form gangs (if they haven't already)
and fight it out, sooner or later, protection money is offered.
it always comes down to money.

a similiar situation
might be the Niger delta in Africa.