Peru, Home To At Least 57 Murders Of Environmental Activists In 12 Yrs, To Welcome Climate Delegates
On September 1st, indigenous activist, Edwin Chota, and three other indigenous leaders were gunned down and their bodies thrown into rivers near the border of Peru and Brazil. Chota, an internationally-known leader of the Asháninka in Peru, had warned several times that his life was on the line for his vocal stance against the destruction of his peoples' forests, yet the Peruvian government did nothing to protect him—or others. Unfortunately, Edwin Chota and his indigenous partners were only the latest in a longline of cold blood killings in the forests of Peru.
"We have faced violence, racism, neglect indifference, all arising from the sense of indigenous as worthless," wrote the indigenous rights group the Coordinator of the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) after the murders came to light. "We are outraged at the 'colonization' of the forest, where indigenous peoples are killed with impunity. We are abandoned and stripped of our riches by those in search of rubber yesterday, and today by loggers, miners, oil extractors, and tomorrow anyone who has 'power.'"
A new report by Global Witness finds that at least 57 environmental and land activists have been murdered in Peru in just 12 years, making the country the fourth most dangerous country on Earth for environmental activists, at least based on current data. The report comes just weeks before Peru hosts the next UN climate meeting in Lima, which is expected to lay the final groundwork for a new agreement in Paris 2015.
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Nor have the murders pushed Peru recognize the land rights of its indigenous people. According to Global Witness, only 38 percent of Peruvian indigenous groups have legal tenure to their traditional lands. Currently, 20 million hectares of indigenous land waits to be processed by Peruvian authorities. At the same time, a new law passed and signed by President Ollanta Humala in July seeks to jumpstart investment in mining and fossil fuels by slashing environmental protections. The law reduces environmental fines in many instances, forces environmental impact statements to be completed in just 45 days, and will allow fossil fuel exploitation in any newly established protected area. The law was blasted by over 100 local and international environmental groups. "Unfortunately, the passing of law 30230 by Peru's Congress in July 2014 raises serious doubts over the country’s willingness to [grant legal tenure to indigenous people]," reads Global Witness' report. "The law grants extended land use rights to investors for the expansion of large-scale agriculture, mining, logging and infrastructure projects."
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http://news.mongabay.com/2014/1118-hance-peru-murders.html
