In praise of ... Alberto Pizango (Guardian editorial)

Wednesday 10 June 2009

For the last two months, the indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon have been protesting peacefully against the destruction of their lands. An Indian uprising has seen rivers blockaded to prevent oil companies sending barges into the forest in the hope of overturning a new law that lets rip the exploitation of the Amazon forests by loggers, miners, biofuel farmers and oil men. Peru's president, Alan Garcia, is determined to parcel up the forest into blocks for commercial use, encouraged by a free trade deal with America signed three years ago. More than 70% of the forest has been allocated for oil exploration and the consequences for the Amazonian ecosystem, and the people who co-exist with it, have been dire. The protests turned bloody last Friday when clashes with the army and police, as they tried to clear a roadblock, left at least 30 people dead and perhaps many more. The Indian spokesman, Alberto Pizango, who heads a human rights organisation that brings together Amazonian Indian interests from across the country and which has long fought peacefully to protect the forests, has been charged with sedition ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/10/editorial-amazon-destruction-alberto-pizango