2 arrested after woman chains herself to White House fence

2 arrested after woman chains herself to White House fence
By Martin Weil and Clarence Williams
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Two women created a stir outside the White House on Tuesday when one poured a black liquid on the other in a demonstration linked to the visit of the president of Peru.

A 20-year-old woman chained herself to the fence in front of the White House about 5 p.m., and her mother poured an unknown black liquid on her, a U.S. Secret Service spokesman said.

The incident brought personnel from a variety of public safety agencies to the Pennsylvania Avenue sidewalk, which was cordoned off.

Secret Service spokesman Max Milien said the women were protesting what they said was the Peruvian government's sale of land to oil companies. President Obama met late Tuesday with Peru's president, Alan García.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/01/AR2010060104256.html

The silence of the Obama administration on the Bagua massacre in Peru helps impunity for Alan Garcia
by Carlos A. Quiroz
July 09, 2009

It’s been a month since the June 5 massacre in Bagua where hundreds of Indigenous peoples were killed in the northern Amazon region of Peru.

Let me repeat in case you didn’t read well: a month ago hundreds of Native peoples were massacred by the Peruvian government led by Alan Garcia, and part of the causes of this tragedy were the free trade policies promoted by the United States.

This tragedy that has caused hundreds of injured, detained and missing civilians and policemen is the result of a violent and well planned attack launched by the Peruvian militarized police against a civilian and peaceful protest organized by Indigenous groups and social movements, who blocked roads and oil pumping stations as a protests against private investment policies imposed by the Garcia administration, without previous popular consultations.

Previously and during months, Indigenous leaders had tried to dialogue with Garcia at not success and Native organizations representing hundreds of thousands –if not millions- of Peruvians, had expressed their strong opposition to free trade policies designed by the United States government and included within the U.S.–Peru free trade pact.

Silence and complicity

Even thought the genocidal actions of Garcia in Bagua were excused and caused mostly by the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement policies, but the U.S. government has remained mostly silent about these crimes against humanity.

President Barack Obama and secretary of State Hillary Clinton have showed no interest in the crisis of Peru and they haven’t said a single word of solidarity or protest, at least not publicly, nothing. This speaks a lot about the human dignity, decency and level of compassion of the current American government.

For once this has been one of the biggest disappointments I personally have endured recently. I have volunteered for the Obama presidential campaign in 2008 and I participated in talks with different U.S. Congress members staffers -including Hillary Clinton office- while lobbying against the U.S.-Peru FTA, and the message I always got gave me hope that true change was possible in this country.

Only two weeks after the Bagua massacre, president Obama appeared on national TV calling for the Iran government to stop violence on Iranian protesters. Civilians in Iran who didn’t agree with the controversial results of the presidential elections were calling for new elections. Almost all the U.S. media bombarded us daily with pictures and videos of Iranian people being abused and attacked by the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad government, blood everywhere, sad. The violence seeing in Peru had been worst and had caused more deaths, but Obama along with CNN and the other mainstream TV news channels remained mostly silent.

When Obama remains silent about Peru, he is losing the respect of many. This is not about interference but accountability, for what the U.S. policies have created the legal grounds for the destruction of the Amazon forest and the political excuses for the violent attacks on Peruvian people. The U.S. government knew of the possibility of violence in Peru, as it happened in Bagua, they always knew and didn't care.

More:
http://www.groundreport.com/World/The-silence-of-the-Obama-administration-on-the-Bag/2903298

Cordon it off! Protect the real rulers! Blindfold the people so they don't see the protest!

These women certainly have the right idea and I applaud them. We are, symbolically and in reality, drenched in oil. And Peru has been dragged into this oily, bloody cauldron by BOTH the Bush Junta and the Clintonite "free trade for the rich" crowd. BP & brethren are planning the same future for Peru and Colombia--and have their beady eyes on Venezuela and Ecuador as well--as they have brought to Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico: death by oil.

As you say, we are enirely dependant on oil. If you use lights, drink water, and shit into a porcelin bowl you are using oil. Not only our economy, but our entire civilization depends on it.

A very few people are successfully living off the grid, but 99.99999% of us are part of the problem.

We need a Manhattan Project effort to free ourselves of this stuff. Fusion, wind, solar.