Peru may be turning a corner on its treatment of indigenous people

Peru may be turning a corner on its treatment of indigenous people
Peru's divisions only deepened under the previous administration. A new law gives grounds for cautious optimism
Simeon Tegel guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 31 August 2011 16.14 BST

The symbolism could hardly have been more striking as indigenous Awajún member Eduardo Nayap – in suit, tie and colourful Amazonian feather crown – addressed Peru's new congress last week.

Nayap, a member of President Ollanta Humala's Nationalist party, was welcoming the chamber's unanimous approval of a bill requiring prior consultation with indigenous peoples about legislation or infrastructure projects that would affect them or their territories. Humala is expected to sign it into law this week.

The measure, repeatedly blocked by Peru's previous president, Alan García, is being hailed as a major advance for the country's long-suffering native communities. Aidesep, the largest organisation representing Peru's myriad Amazonian peoples, said it would help protect them from the "outrages by the Peruvian state of which they have been victims for centuries" .

In a fractured, multi-ethnic nation where the legacy of the Spanish conquest continues to cast a long shadow over the social realities of the present, the political significance of the new law should not be underestimated. Indeed, Peru's racial and geographic divisions only deepened over the past half-decade as García imposed his haughty, Lima-centric vision on the country, unforgivably bungling his way to the Bagua massacre.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/31/peru-indigenous-peoples

let's hope bolivia does the same thing.