I have one disagreement, with the statement that the violence was caused both by the government and “the activity of some far-left groups who told the natives(falsely) that the government will take his land.” This is a lie being promoted by the Peruvian government, which seeks to minimize its own culpability and falsely direct blame onto a supposed foreign conspiracy (from Bolivia or Venezuela). Indigenous communities and their representatives have made it overwhelmingly clear that the recent mobilization was an entirely homegrown affair, stemming from indigenous concern over their territorial sovereignty.

And I would not by any means call concerns that indigenous land would be taken “false.” That is, after all, what modern states do, almost by definition. I don’t see how you can open up vast new tracts of the Amazon to oil and gas drilling, mining, logging, agribusiness and hydroelectric dams without stealing and destroying native land — and no one denies that that’s what the laws are intended to achieve.

Dear Bonnie,
Well, I don´t know about your California lab, but what I do know for certain is that if technology exists to make LNG ¨green¨ (and I´m fairly skeptical), such technology is not being implemented for the terminal proposals in the Northwestern US. LNG companies have tried repeatedly to sell their projects as environmentally sound, and have failed miserably. If these companies get their way, the Northwest will be importing a fuel with a carbon footprint similar to that of coal. Even more important, however, you completely ignored the main point of my article, which is that increasing the market for LNG internationally will put further pressure on Peru to explore for gas in ways that harm the environment and contribute to human rights abuses. Even if LNG were a carbon-neutral fuel (and it emphatically isn´t), that should be reason enough to oppose it.

Iquitos, capital of the Loreto Region is located in north peruvian amazon. Here there are some oil extraction pits, connected to the cost by the north-peruvian-oleoduct(you can consult a map of the region). Here LIQUID CRUDE OIL is extracted, oil that is exported because we have no petrochemical industry. Here NATURAL GAS IS NOT EXTRACTED.

There is a natural gas field far away in south-central amazon, the Camisea Gas Field, located in the Cuzco Region. The field is in high-elevation rainforest(here we call it “selva alta”). Today is used only for internal(peruvian) consuption. The gas in transported in a gasoduct to the capital Lima, where is destined to industrial, domestic and transportation use. There were plans to export the gas in near future, but they where abandoned when the amount of reserves was revised and found that we will run out of gas by 2012. That means that ALL this natural gas will be destined to the peruvian demand.

The gas discovery and exploitation was actually GOOD NEWS for all peruvians corcerned about polltion. It permitted too swich all petroleum powered thermic power plant to the cleamest gas. Numerous factories use natural gas now , and finally a lot of cars now use it. Natural gas is much cleaner than petroleum derivatives. It emits more than 25% less carbon dioxide(CO2), and more important, it soot and sulfur emissions are near zero (soot is composed of organic and black carbon, the second largest contributor to climate change, and, together with sulfur, is highly toxic, causing even lung cancer).

Lima is one of the most polluted cities in the world, pollution caused mainly by the burn of diesel petroleum (fuel oil) by decade-old cars and buses, that are imported thank to a law made by the corrupt government of Alberto Fujimori in the 1990s(now he is in jail for mass murder and corruption crimes).Switching to natural gas is the easiest form ( plus trashing all obsolete cars as rubbish)to save Lima’air.

After explaining this( showing that peruvian natural gas will NOT be exported and it is environmentally friendly), I will explai what really happened in the amazon a month ago.

The current president approved a group of legislative decrees to made peruvian legislation agree with the LTC ( Free trade treaty, Tratado de Libre Comercio) with the USA. This decrees where approved without parliament intervention and even worse, WITHOUT CONSULTING TO THE AMAZON NATIVES (both things were agaist peruvian law). The decrees, regarding land property management in the rainforest, triggered a wave of social unrest. The government ignored it for months, while the natives blocked the main local roads, specially around the city of Bagua, in the northern amazon.

Finally, it ordered the police to clear the roads. The police was not prepared (they have no clear plan, and instead of tear gas and rubber bullets, most of them have only MACHINE GUNS!), and when they try to clear the road, a major battle began. After some time, some natives steal the gun from the police, and a riot exploded. In the battle, more than 20 policemen were killed, and an unknown number of natives were wounded or killed ( officially, there were just 9 natives killed, but probably there were several tens dead and hundreds wounded)

When another group of natives hear the news of their killed comrades, they kidnapped 20 policemen from a station post in the north pruvian oleoduct , and began executing 6 of them , until the peruvian army arrived and liberate the others after shooting on the natives.

This was the worst single episode of political violence in Peru, and the cause were both the government incompetence and the activity of some far-left groups who told the natives(falsely) that the government will take his land. Peru is still shocked by this massacre, and the prime minister have resigned for that.

I hope have explained clear what happened in few words (there can be lots of pages written about this tragedy), and forgive me if my explanation in particular was too long of if my english is not good. I hope I can tell more about peruvian reality and politics

http://www.rootforce.org/2009/07/08/why-our-struggles-matter/