Amazon protests (The Frame photoblog at Sac Bee)

[struggle4progress]

June 9, 2009
Amazon protests
TARAPOTO, Peru (AP) -- The Aguaruna Indians have a well-earned reputation as warriors. In pre-Columbian times they successfully resisted Inca subjugation. And during Peru's 1995 border war with Ecuador, they served as guides for the army. Those who know them weren't surprised, then, at the fierce resistance -- 23 police officers were killed -- when President Alan Garcia's government sent heavily armed police to clear several thousand Aguaruna and their Wampi cousins from an Amazon highway blockade. The ensuing turmoil has set Garcia's government, which critics accuse of exhibiting racism typical of Peru's traditional European-descended ruling class, on a collision course with this Andean nation's indigenous peoples. London-based Survival International, which promotes tribal rights, called Friday's melee "Peru's Tiananmen Square," comparing it to China's bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. It was Peru's worst political violence since the Shining Path guerrilas were quelled in the mid-1990s, and prompted Indian and labor groups to call a general strike for Thursday. (21 images) ...

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/photos/2009/06/amazon-protests.html