Lima, August 23. Teresita Lopez is hidden. Somewhere in the Amazon
is the most you are willing to reveal about his location now that the Peruvian government has in the list of most wanted.
Lima authorities accuse of inciting murder, sedition and insurrection. She says that it is all nonsense, all I have done is to protect the rights of the indigenous Peruvian Amazonia, composed of about 350 thousand people and help them safeguard their traditional way of life threatened by a president who is committed to open the Amazon to mining companies, timber and oil groups.
The Amazon tribe asks nothing the government because it
never supported us, "Lopez said in an interview. The only thing we demand is respect for our way of life and our right as citizens to live in our land, which we were born and where you want to die
.
Tensions in this corner of South America appeared on the international radar last June, when there was a massacre that became known as the Tiananmen
Amazon.
Dozens of people died and hundreds were injured when the Peruvian police fired on crowds demonstrating on a highway near the northern city of Bagua Grande against government plans to sell Indian land to foreign corporations.
This degenerated into a political crisis for President Alan Garcia. His Simon Yehude popular prime minister resigned in apparent protest over the way they handled the matter. Now, more than two months after the tragic events, the still-shaky government of President has focused attention on revenge.
Lopez, community leader of the tribe Yanesha, is one of the most recognized leaders of the Indians of the Amazon and has been forced into hiding. Risks a life sentence if arrested and convicted.
We have been accused of sedition, rebellion and insurrection
said. These charges were announced at a press conference, which is a violation all legal proceedings. For all intents and purposes, government leaders after us, to work for indigenous people and express their demands
.
Peruvian authorities accuse of being responsible for inciting the killing of Bagua on 5 June, but Lopez said that she was that day in Lima, which is more than a thousand 400 kilometers of Bagua Grande.
charges against him are based more on a televised press conference she gave in May in the capital and which, prosecutors say helped trigger the riots. I have been charged and has turned an arrest warrant against me by sitting behind a table during a press conference
says Lopez. not even say anything. Imagine if he had opened his mouth!
The woman, 48, originally from Oxapampa region in central Peru, says it has been hosted by brothers, family and colleagues of the indigenous movement
.
Been advised to stay hidden or asylum seeker, but do not try to go out to clear his name. I have no possibility or guarantee to defend legally because the Executive Branch is interfering with the functions of the Judicial
said.
At the heart of the dispute are the 13 laws revealed President Garcia last year. These threaten to make available to timber companies, foreign mining and oil 67 million hectares of virgin Amazonian forest to be exploited. This enraged the Indians, who staged protests demanding that laws be repealed. Four of the 13 controversial laws have been discarded, but nine of them remain untouched.
Stephen Corry, director of Survival International (Survival International N T), a lobby based in London that works for tribal organizations said the case of Teresita clearly illustrates what happens currently in Peru. García's government is determined to sabotage the indigenous movement by forcing their leaders into exile on pain of ending up in prison
, Corry said.
Alberto Pizango, leader of the Interethnic Association for Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), a group representing 56 tribes, was granted asylum in Nicaragua along with two of his colleagues as a result of violence and as victims of political persecution. The Central American nation believes that these men have no chance of getting a fair trial in his country. The number of Amazonian Indians who face charges related to the killing which they attribute to the police has soared up to 120.
As human rights groups, among those being persecuted are 48 Indians who are still hospitalized and treated for injuries suffered at the hands of security forces who opened fire in June. Armed guards monitored the medical facilities to ensure that indigenous Wampi Aguaruna and can be arrested and imprisoned in the medical discharge.
Santiago Manuin Indian leader received four bullets in the stomach in Bagua. Still in bed with a catheter that drains the intestine, while the door of his room is guarded by five armed guards with rifles AK-47 .
Manuin said last week that there justice for indigenous people. The government gives more value to police us and refuses to acknowledge his mistake
.
Peru insists on an official level that only 33 people died in Bagua, of which ten were protesters and 23 police officers were armed observers say that many members of tribes whose whereabouts were unknown until today. Reporters at the scene estimated that the balance was at least 60 dead.
The Peruvian government has faced widespread international criticism for the killings. His minister of justice was brought before the Human Rights Committee of the UN in Geneva this August, and a United Nations special envoy for Indigenous Rights called for an independent investigation of the facts.
Belatedly, given the speed with which they are filing charges against indigenous leaders, Peru this week finally announced actions against two armed police generals who were in Bagua who are accused of murder, along with 15 other soldiers of lower rank .
remains to be seen whether this will be enough to appease opponents of Garcia and repair its reputation. Since the events in Bagua, the president's approval in polls has fallen by 25 percent, and said that his former ally, Yehude Simon is considering making a hostile campaign to keep the presidency. © The Independent
Translation: Gabriela Fonseca
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