"Indians protesting oil and gas exploration on their lands battled police in Peru's remote Amazon Friday, with authorities and Indian leaders separately reporting nine police and 25 protester deaths.
The violence broke out before dawn as officers broke up a road blockade by some 5,000 Indians in an area called Curva del Diablo — or "Devil's Curve" — in the northern province of Utcubamba.
Protest leaders said police opened fire from helicopters with bullets and tear gas, while national police director Jose Sanchez Farfan said protesters attacked officers with firearms. He said they also set fire to government buildings.
(...) Indians have been blocking roads, waterways and a state oil pipeline intermittently since April, demanding Peru's government repeal laws they say make it easier for foreign companies to exploit their lands.
The laws, decreed by Garcia as he implemented the Peru-U.S. free trade pact, illegally open communal jungle lands and water resources to oil drilling, logging, mining and large-scale farming, Indians say."
In addition to violating Peru's constitution, indigenous groups say Garcia is breaking international law by not obtaining their consent. Garcia defends the laws as need to help Peru develop.
Peru's government owns all subsoil rights in the Andean country and Garcia has vigorously sought to exploit its mineral resources. A Duke University study published last year said contract blocks for oil and gas exploration cover approximately 72 percent of Peru's rain forest.
And though Peru's economic growth has led Latin America recently, Garcia's critics say little wealth has trickled down in a country where roughly half the population is indigenous and the poverty rate tops 40 percent. ///////////
Trickle-down economics... I've heard of it...Some silly things never die, huh? (and others, sadly, always die)
FC